Compress a PDF

Almost all of a large PDF's size is usually its images — scans, photos and screenshots. Compress PDF re-encodes those images with an efficient JPEG encoder and scales down any that are larger than a page needs: up to 2,600 pixels on the longest side with Light, 1,800 with Recommended and 1,200 with Strong. Text, fonts and vector drawings are left exactly as they are, so they stay sharp at any zoom and remain selectable and searchable.

Scanned documents, phone scans and photo-heavy files such as brochures and portfolios usually shrink the most. PDFs exported from Word or Google Docs that are mostly text are already compact, so there's little to remove — if no real saving is possible you're told so, rather than given a file that's the same size or bigger.

Email services and upload portals cap file sizes — Gmail attachments, for example, can be up to 25 MB, and application forms often ask for 1 MB or less. Type the limit into Target size and the tool tries stronger settings one by one until the PDF fits. If it still won't fit, removing pages you don't need or splitting the document usually closes the gap.

Yes. Your files are only used to create your result — they’re never shared and never used to train AI.

No. Text and vector drawings aren't touched — only embedded photos and scans are re-encoded.

PDFs that are mostly text are already compact. We'll tell you honestly rather than give you a bigger file.

We try progressively stronger settings and stop at the first that fits. If it can't fit without becoming unreadable, you get the smallest safe version.

Yes — up to 20 PDFs of 500 MB each in one go. Each is compressed on its own, and the results download together as a ZIP.

Recommended suits most documents. Choose Light for brochures or photos you may print, and Strong when the smallest possible file matters more than image detail.