Compress PDF
Shrink a PDF's file size for email, upload or storage — in your browser.
- Upload
- Adjust
- Download
Compress PDF
Make PDFs smaller — in your browser.
Shrink a PDF so it fits email and upload limits. Pick a compression level, see exactly how much you saved, and download — your file never leaves your device.
- Files are processed locally in your browser
- No upload, no account, no watermark
- Free — works on mobile and desktop
Your file is processed locally in your browser and is not uploaded to our servers. Nothing leaves your device.
How to compress a PDF
- 1
Add your PDF
Drag and drop a PDF, or click to choose one from your device.
- 2
Pick a level
Low keeps the most detail; Recommended balances size and quality; Strong is smallest.
- 3
Compress
Click Compress PDF. Pages are re-rendered and re-encoded locally in your browser.
- 4
Download
See the before/after size and reduction percentage, then download the smaller file.
When compression helps most
Email size limits
Get a scanned contract or brochure under a 10 MB or 25 MB attachment cap.
Upload forms and portals
Government and HR portals often reject files over a few megabytes — this fixes that.
Scanned documents
Phone scans are huge. Image-heavy PDFs shrink dramatically with strong compression.
Storage and sharing
Keep archives lean and make links download faster for the recipient.
Honest limitations
- Text becomes an image. Compression re-renders each page as an image, so text is no longer selectable or searchable in the output. Keep the original if you need that.
- Text-only PDFs barely shrink. If a PDF is already mostly text or vector graphics, there's little to compress — we keep your original unchanged rather than hand back a larger file.
- Very large or locked PDFs. Browsers run out of memory long before native apps. Password-protected PDFs can't be processed in-browser — use the PDF Editor mobile app.
Need PDF tools on the go?
PDF Editor for iPhone and Android compresses, signs and shares PDFs from your phone.
Frequently asked questions
- No. Compression runs entirely in your browser using your device's CPU. Your file never leaves your device.
- It depends on the content. Scanned and image-heavy PDFs often shrink 50–90%. Text-only PDFs may not shrink at all — in that case we keep your original.
- Yes, somewhat — this is lossy compression. Lower levels keep more detail. We never claim 'no quality loss'; pick the level that looks acceptable for your use.
- To get real size savings in the browser, each page is rasterized to an image. If you need selectable text, keep the original or use a lighter level.
- Not in the browser. Remove the password first, or use the PDF Editor mobile app, which supports protected files.
PDF Editor app
Need PDF tools on the go?
PDF Editor for iPhone and Android compresses, signs and shares PDFs from your phone.