Compress a PDF to 200 KB

A visa portal rejects your 2 MB bank statement, a tax website caps uploads at 200 KB, a job application form insists on “PDF under 1 MB”: “compress a PDF to an exact size” is the classic administrative-upload problem. This tool starts at the quality you pick, then recompresses the document in steps — rasterized-page DPI and JPEG quality decreasing rung by rung — until it passes under your limit or reaches a quality floor beyond which pages would become unreadable. If the limit stays out of reach (a text-only PDF is already nearly incompressible), the best result achieved is shown honestly rather than pretending the target was met. Everything is computed in your browser: neither the document nor the size you aim for leaves your device. The 200 KB, 500 KB and 1 MB presets cover the most common portal caps; the field accepts any value.

FAQ

How do I get a PDF under 200 KB exactly?

Type 200 in the “target size” field (or pick the preset): the tool recompresses in steps — decreasing DPI and JPEG quality — until the file drops below 200 KB or hits the quality floor.

What if my PDF cannot go below the limit?

The loop stops at the quality floor and the best result achieved is offered — the tool displays the size it actually reached instead of claiming success. A text-only or already-optimized PDF has a floor weight that is hard to break.

Why do portals limit attachment size?

Government and application portals cap uploads (often 200 KB to a few MB per file) to bound storage and transfer times — which is why an exact target beats a generic “compress”.

Will my PDF text stay selectable?

In most cases yes: the smart strategy keeps text pages as vectors and only rasterizes image-dominated pages. Fidelity on rasterized pages is measured (SSIM) and shown.

Which presets are offered?

200 KB, 500 KB and 1 MB (1024 KB) — the most frequent portal and email caps. The free field accepts any value in KB.

Is my document uploaded anywhere?

No — analysis, rasterization and PDF rewriting all run locally in your browser. You can verify the absence of uploads in the Network tab of your developer tools.

  1. Drop your PDF into the upload area
  2. Pick a preset (200 KB, 500 KB, 1 MB) or type your own limit in KB
  3. Run the compression — the tool steps down until the target or the quality floor
  4. Check the displayed size and fidelity (SSIM) before downloading