Compress PDF
Re-renders each page at a lower resolution and rebuilds the document. Best suited to scanned files, which is what most oversized PDFs are. If your PDF has real text in it, the page tells you what you would lose before you start.
- No upload
- No account
- No watermark
- No file limit
Your files
Nothing chosen yet.
Where your file goes
Nowhere. This page downloads a small program into your browser, and that program reads the file straight from your disk. The program comes from this site like any image or stylesheet — but your file only ever travels from your disk into your own browser tab.
Why this one
What you get that the big converters cannot offer.
It tells you what it costs
Compressing turns pages into pictures. If your file has selectable text, you get a warning first. Most tools do this silently.
Scans lose nothing
A scanned document was already a picture of a page. Re-rendering it smaller takes nothing away that was there before.
No 1GB ceiling
Upload-based compressors cap file size because they pay for the bandwidth. There is no upload here, so the only limit is your own memory.
Never returns a bigger file
Text-heavy PDFs sometimes grow when rendered to images. When that happens you get the original back.
How to use it
Choose your PDF files.
Pick a compression level — balanced suits most scans.
Press Start, then download the smaller file.
When people use it
An upload form rejects your file
Visa portals, job sites and court filing systems commonly cap attachments at 2MB or 5MB. A phone-scanned passport can easily be ten times that.
Emailing a scanned contract
Scans at 600 dpi are enormous and nobody reads them at that resolution.
Archiving paperwork
A year of scanned receipts fits in a fraction of the space once the scanning resolution comes down.
Questions
Will my text stay selectable?
No. Compression works by turning each page into a picture, so selectable text becomes part of the image. The tool checks your file and warns you before you start if that applies.
Then when should I use it?
On scanned documents. They were photographs of pages to begin with, so nothing is lost. For a text PDF exported from Word, compression usually is not worth it — those files are small already.
Is my document uploaded?
No. The rendering and rebuilding happen in your browser.
Why is there no file size limit?
Size limits exist to control bandwidth and server time. Neither applies when the work happens on your own machine.
How much smaller will it get?
It depends entirely on the source. A 600 dpi scan can drop by 80 percent or more; a file that is already lean may not shrink at all, and then you get the original back.
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