Compress PDF

Reduce the size of your PDF so it fits email limits and upload forms. Pick a level, see exactly how much smaller it gets, and keep your original if the saving isn’t worth it.

  • Free to use
  • No sign-up needed
  • Works on phone and desktop

Private by design: your files are processed in your own browser and are never uploaded to our server.

How to compress a PDF

  1. Choose your PDF.
  2. Pick a compression level. Strong suits most scans and image-heavy files.
  3. Click Compress PDF and check the before and after size.

Which level should I choose?

  • Light keeps text selectable and searchable. Good for PDFs made from Word or a website, but savings are usually small.
  • Medium, Strong and Extreme turn each page into an image. They give the biggest savings on scans and photos, but text can no longer be selected or searched.
  • Small print looks soft? Try Medium instead of Extreme.

Frequently asked questions

Why didn’t my PDF get smaller?

Some PDFs are already well optimised – especially text-only files. The tool tells you when the result isn’t smaller so you can keep your original.

Will links still work?

Light keeps links. The image-based levels flatten pages, so clickable links and form fields are removed.

Is this suitable for legal or official documents?

For documents that must stay searchable or accessible, use Light, or keep the original alongside the compressed copy.

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