Compress PDF file size online
Shrink your PDF to a smaller file size for exam uploads and email — free and entirely in your browser.
Best for scanned documents and image-heavy PDFs (the kind portals reject for size).
Compress in 3 simple steps
Choose a mode
Compress by quality (Light/Recommended/Strong) or to a target size.
Upload your PDF
Choose the PDF you want to shrink.
Download
See the before/after size and save the smaller PDF.
Why use this PDF compressor
Big savings
Scanned and image-heavy PDFs often shrink by 40–80%.
Compress to a size
Set an exact target — 100KB, 500KB, 1MB or any custom KB — or compress by quality.
Private
Compression runs in your browser; your file is never uploaded.
Beat upload limits
Get under the maximum size a form or email allows.
Free
No watermark and no sign-up.
Works with tools
Merge or convert first, then compress the final PDF.
Get your PDF under the upload limit
Exam portals, job applications and email attachments all enforce a maximum file size, and scanned documents easily blow past it. This tool compresses your PDF by re-encoding its pages, often cutting the size dramatically while keeping it readable — so a 5 MB scan can drop to a few hundred KB.
Choose Recommended for a balance of size and clarity, or Strong when you must hit a tight limit. The whole process runs in your browser, so your document is never uploaded. It works best on scanned and image-heavy PDFs, which are usually the ones that exceed size limits.
How PDF compression works
Most oversized PDFs are heavy because of high-resolution scanned images. The compressor re-encodes those images at a sensible resolution and quality, removing data your eyes won't miss on screen, while leaving real text layers intact. That is why a 5 MB phone scan can fall to a few hundred KB. Everything runs locally, so sensitive marksheets, ID proofs and bank records never leave your device. If a page is rotated or out of order, fix it with Rotate PDF or Organize PDF before compressing.
Hitting an exact upload limit
Many portals state a precise cap rather than a range. For those, our target-size tools aim for a specific number — try Compress PDF to 100KB, 500KB or 1MB. Specialised flows like Compress PDF for USCIS and Compress Resume PDF are tuned for those exact requirements, so you avoid the rejection that comes from a file even slightly over limit.
Tips to keep quality while shrinking
Scan or photograph documents in even light and crop empty borders before you start, so the compressor has less wasted area to encode. Begin at Recommended and only switch to Strong if you must, checking that scanned text stays legible. If you are bundling several files, merge them first and compress the final packet once, which almost always beats compressing each piece separately.