Compress PDF
Compress PDF reduces file size by recompressing the images embedded in a PDF, processed entirely in your browser. Useful for PDFs that are mostly scanned pages or photos and too large to email.
No upload Instant Free No sign-up
Best for: scanned documents and image-heavy PDFs. Since compression works by re-rendering each page as an image, text-based PDFs will lose selectable/searchable text — if you need to keep text searchable, this isn't the right tool for that file.
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How to compress a PDF
- 1 Click the upload box and choose a PDF file.
- 2 Pick a compression level — Low, Medium, or High.
- 3 Click "Compress PDF" — your browser re-renders each page at a smaller size, with no upload.
- 4 Download the smaller PDF.
Common use cases
- Email attachment limits: shrink a scanned document below your provider's size cap.
- Faster uploads: reduce upload time for portals with slow connections or limits.
- Archiving photos as PDF: save storage space on photo-heavy scanned archives.
Frequently Asked Questions
- Does this upload my PDF to a server?
- No. Compression happens entirely in your browser — your file is never uploaded.
- How does this actually shrink the file?
- Each page is re-rendered as a compressed image at a reduced resolution and quality, then reassembled into a new PDF. This works especially well on scanned or photo-heavy PDFs.
- Will this affect text-based PDFs?
- Yes, and not always for the better — because every page is converted to an image, selectable/searchable text becomes part of the image and is no longer selectable. This tool is best suited for scanned documents and image-heavy PDFs that are already mostly visual, not text reports you need to keep searchable.
- How much smaller will my file get?
- It depends on the original content — scanned, high-resolution PDFs often shrink significantly (50%+) at Medium or High compression. Already-small or mostly-text PDFs may not shrink much, or could even grow slightly.
- Can I choose how much compression to apply?
- Yes — Low keeps more quality and detail, Medium balances size and quality, and High prioritizes the smallest possible file size.