How to compress a PDF
- Choose the PDF you want to make smaller.
- Pick a compression level — Recommended is a good balance of size and quality.
- Click Compress PDF, check how much space you saved, and download the result.
About the Compress PDF tool
Many websites and email providers limit attachment sizes. This tool rebuilds every page of your PDF as an optimized image, which works especially well for scanned documents, photos and image-heavy files — these often shrink by 50–90%. Note that text in the compressed file becomes part of the page image, so it can no longer be selected or searched.
100% free
No limits, no watermarks and no sign-up.
Private
Your files are processed on your device and never uploaded.
Fast
No uploading or waiting in a queue. Results in seconds.
Works everywhere
Windows, Mac, iPhone, Android and Chromebook.
Frequently asked questions
How much smaller will my PDF get?
Scanned and image-heavy PDFs often shrink by 50–90%. PDFs that contain mostly plain text are usually small already and may not get any smaller.
Can I still select text after compressing?
No. To get the biggest savings, each page is saved as an image, so text can't be selected or searched. Keep your original if you need that.
Why didn't my PDF get smaller?
Some PDFs are already well optimized. If the compressed file would be bigger than the original, we tell you so you can keep your original.
Is my PDF uploaded?
No. Compression happens on your device, so your document stays private.