Compress PDF files — shrink size
Reduce a PDF's file size by re-rendering pages at lower resolution. Great for email attachments and web uploads.
Drop a PDF here
or click to browse — one PDF at a time
No file selected yet.
Large PDFs are awkward. They bounce out of email, eat into mobile data plans, and slow down upload portals that cap at 5 MB or 10 MB. Our free Compress PDF tool shrinks PDFs straight in your browser by re-rendering each page at a lower, web-friendly resolution — and crucially, without uploading the file anywhere.
We give you simple control over the trade-off. Pick a stronger compression preset for emailable file sizes, or a lighter preset when you still need crisp, printable text. The tool reports the size saving as soon as it finishes, so you can compare and re-run with different settings until the result is right.
How to use Compress PDF
- Drop a PDF into the upload zone or click Select a PDF file to browse. Only one file at a time — compress, download, then move on to the next.
- Pick a compression level. Low preserves near-original quality with a modest size cut, Medium is the recommended default for email and web uploads, High produces the smallest file at the cost of visible softening on tiny text.
- Click "Compress PDF". Each page is re-rendered locally at the chosen resolution. The progress bar shows you which page is being processed.
- Review the size comparison shown in the status box — original size, new size and the percentage reduction. If the result is too aggressive, switch presets and run again on the original file.
- Download the compressed PDF. The file is named
compressed.pdf. Open it to make sure text and images still look correct before sending.
Why use our Compress PDF?
Pick your trade-off
Low / Medium / High presets let you balance file-size against fidelity in one click — no obscure DPI settings.
No upload, no leak
Your PDF is compressed locally with PDF.js + pdf-lib. Sensitive files never leave your device.
Real size comparison
See the before-and-after byte count and the saving percentage immediately, so you can fine-tune the preset.
Email-ready output
Most invoices, scans and reports drop under 5 MB on Medium — the threshold for Gmail attachments without Drive.
Works on any device
Compresses on phones, tablets and laptops alike — handy when you need to shrink a scan on the move.
Free, no signup
No sign-in, no daily limit and no watermark on the output. Use it as often as you like.
Common use cases
- Sending invoices and statements by email. Bank statements and Xero/QuickBooks PDFs often exceed 10 MB because of embedded preview images — compression brings them back to mailable size.
- Uploading to government or grant portals. Many tax, visa, university and grant-application portals enforce a 2 MB or 5 MB cap per document. The High preset is built for those.
- Reducing scanned documents. Scanned contracts, ID copies and receipts compress dramatically — typically 70–90% smaller — because the scanner produced unnecessarily large bitmaps.
- Sharing real-estate or property reports. Inspection reports with 30+ photos bloat above 50 MB; compression makes them shareable via WhatsApp and Slack.
- Speeding up website downloads. Shrinking the PDFs on your own site improves Core Web Vitals and saves visitor bandwidth.
- Backing up to free cloud storage. Squeeze more PDFs into your free Google Drive / iCloud / Dropbox tier without an upgrade.
Frequently asked questions
How does the compression actually work?
Will compressed PDFs still be selectable / searchable text?
Is the file ever uploaded to your server?
My compressed PDF looks blurry. What went wrong?
What is the maximum input size?
Why is my output bigger than the original?
Can I compress password-protected PDFs?
Privacy & safety
Compression is performed entirely on your device using PDF.js and pdf-lib. Your file is not uploaded, logged or analysed. We do not see the document name, page count, or contents — only an anonymous page-view counter records that someone used the tool.