Compress a PDF
A quote that exceeds the 25 MB attachment limit, a job application rejected by a portal, a presentation too heavy to share: PDF weight almost always comes from embedded images. The tool resamples and re-encodes those images and cleans up useless internal structures, aiming for a reduction with no visible loss on screen. How much you save depends on the content: an already-optimized or text-only PDF gains little, a photo-heavy scan a lot. Everything runs locally — not a single byte leaves your device. No daily quota and no queue: compress as many files as you need, with no account — and without your documents feeding anything on a remote server.
FAQ
How much weight can I expect to save?
It depends on the document: image-heavy PDFs often shed 50 to 80% of their size; an already-compressed or purely textual file cannot shrink further — the tool shows the result honestly, with no artificial promise.
Does compression degrade quality?
Optimization targets a reduction with no perceptible difference on screen. Images are resampled to a resolution suited to reading; for very high-definition professional printing, compare the result before distribution.
What happens to my file during compression?
It stays on your device. Analysis and PDF rewriting are executed by the browser; nothing is uploaded to a server — the key difference from classic online compressors.
Why is my compressed PDF sometimes heavier?
Some files contain already well-optimized images: re-encoding them can slightly increase the total. In that case, simply keep the original file.
Can a protected PDF be compressed?
An encrypted document must be unlocked first with its password, using the “Unlock PDF” tool.
Can a PDF over 50 MB be processed?
The processing limit is 50 MB per file. For a heavier document, split it first with “Split PDF”, compress the parts, then merge the result.
How do I compress a PDF to a specific size like 200 KB?
For an exact target required by a portal, use the dedicated “Compress a PDF to 200 KB” tool, which steps the compression down until the limit is met or the quality floor is reached. Sister pages cover 100 KB, 500 KB and 1 MB.
Does text stay selectable after compression?
Yes — compression works on images and internal structures, not on the text layer: the result stays selectable, searchable and copyable. Only an extreme rasterisation of very graphic pages would freeze their visual content.
Is the compressed PDF compatible everywhere?
Yes — the output is a standard PDF that opens in Adobe Reader, Preview, browsers and mobile apps exactly like the original. Compression changes the internal encoding, not the format.
When is a document incompressible?
Files that are already optimised — regenerated by an office suite, already compressed once — have little left to reclaim: the tool returns the best result obtained, honestly displayed rather than padded with fake promises.
Why does a scan compress more than a native PDF?
Weight in a scanned document is almost all images — recompressing them recovers a lot. A native PDF is mostly compact text and vectors with little image data to squeeze, so its gain is necessarily modest.
How to proceed
- Drop your PDF into the upload area
- Start compression and wait while images are optimized
- Compare the resulting size, then download the lighter file
- Keep the original if the reduction does not convince you