Compress PDF online for free
Shrink your PDF so you can email it or upload it anywhere.
Analyzing the PDF…
Original size:
🔒 100% private — your file is processed on your device and never uploaded to any server.
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1. Upload your PDF
We automatically check whether it has selectable text.
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2. Choose the level
High quality, balanced, or maximum compression, depending on what you need.
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3. Download
You'll see the size before and after, and how much you saved.
How compression works
Compressing a PDF means reducing the size of the images it contains — usually the reason a scanned PDF weighs several megabytes is that each page is really a high-resolution photo. This tool converts each page into a lighter image (adjusting resolution and JPEG quality) and rebuilds the document with those lighter pages, keeping the original page size.
When it works best, and when it doesn't
With scanned PDFs or ones full of photos, the savings are usually huge — sometimes over 80%. With a PDF generated directly from Word or a website (text only), the result is different: since the method rasterizes each page, you lose the selectable text and the file can even end up larger than the original, because an image of a text page doesn't compress as well as the text itself. That's why we warn you beforehand if we detect real text, so you can decide with that information.
Frequently asked questions
Does it work well with any PDF?
It works great with scanned PDFs or ones full of photos. With text-only PDFs (like a Word doc exported to PDF), the savings are smaller and you lose the selectable text, because the method turns each page into an image — we warn you before continuing in that case.
Is my PDF uploaded to a server?
No. Compression happens in your browser — your file is never transmitted anywhere.
Which compression level should I choose?
Balanced works well for most cases. Use high quality if the PDF will be printed, and maximum compression if you just need it as small as possible to send it.