How to compress a PDF
- Drop one or more PDF files into the box.
- Keep Recommended, or pick another level — the PDFs are compressed again right away.
- Check the new size in the list and download the compressed PDF (or all of them as a .zip).
Which compression level should I choose?
- Light — photos are recompressed gently and kept up to 3000 pixels. Hardly any visible change; good for print.
- Recommended — photos up to 2000 pixels at good JPEG quality. The best balance for email and sharing.
- Strong — photos up to 1400 pixels at lower quality. For strict upload limits; fine on screen, less so for print.
- Extreme — every page becomes an image. Gives the smallest files for scans and photo-heavy PDFs, but the text can no longer be selected or searched.
Why is my PDF so big?
Almost always because of images: photos taken with a phone, scanned pages saved in colour at high resolution, or screenshots stored without compression. Text and vector drawings take very little space. That is why this tool focuses on the images: it decodes each photo inside the PDF, scales it down to a sensible size and saves it as an efficient JPEG — while leaving text, fonts, links and vector graphics exactly as they were.
How much smaller will it get?
- Scans and photo-heavy PDFs — often 50–90% smaller.
- Reports and presentations with some images — typically 20–60%.
- Text-only PDFs (exported from Word, invoices) — little to gain; the tool tells you when the original is already as small as it gets and keeps it.
Still too big? Split it into parts with Split PDF, or try the Strong or Extreme level.
Common upload limits
Many email services cap attachments at 20–25 MB, and job, visa, university and government portals often accept only 2–10 MB per file. Compress first, then check the new size in the results list. Building a PDF from photos? Use JPG to PDF after resizing the photos — that gives small files from the start.
Private by design
Contracts, bank statements, medical letters and ID scans shouldn't be uploaded to unknown servers. This compressor runs entirely in your browser with pdf-lib and pdf.js; your PDFs never leave your device.
Frequently asked questions
Does compressing a PDF reduce quality?
Only the images inside are recompressed; text and vector graphics stay exactly as they were. At the Light and Recommended levels the difference in photos is hard to see.
Will the text stay selectable?
Yes, at the Light, Recommended and Strong levels. Only Extreme turns pages into images, which makes text unselectable.
Why did my PDF barely get smaller?
PDFs with mostly text, or with images that are already compressed efficiently, have little to gain. In that case the original file is kept.
Can I compress several PDFs at once?
Yes. Drop up to 20 PDFs and download them all together as a .zip.
Can I compress a password-protected PDF?
No. Remove the password first, then compress.
Are my files uploaded?
No. Compression runs entirely in your browser; your PDFs never leave your device.