Compress PDF
Reduce file size. This tool runs on the server — your file is processed securely and not stored.
Processed on our server and deleted immediately — your file is never stored.
About Compress PDF
Compress PDF makes a PDF smaller while keeping it readable on screen and in print. It rewrites the file's internal structure and re-encodes oversized images, typically cutting a scan-heavy document to a fraction of its original size. Free, no signup, and your upload is deleted from our server the moment it has been processed.
Almost everyone arrives here because something bounced. Most corporate mail systems reject attachments over 10MB and many portals cap uploads at 5MB, so a 40MB scanned lease or a photo-rich portfolio simply will not go through. Compressing is the difference between sending the document and spending an afternoon splitting it into parts nobody wants to reassemble.
Size problems usually come from images rather than text. A page of prose costs a few kilobytes; a phone photograph of that same page can cost four megabytes, because it is stored at camera resolution even though it will only ever be viewed at page size. Scanners are the biggest offenders, often saving at 600 DPI when 150 DPI is indistinguishable on screen. Compression targets exactly that waste, which is why a text-only PDF exported from Word barely shrinks — there was nothing inefficient in it to begin with.
How to Compress PDF
- Upload the PDF you want to shrink.
- Wait while the file is analysed and its images and internal streams are re-encoded.
- Compare the original and compressed sizes shown when it finishes.
- Download the smaller PDF and open it to check the pages still look acceptable.
- If it is still too big for your recipient, consider splitting it into sections as well.
Tips & common problems
Text-only PDFs barely shrink
If your document came straight out of Word or Google Docs with no photographs, it is already efficient. Seeing only a few percent saved is normal and means there was no waste to remove, not that the tool failed.
Scans compress dramatically
Documents produced by a scanner or phone camera routinely drop by 70-90%, because they are stored as full-resolution photographs of pages.
Check small print before sending
Compression re-encodes images, so anything that relies on fine detail — engineering drawings, maps, tiny footnote text in a scan — deserves a quick zoomed-in look before you send it on.
Compress last, not first
If you also need to merge, rotate or remove pages, do all of that first and compress the finished document once. Compressing repeatedly re-encodes the same images each time and slowly degrades them.
Frequently asked questions
How can I reduce PDF file size for free?
Upload it here and download the compressed copy. There is no account, no payment and no watermark.
Will compressing lower the quality?
Text and vector graphics are untouched and stay perfectly sharp at any zoom level. Photographic images are re-encoded at a sensible screen resolution, which is invisible in normal reading and printing but can be noticed if you zoom deeply into a detailed scan.
Is my file kept?
No. This tool runs on our server because the processing is too heavy for a browser, but your upload is deleted immediately after the compressed copy is returned. Nothing is logged, inspected or retained.
How much smaller will my PDF get?
It depends entirely on what is inside. Image-heavy scans commonly drop by 70-90%. A text document exported from a word processor may only lose a few percent, because it was already compact.
Why is my PDF still too large?
Some documents are genuinely large — hundreds of pages of high-resolution scans, for instance. If you are still over an email limit after compressing, split the document into sections and send them separately, or share it via a cloud link instead.
Can I compress a password-protected PDF?
Not while it is encrypted, because the contents cannot be read. Remove the password with Unlock PDF first, compress the file, then re-apply protection with Protect PDF if you still need it.