Compress PDF
Shrink a PDF so it fits email attachment limits and upload forms. You choose how much quality to trade for size, and you see the exact saving before downloading.
Runs in your browser. Your files are not uploaded.
Drop your PDF file here
PDF only · up to 200 MB per file
How to use Compress PDF
- 1Drop your PDF into the box above, or click the button to choose it.
- 2Pick a compression level. Recommended suits most scanned documents.
- 3Click Compress PDF and wait while each page is processed.
- 4Check the size saved, then download your smaller PDF.
Good to know
PDFs are usually large because of the images inside them: scans, photos or screenshots. The levels work differently:
- Basic rewrites the file’s internal structure more compactly and keeps only the latest version of anything that was edited and saved over time. It does not recompress images. Everything stays selectable and clickable, but the saving is often only a few percent, and some files do not shrink at all.
- Recommended and Maximum redraw each page as a JPEG image at a lower resolution. This can cut scanned documents by more than half, but text becomes part of the image: you can no longer select, search or copy it, and links and form fields stop working.
If a level cannot make your file smaller (common with text-only PDFs), we tell you instead of giving you a bigger file. Password-protected PDFs must be unlocked first.