Compress PDF
Make a heavy PDF small enough to email or upload to a portal. You choose how hard to squeeze it, and the file is rebuilt on your own device — nothing is sent to a server.
Drop your PDF here
Scans and image-heavy PDFs shrink the most.
How to compress a PDF
- Drag your PDF into the box above, or click “Choose file” to pick it from your device.
- Choose a compression level — Strong for the smallest file, Medium for everyday use, Light when quality matters most.
- Click “Compress PDF” and give it a moment while every page is re-rendered.
- Check the before-and-after sizes on the result card, then download the smaller PDF.
Why your PDF is so big in the first place
Text is almost weightless. A twenty-page contract exported from Word usually lands well under a megabyte, because the file only stores characters, fonts and positions. Images are what make PDFs heavy — and a scanned document is nothing but images: one full-resolution photo per page, stacked twenty times over.
That is why results vary so much. Scans, brochures, photo-heavy presentations and phone-camera “documents” commonly drop by 60-90%. A plain text PDF may barely move, and the result card will say so honestly instead of handing you an identical file — there simply was not any image data to squeeze. When that happens, the fastest win is getting rid of pages you never needed with Delete PDF pages; blank scanner backs and duplicate copies hide in almost every long scan.
Which level to choose for an upload limit
Most people compress because something has a hard cap: a job portal that rejects anything over 200 KB, a visa application, a university submission form, a mail server that bounces attachments above 25 MB.
There is deliberately no “compress to exactly 100 KB” box here, because that is not something we can honestly promise — the final number depends on what is actually printed on your pages. What does work is starting at Medium, looking at the result, and stepping down a level if you are still over. Here is what each one does:
- Light — 150 DPI. Closest to the original. Use it when the document will be printed, or when someone will zoom in on stamps, signatures or fine print.
- Medium — 120 DPI. The default, and the right answer most of the time. Pages still look crisp on screen while the file usually shrinks several times over.
- Strong — 96 DPI. For tight limits. Body text stays readable, but seals, stamps and hairline rules go soft, so check the result before you send it anywhere official.
What survives compression and what doesn't
Compression here works by re-drawing every page as an image and assembling those images into a fresh PDF. Page size, page order and the printed appearance are preserved exactly. What does not survive is everything that lived underneath the visible layer: selectable text, clickable links, bookmarks and fillable form fields all become part of the picture.
For a scan that changes nothing — there was never a text layer to begin with. For a document you plan to search or copy from, compress a copy and keep the original. If you need the text back afterwards, run the file through OCR, which adds a searchable layer under the images. And if the file started life in Word, exporting it again through Word to PDF often gives you a small file with the text intact and no compression at all.
Frequently asked questions
Is it really free?
Yes. Compression is free with no account, no watermark on the pages and no daily limit on how many files you run through it.
Do my files get uploaded to a server?
No. The PDF is opened, re-rendered and rebuilt by your own browser, so your files never leave your device. You can disconnect from the internet once the page has loaded and the tool still works.
How much smaller will my file actually get?
Scans and image-heavy PDFs commonly shrink by 60-90%. Text-only PDFs may not shrink at all, because there are no images to re-encode. The before-and-after card shows the real numbers rather than a promise.
Can I compress a PDF to exactly 100 KB or 200 KB?
Not by typing a target size — that is not implemented. In practice, choosing Strong and, if that is still too big, removing pages you do not need gets almost every document under a portal's limit.
Will the text still be selectable afterwards?
No. Pages are rebuilt as images, so text can no longer be selected, searched or copied. Keep the original if you need that, or add a text layer back with OCR.
Is there a limit on file size or number of files?
You compress one PDF at a time, and the only real ceiling is your device's memory — there is no server quota. Hundred-page scans are fine on a laptop; on an older phone a very large file will simply take longer.
Does it work on a phone?
Yes, in Chrome on Android and Safari on iOS. Tap “Choose file”, pick a PDF from Files or Downloads, and the compressed copy is saved straight back to your device.