Compress PDF
Shrink a PDF's file size by re-compressing each page — entirely in your browser, so the file is never uploaded. Works best on scanned or image-heavy PDFs.
How to use the Compress PDF
- Upload a PDF file.
- Choose a compression level.
- Click "Compress PDF" and wait for it to process every page.
- Compare the before/after size and download the result.
Frequently asked questions
Will the text in my PDF still be selectable afterward?
No — compression works by rendering each page as an image and re-saving it at reduced quality, then rebuilding the PDF from those images. This shrinks file size a lot, especially for scanned documents, but text in the output is no longer selectable or searchable. If you need to keep selectable text, this tool isn't the right fit for that PDF.
Is my PDF uploaded anywhere?
No. Rendering and recompressing every page happens locally in your browser — the file is never sent to a server.
Which compression level should I pick?
"Best quality" keeps pages sharp with a modest size reduction. "Balanced" is a good default for most documents. "Smallest file" gives the biggest size reduction but pages will look noticeably softer — best for documents you just need to keep readable and small.
What if the compressed file is bigger than the original?
That can happen with text-heavy, already-efficient PDFs — rasterizing vector text into an image sometimes costs more than it saves. This method shines on scanned documents and photo-heavy PDFs; for a purely text-based PDF, the original is often already smaller.
Is there a page limit?
No hard limit, but every page is processed on your device, so very large PDFs will take longer and use more memory the bigger they are.
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