Need to know how to compress a PDF file before you email it?
Drop it in and get it back smaller, with the before-and-after size in plain sight. Three strengths, no account, no watermark. It's a pdf compressor free to use as often as you like, with no daily cap.
By ShinobiTools Team · Last updated: August 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 — or sooner, on your click.
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.
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 strength shrinks most scanned documents by a large fraction. To shrink pdf file size further, step up to Strong and check the new number. The same steps handle a pdf reduce file size job on any PDF, not just scans. Every compress pdf document upload goes through the identical three-strength choice, no matter where the file came from. Running a plain shrink pdf pass first, before trying to squeeze harder, shows you whether Balanced was already enough. Because a pdf file compression pass only touches the images, the text underneath stays exactly as sharp as before. Looking for 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. The three strengths cover pdf reduce jobs from a light trim to the deepest squeeze available. Every make pdf smaller request goes through the same before-and-after size check, so you always know exactly what changed. And a pdf shrink that can't go any further just hands back the original file unchanged, honestly.
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.
Whether you type "compress the pdf" or look for a plain pdf file compressor, you land on the same button: pick a strength, drop the file, download the result. There is no separate app to install — an online pdf compressor here just means this page, opened in whatever browser you already have.
Under the hood, pdf compression is just re-encoding the images inside at a lower resolution, which is why a scanned document shrinks far more than a text-only one does. Come back whenever you need a pdf compressor online for repeat use — this page does free online pdf compression every time, not just on a trial run.
Looking for the same job under a different name — an iLovePDF-style compressor, PDF Guru, PDFgear, AvePDF, or an open-source alternative? This does the identical re-encoding, just without a separate tool to learn. One thing it doesn't do: 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.
As a free pdf compressor it stays free at every strength, with no trial period to run out. As a pdf files compressor it handles each upload one at a time for an accurate size check. A free online pdf compressor session needs no software installed beyond the browser you already have open. Running an online pdf compressor free of charge works the same on a phone as it does on a desktop. A pdf compressor free online search usually lands right here. A pdf compressor online free search reaches this page just as directly. A free pdf compressor online visit today works exactly the same tomorrow, with nothing to renew. The same engine sits behind the online pdf compression tool used by our free API. Even as a free file compressor it is scoped to PDFs specifically, not every file type. This file compressor free page is accurate too, since nothing here is metered. A pdf file compressor online free session is deleted automatically after 45 minutes, sooner if you ask. And a free online pdf file compressor pass like this one never asks for an account first.
Need to batch compress a stack of PDFs, or compress multiple files one after another? Run each one through separately so you keep an accurate before-and-after size per file — the same page works whether you compress pdf file by file or come back later for one more.
Some inboxes and upload forms cap attachments in ways that make you compress the pdf file just to get it through the door. Compress pdf documents online here first and check the resulting size — if it's still too big, step up from Balanced to Strong instead of trusting a compress pdf online free tool that skips the honesty check and hands back something bigger.
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 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.
Running compress pdf documents online free jobs back to back works fine — there is no daily cap on how many files you process. The same applies whether you compress pdf files free online one at a time or come back later for another batch. You can compress a pdf online free from any browser tab, with nothing to install first. A compress pdf files online free session shows the exact size drop before you commit to the download. Choosing to compress pdf for free at Strong gets the biggest size drop, at some cost to image crispness. Every free compress pdf pass here skips straight to the download, with no upsell in the way. A free pdf reduce online pass uses the identical three strengths described above. If your goal is to reduce pdf size free before an upload deadline, Strong is the fastest route there. The plainest way to shrink file size of pdf uploads is still: pick a strength, drop the file, download. Seeing the pdf file size reduction number before you commit to the download is exactly the point of showing before-and-after. Think of this as a pdf shrinker built specifically for PDFs, not a generic 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.
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.
No. Text is never turned into an image at any strength — it stays selectable, searchable and sharp. Only the pictures inside are recompressed.
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 honestly and give the original back.
Balanced, unless the PDF is going to be printed (Light) or has to squeeze under an upload limit (Strong).
Yes — no account, no watermark, no cap on how many PDFs you compress.
No. Remove the password first, then compress the unlocked copy.
Your upload is deleted as soon as the smaller version exists, and that version is deleted automatically after 45 minutes.
Think of it as a straightforward pdf file compress step — drop it in, pick a strength, and download the smaller version. No settings menus, no software to install.
Drop your file above and pick a compression strength — you'll have a smaller PDF in seconds, with no software to install.
Drop the PDF into ScanReviver and pick a strength — Balanced shrinks most scanned documents by a large fraction, and you see the exact before-and-after size.
Upload it here and choose Balanced. Images inside the PDF are re-encoded at a practical resolution, which is where almost all of a PDF's weight lives.
A tool that recompresses the images inside a PDF to make the file smaller. ScanReviver shows you the before-and-after size and gives the original back unchanged if the file cannot shrink.
Yes. Try Balanced first; if the file still needs to be smaller, step up to Strong — then check whether the scanned text is still crisp enough for your use.
Yes — no account, no card, and no watermark. Pick a strength above, download the result, and that's the whole flow every time.
Try Strong first and check the resulting size — most scanned documents get close, but an exact byte target isn't guaranteed since it depends on what's actually inside the file.
Yes — files up to 250 MB go through free, or 500 MB with the pass. Compress pdf big file jobs cap at that free limit; compress pdf large file runs get the full 500 MB. Pick Strong for the biggest size drop, watching it go from large to small in the preview.
Yes, though a second pass usually saves very little once the images are already re-encoded.
Yes — drop the PDF in and Balanced is selected for you automatically.
Yes, a one-page PDF goes through the same three strengths as a longer one.
No — the upload is deleted as soon as the smaller version is ready.
No — only the file size changes; page dimensions stay exactly as they were.
Yes — on this page, resize means file size, not page dimensions.
Yes — watch the free compress PDF demo, a short clip showing a file dropped in and the size drop appear right on the page.
Yes — how to compress a pdf on mac is no different from any other computer: it's the same browser tool, so compress pdf mac needs no separate app.
Yes — you can compress pdfs from a single receipt to a fifty-page report; the three strengths apply the same way regardless of length.
Pick Strong and check the live size readout — most everyday PDFs land close to 1 MB, though a file full of photos may need a second pass or the split-pages tool first.
Balanced is built for that — it re-encodes the images inside at a sensible resolution instead of just shrinking everything blindly, so text stays sharp.
Neither — there's no compress pdf program to download and no compress pdf software to install; it's a page in your browser, so it works the same on any device.
Strong is the closest thing to an extreme compress pdf setting here — it pushes images to a low resolution for the smallest possible file, at the cost of some image sharpness.
Compressing files from a script instead of by hand? There is a free PDF API for that: one POST, no key and no account.