Compress PDF Online

Reduce your PDF file size while maintaining readability. Perfect for email attachments, uploads, and sharing. 100% free, processed in your browser.

Upload PDF to Compress Ready

Drag & Drop PDF Here

or click to browse your files

How to Compress PDF Files

Reduce PDF Size Without Losing Readability

Our PDF compressor works by re-rendering each page of your PDF as an optimized image and reassembling them into a new, smaller PDF. This approach is particularly effective for PDFs containing scanned documents, high-resolution photographs, and complex graphics.

The compression happens entirely in your browser using pdf.js for rendering and jsPDF for output. Your documents are never uploaded to any server.

Step-by-Step: How to Compress a PDF

  1. Upload your PDF by dragging it into the tool above, or click the upload area to browse your files.
  2. Choose a compression level: High (smallest file size), Balanced (recommended), or Light (best quality).
  3. Click "Compress PDF" and watch the progress bar. Your compressed file is ready in seconds.
  4. Download your compressed PDF. The tool shows you exactly how much space you saved.

When to Compress Your PDF

  • Email Attachments: Most email services limit attachments to 25MB. Compress large PDFs to stay under the limit.
  • Website Uploads: Smaller PDFs load faster on websites and save bandwidth for your visitors.
  • Cloud Storage: Save space on Google Drive, Dropbox, or OneDrive by compressing before uploading.
  • Form Submissions: Many online forms have file size limits. Compress to meet requirements.
  • WhatsApp and Telegram: Messaging apps have strict file size limits. Compress your PDF to share it easily.

Why Choose Our PDF Compressor Over iLovePDF or SmallPDF?

Most popular PDF compressor tools like iLovePDF, SmallPDF, and Adobe Acrobat Online require you to upload your files to their servers. This means your private contracts, financial documents, and personal files are stored on third-party servers. Our compressor is fundamentally different because everything runs locally inside your browser. Zero files are uploaded. Zero data leaves your device.

Need more PDF tools? Try our Merge PDF to combine multiple files, Image to PDF to create PDFs from photos, or PDF to Image to extract pages as PNG.

Frequently Asked Questions

How much can I reduce my PDF size?

Results vary based on content. PDFs with images typically see 40-70% reduction. Text-heavy PDFs with few images may see 10-30% reduction. Use "High" compression for maximum savings.

Will compression make my PDF unreadable?

No. Even at "High" compression, text remains legible. We recommend "Balanced" mode for the best tradeoff between file size and visual quality.

Is this safe for confidential documents?

Yes. Your PDF is processed entirely in your browser. No data is sent to any server. This is the most private PDF compressor available online.

Does it work with scanned PDFs?

Yes! Scanned PDFs (which are essentially images inside a PDF wrapper) benefit the most from compression, often achieving 50-70% size reduction.

Can I compress password-protected PDFs?

Currently, you need to remove the password first. We plan to add password support in a future update.

Does this work on mobile and tablet?

Yes. Our PDF compressor works on all modern browsers including Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Edge on Android, iOS, and desktop devices.