Compress PDF see the size drop
Need to know how to compress a PDF file before you email it? If you're used to reaching for a bigger PDF suite for jobs like this, our iLovePDF alternative page shows what the free tools here cover instead.
Drop it in and get it back smaller, with the before-and-after size in plain sight. Three strengths, no account, no watermark. Use it as often as you like, with no daily cap.
By Sam Ridder Β· Last updated: October 2026
Your file is deleted the moment it's done. The big PDF sites keep your bank statements and IDs on their servers. Here the original goes right after processing, the result after 45 minutes.
Where the megabytes actually go
A heavy PDF is almost never heavy because of the text: text is nearly free. The weight is in the images: scanned pages stored at print resolution, photos pasted in at full camera size, logos repeated on every page. Compressing a PDF means re-encoding those images at a resolution that matches how the file is actually used.
- Light keeps images near print quality. Use it when the PDF will be printed.
- Balanced is the everyday choice: on a screen you will struggle to see any difference, but scanned documents often drop to a fraction of their size.
- Strong squeezes hardest: right for email attachment limits and upload forms, at a visible cost in image crispness. It's the one to reach for on a genuinely large or heavily scanned PDF.
Text stays text at every strength: it is never rasterised, stays selectable and searchable, and prints as sharp as ever. If keeping the file without losing quality matters more than the size, stick with Light: it barely touches image crispness and only trims what a print shop wouldn't notice anyway.
Lots of blank margin around the actual page? Crop PDF trims that away first: less blank space to encode means a smaller file before you even compress it.
A PDF compress pass at Balanced shrinks most scanned documents by a large fraction on the first try. To shrink PDF file size further, step up to Strong and check the new number in the live preview. The same three strengths work for any PDF, not just a scan, so every compress PDF document upload goes through the same choice, whatever made the file.
Because a PDF file compression pass only touches the images, the text stays exactly as sharp as it was. If you're wondering how to make a PDF smaller before an email deadline, Balanced usually gets there in seconds: a PDF reduction of 40% or more is common on a heavily scanned document, less so on one that is mostly text. Strong uses the settings that make PDF smaller files possible for strict upload forms. Every request goes through the same before-and-after size check, and a PDF shrink that can't go any further hands back the original file unchanged, as the next section explains.
If it can't shrink, we say so
Some PDFs are already tight: exported from Word with sensible settings, or compressed once before. Squeezing those again would actually make them bigger, because the file gets rebuilt with nothing left to gain. When that happens here, you get your original back unchanged and the page tells you so, instead of handing you a "compressed" file that grew.
That is also why the before-and-after size is always shown: you decide whether 40% smaller is worth it, or whether to step down to Light because the scans need to stay readable.
There is no account, no watermark and no daily cap. Everything runs on our own servers; the ads on the page keep them online. Your original upload is deleted the moment processing finishes, the cleaned result stays available for up to 45 minutes so you can download it and is then deleted automatically, and nothing is ever sold, shared or used to train AI.
No install, no separate app needed
This PDF file compressor works from one button: pick a strength to compress the PDF, drop the file, download the result. An online PDF compressor here just means this page, in whatever browser you already have. PDF compression is re-encoding the images inside at a lower resolution, which is why a scanned document shrinks far more than a text-only one, and this page does free online PDF compression every time, not just on a trial run. It does the same job as PDFgear or the iLovePDF compressor without a separate tool to learn.
One thing it doesn't take is a Word document. If you actually have a .docx to shrink rather than a PDF, convert it to PDF first, that alone often does most of the shrinking, since a PDF drops the format's own overhead.
Free at every strength, with nothing to renew
Every strength is free, with nothing held back: that exact Strong setting needs no paid tier, and no trial runs out after your first few files. It is a free online PDF compressor, and the ads keep this PDF compressor free online. You can use the PDF compressor online free of charge on a phone or on a desktop. Bookmark it as a free PDF compressor online, and it behaves the same next time. As a PDF files compressor it handles each upload on its own, so the before-and-after size is accurate for that file.
The engine behind the online PDF compression tool on this page also answers our free API, so a script gets the same result as a manual upload. It is not a free file compressor for every format, only for PDFs, but calling it a file compressor free of charge holds up, since nothing on it is metered. Every file processed by this PDF file compressor online free of charge is deleted automatically 45 minutes after it's ready, sooner if you ask, and a free online PDF file compressor like this never asks for payment details: an online PDF compressor free of upsells.
Several files, or a hard size limit
Need to compress a stack of PDFs? You can compress PDF files online free of charge one at a time: run each one through separately so you keep an accurate before-and-after size per file, and compress PDF file by file; there is no daily cap.
Some inboxes and upload forms cap attachments in ways that make you compress the PDF file just to get it through. Compress PDF documents online free of charge here and check the resulting size; if it's still too big, step up from Balanced to Strong.
Whatever number you're chasing: under 1 MB for a government portal, under 2 MB or 5 MB for an email attachment, under 10 MB or 20 MB for a bigger upload form, or Discord's own attachment limit. Try Strong first and check the resulting PDF size. An exact byte target still isn't guaranteed, since it depends on what's actually inside the file, but Strong gets scanned documents close almost every time.
Starting from a genuinely big file, 150 MB, 200 MB, whatever your scanner produced, works the same way: upload accepts PDFs up to 250 MB free, 500 MB with the pass, so a large PDF to small PDF pass is just a strength choice, not a separate large-file mode.
A whole folder of scans works fine, one after another. You can compress PDF online free of charge from any browser tab. Compress PDF files free online from a laptop, or compress a PDF online free from a phone. Each run shows the exact size drop before you download. Choosing to compress PDF for free at Strong gets the biggest drop of the three, at some cost to image crispness, and every free compress PDF pass goes straight to the download. If you need to reduce PDF size free before an upload deadline, Strong is the fastest route and the setting that will reduce file size the most. A free PDF reduce online pass uses the same three strengths for one file or ten, and any PDF reduce file size job gets the same check. The plainest way to shrink file size of PDF uploads is still to pick a strength, drop the file and download; seeing the PDF file size reduction before you commit is the point of the before-and-after number. Think of it as a PDF shrinker for PDFs only, not a general archive tool.
Want to combine PDFs and compress the result in one pass? Merge first with our free merge PDF tool, then run the combined file back through here. Need to go the other way and pull specific pages out instead, our split PDF tool handles that too. Pages saved sideways or upside down? Our free rotate PDF tool fixes that in a few clicks.
What to expect when you reduce PDF file size here: a scanned document on Balanced often gets a PDF reduction of half its size or more on the first try, while a report that is mostly text shrinks far less, because there is little image weight to remove. Wondering how to make a PDF smaller before an email deadline? Start with Balanced, look at the new size, and only step up to Strong if it is still too big.
Need to compress PDF files in bulk, or compress PDFs for a whole project? Run them one after another; there is no daily cap, and each file gets its own before-and-after size.
Common questions
How do I make a PDF smaller?
Drop it in above and pick a strength. The images inside are re-encoded at a sensible resolution, which is where almost all of a PDF's weight lives, and you see the exact size before and after. That is the short answer to how do I make a PDF smaller: you have a smaller PDF in seconds, with no software to install.
Will the text get blurry?
No. Text is never turned into an image at any strength; it stays selectable, searchable and sharp. Only the pictures inside are recompressed.
How much smaller will my PDF get?
Scanned documents often shrink dramatically on Balanced; a text-only PDF barely shrinks because there is nothing heavy in it. If yours cannot shrink, we tell you and give the original back.
Which strength should I pick?
Balanced, unless the PDF is going to be printed (Light) or has to squeeze under an upload limit (Strong).
Is it free, and is there a limit?
Yes, it is free: no account, no watermark and no cap on how many PDFs you compress. Each file can have up to 25 pages and 250 MB; a β¬5 pass raises that to 200 pages and 500 MB. That is the whole way to compress a PDF for free, and to compress PDF file online for free from any device.
Can I compress a password-protected PDF?
No. Remove the password first, then compress the unlocked copy.
What is a PDF file size reducer?
A tool that recompresses the images inside a PDF to make the file smaller. This size reducer shows you the before-and-after size and gives the original back unchanged if the file cannot shrink.
Can I reduce PDF size to send it by email, or hit a target like 1 MB?
Try Balanced first; if the file still needs to be smaller, step up to Strong and check whether the scanned text is still crisp enough for your use. An exact target such as 1 MB isn't guaranteed, since it depends on what's inside the file, but Strong gets most scanned documents close.
Can I compress compressed PDF output again if it's still too big?
Yes, though a second pass usually saves very little once the images are already re-encoded.
Does it resize PDF pages?
No. Only the file size changes; the page dimensions stay exactly as they were. If you searched to resize PDF free of charge because you wanted a smaller download, this is the right page: resize here means file size.
Does it work the same on a Mac?
Yes. How to compress a PDF on Mac is no different from any other computer, because it is the same browser tool, with no separate app. Preview's Quartz filter (Reduce File Size) can compress PDF Mac files too, but it applies one aggressive setting to everything; here you see the size before and after and can choose a lighter strength.
Is this a program I need to install?
No. It is a page in your browser, so it works the same on any device. Think of it as a PDF file compress step rather than software, and an online PDF compress session keeps no copy of your file.
Is this the right tool to compress a file that happens to be a PDF?
Yes. Drop the PDF in and Balanced is selected for you. It only takes PDFs, so to compress file uploads in other formats, convert them to PDF first; a Word document often shrinks a lot just by becoming a PDF.
Do I need to OCR it first?
No. Compression works on the scan as it is. If you also want the text searchable, that is the separate OCR PDF tool, which builds a searchable PDF from images of the pages (turn the pages into images with PDF to JPG first).
Is there a video walkthrough of compressing a PDF?
Yes. Watch the free compress PDF demo, a video showing a file dropped in and the size drop appearing on the page.
What happens to my file?
Your upload is deleted as soon as the smaller version exists, and that version is deleted automatically after 45 minutes.
Can I compress several PDFs at once?
Compress them one at a time: run each PDF through separately, so you keep an accurate before-and-after size per file. There is no daily cap, so a whole folder of scans works fine, one after another. Each run shows the exact size drop before you download.
Compressing files from a script instead of by hand? There is a free PDF API for that: one POST, no key and no account.