Compress a PDF
to a target size

Pick the file size a form or inbox demands, and this page shapes your PDF to fit it - without the file ever leaving your computer. You type a target such as 200 KB, four local techniques (a clean structural re-save, image downsampling, font subsetting, and a last-resort raster redraw) take turns beating that number, and every result is opened again and checked against the original before you may download it. No upload, no queue, no account.

How to shrink a PDF to the size you need

1. Drop in your PDF

   Click Choose a PDF, or drag the file onto the page. It opens right here in the tab, on your own device - no upload step, no waiting line, no sign-in.

2. Set the number the recipient wants

   Choose Highest, Average or Low, tap a preset between 20 KB and 10 MB, or type the exact cap from the form - a 200 KB visa field, a 500 KB job portal. The engine treats it as a ceiling and aims to land below it.

3. Run the compression

   One press starts the work on your own CPU through WebAssembly. Structural cleanup goes first, then images and fonts, with the raster redraw held back for files nothing else could shrink.

4. Compare, then save

   You get the final size, the percentage saved and a text-integrity verdict next to a side-by-side preview. Download only when the numbers satisfy you.

What each of the four techniques actually does to the file is covered on how it works, including why some documents resist shrinking while others fold to a tenth of their size. Size breakdown tells you beforehand which of the four will matter most for your file.

Your target is a ceiling in bytes, not a quality slider

A target names the maximum the finished file may weigh. Kilobytes count as 1,024 bytes here, so asking for 200 KB draws the line at 204,800 bytes - the engine delivers something lighter than that line, never something sitting exactly on it. Anything below your file’s current size is a fair ask; anything above it needs no work at all.

Watch out for the other way of counting: some forms treat a kilobyte as a flat 1,000 bytes, which makes the same number about 2.3% stricter. A file that looks like it fits can still bounce at the other end - answer by lowering your target a touch and running again.

Caps you meet again and again have ready-made pages: 100 KB for tight forms, 200 KB for visa and grant paperwork, 500 KB for job portals and 1 MB for mail attachments. Each preset page opens with its number already filled in, so you can bookmark one per recipient. When you are unsure which cap to pick, the walkthrough How to reduce PDF file size maps common limits to targets.

Pilot measurement: 19 runs on real files

These numbers come from a small pilot on our own machine - an Apple M1 Mac with 16 GB of memory running Chrome 152 - not from a model or a borrowed study. Ten local documents (text reports, photo scans, mixed files) were each squeezed toward one or two targets between 20 KB and 1 MB, 19 runs in total. Every run returned a smaller file, and every file offered had passed the text-integrity check.

Why most runs stop above the number you typed

The engine would rather hand you a verified file above your target than a destroyed one below it. Gentle targets on plain-text documents landed exactly 4 times out of 7; scans and mixed files settled roughly 40% lighter no matter how low the target went, because pixels only compress so far. The target is the wish, the verification pass is the rule.

Run time tracks the document, not the target: the median took 3.9 seconds while the test machine carried a load average above 17, so treat the timing as a worst case - the size outcomes are unaffected. Nothing queues behind other people’s files, and there is no hourly or daily cap on compressing.

Where a smaller PDF actually matters

Job applications. Hiring portals routinely cap CVs and portfolios at 500 KB. Run yours toward 500 KB once, and the upload passes on the first try instead of the fifth.

Official paperwork. Visa files, tax returns, grant and admissions packets live under 200 KB ceilings. Dial in 200 KB exactly, and when a picky form still refuses it, shave another 10% off and run once more.

Mail attachments. Most inboxes stop accepting between 10 and 25 MB. Shaping a bulky export down to 1 MB keeps it sendable without splitting it across three messages.

Phone scans and web reading. A pocket scanner turns two pages into tens of megabytes. One pass brings that down to what screens actually resolve, so the file opens fast on mobile - or pull the pages out as pictures with PDF to JPG when no one needs a document at all.

If the result lands above your target

Read the verdict line first: it states the final size, how far over the target that is, and which technique won. That winning name is the diagnosis - images, fonts or document structure - and it tells you what to attack next. Landing above the number is an ordinary outcome, because no candidate ships without being read back and verified.

Three fixes cover most cases, in this order. Size breakdown shows which images, fonts and streams carry the weight - usually one or two pages. Delete PDF pages drops what the recipient never needed, and Split PDF divides the rest into parts that each fit the cap.

Two special cases deserve their own path: when the PDF only carries pictures for the web, PDF to JPG pulls the pages out as images instead of sending a document at all. And a file that barely shrinks may be encrypted - run it through Unlock PDF first, then compress again.

Compress PDF: questions people actually ask

Will my photos look worse after compression?

That depends on the level you pick. Low stays gentle and Highest squeezes hard, with visible smoothing on photos. Whatever you choose, the side-by-side preview shows the damage before you download, so nothing surprises you later.

Why is my PDF so large in the first place?

Almost always oversized images: phone photos and scans stored at full camera resolution, plus embedded fonts and leftover editing data. Size breakdown shows exactly which pages, images and fonts carry the weight, so you compress with knowledge instead of hope.

Can I compress a scanned PDF?

Yes. Scans shrink through image downsampling first, and stubborn ones through the raster redraw that re-renders pages at screen resolution. In our pilot, photo scans settled roughly 40% lighter - text stayed selectable because the check gates every download.

Is there a page limit or a daily quota?

No. No page caps, no counters, no accounts. The only ceiling is your tab’s memory, so a giant scan simply takes a few seconds longer.

Does any of this work offline?

Once the page has loaded, yes: the whole job runs on your device through WebAssembly. Keep the tab open until the download finishes - close it and the work goes with it.

My bank statement barely shrinks - why?

Some banks and offices issue encrypted PDFs, and encryption blocks the rebuild tricks compression relies on. If your viewer asks for a password just to open the file, run it through Unlock PDF first and compress the unlocked copy.

Which files shrink the most?

Text documents with oversized, uncompressed images - office exports and phone scans. Files that are already optimized, or tiny to begin with, may barely move; that is the engine telling you there is nothing left to give.

Do hyperlinks survive compression?

Yes. Links, outlines and metadata travel with the pages untouched; only images, fonts and structural overhead are rewritten. Selectable text stays selectable and searchable.

Keep working with your PDF

Every tool below runs in your browser like this one: private, verified before download, and free without an account.

Pick a preset that matches your cap

Most asked-for targets

• Compress PDF to 200 KB The visa-and-grants number. Opens with 200 KB already typed in.
• Compress PDF to 100 KB For the strictest upload fields that stop at one hundred.
• Compress PDF to 500 KB The job-portal classic for CVs and portfolios.
• Compress PDF to 1 MB Stays sendable through almost any inbox.

Tiny caps, extreme diets

• Compress PDF to 20 KB Brutal fields only - realistic for text-only files.
• Compress PDF to 50 KB Under a 50 KB field without breaking the text.

Roomy caps

• Compress PDF to 2 MB For portals that allow two megabytes.
• Compress PDF to 5 MB The classic mail attachment ceiling.

Special cases

• Compress large PDF Monster scans and exports that choke other uploaders.
• Compress PDF without losing quality The gentle path to a smaller file with crisp text.

Learn the craft

• How to reduce PDF file size The full walkthrough of what each setting drops, and why.
• Compress PDF without losing quality Quality-first tactics to try before touching a slider.