🔒 100% private — no uploads⚡ Instant compression🆓 Free, no sign-up
🗜️Drop a PDF file here
Supports any PDF file — click anywhere to browse
Choose File
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Compression Settings
Quick Presets
Image Quality72%
Smaller fileBetter quality
Render Resolution
Original size—
Compressed size—
Reduction—
What is PDF compression?
PDF compression reduces a PDF's file size, usually so it can be attached to an email, uploaded to a form with a size limit, or shared more quickly. Large PDFs are almost always large because of the images inside them — scanned pages, high-resolution photos, or embedded graphics — so compressing a PDF is really about shrinking those images down to a more reasonable resolution and file size.
This tool works by rendering each page of your PDF at a chosen resolution (DPI) using PDF.js, then re-encoding that page as a JPEG at a chosen quality level using pdf-lib, and finally reassembling all the pages into a new, smaller PDF. Everything happens locally in your browser — your original file is never uploaded anywhere.
Because this method re-renders each page as an image, the resulting PDF's text is no longer selectable or searchable — a trade-off worth knowing about before you compress a document you'll need to search or copy text from later.
How to Compress a PDF
01
Upload your PDF
Click the drop zone or drag and drop your PDF file directly onto the page. The tool reads the page count instantly.
02
Choose a preset
Pick Light, Balanced, or Aggressive compression for a quick result — or expand the manual controls to fine-tune quality and resolution yourself.
03
Compress
Hit the Compress button. Your PDF is processed page by page, entirely inside your browser — nothing is uploaded anywhere.
04
Download
Your compressed PDF downloads automatically. The result panel shows exactly how much space you saved compared to the original.
Tips & Best Practices
⚖️ Start with Balanced
Balanced is the right default for most PDFs — it cuts file size significantly while keeping images clear enough to read comfortably.
🖨️ Use Light for print-quality documents
If your PDF needs to print sharply or contains detailed photos, choose Light or increase the DPI manually to preserve more detail.
📧 Use Aggressive for email limits
When you just need to squeeze under an attachment size limit and visual quality matters less, Aggressive gives you the smallest possible file.
🔤 Keep an original copy
Since compression removes selectable text, always keep your original PDF if you might need to search, copy, or edit the text later.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes — completely free with no sign-up, no watermarks, and no file size limits. The tool is supported by ads, not fees.
Completely. Your PDF is processed entirely inside your browser using JavaScript. It is never uploaded to any server and never leaves your device.
Balanced is a good starting point for most PDFs — it reduces file size significantly while keeping images readable. Use Light if you need high print quality. Use Aggressive for email attachments or uploads where file size matters most and visual quality is less critical.
This can happen with PDFs that contain mostly text with very few images. Our compression works by re-rendering pages as optimised images — if the original PDF was already very lean, the result may be slightly larger. Try the Light preset or a higher DPI setting.
The compression method re-renders each page as an image, which means the text in the output PDF will no longer be selectable or searchable. For most sharing and archiving purposes this is fine. If searchable text is essential, use the Light preset at 150 dpi for the best visual quality.
72–100 DPI is fine for on-screen viewing and email. 120–150 DPI balances quality and file size well for most general use. 200+ DPI is best reserved for documents you plan to print, since it preserves much finer detail at the cost of a larger file.
This tool doesn't currently support password-protected or encrypted PDFs. You'll need to remove the password first using your PDF software before uploading it here.
There's no fixed limit set by the tool. Since compression happens on your own device, very long documents (100+ pages) may take longer to process depending on your device's speed and available memory.
Yes. This tool runs fully in mobile browsers such as Safari and Chrome. Keep in mind that compressing very large PDFs may take a bit longer on a phone than on a desktop computer.