⚠ Compression has limits. This tool re-encodes and downscales each page as an image, so it works best for image-heavy PDFs such as photos and scans. For text-only PDFs the effect is small, and the compressed PDF will no longer have selectable or searchable text.
About this PDF compression tool
This free online tool reduces the file size of your PDFs. It is handy for PDFs that exceed email attachment limits, heavy scanned documents that are slow to upload, or catalogs full of photos. Just choose a compression level — High, Medium, or Low — to balance quality and size. No sign-up and no software installation required.
The biggest advantage is that all processing happens entirely within your browser. Your PDF is never uploaded to any server, so your privacy is fully protected. Technically, the tool renders each page and re-encodes / downscales it as an image to shrink the size. This is especially effective for PDFs centered on photos or scans, while the effect is limited for text-only PDFs. The before/after file sizes are shown so you can see the result at a glance.
How to use
Drag & drop the PDF you want to compress, or click to select it.
Choose a compression level (High / Medium / Low). When in doubt, Medium is recommended.
Click "Compress PDF and download" to see the before/after sizes and save the lighter PDF.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are my uploaded PDFs safe?
Yes. All processing happens within your browser and files are never sent to any server.
Which PDFs benefit most?
Image-heavy PDFs such as photos and scans benefit most. The tool re-encodes and downscales each page as an image, so the more images a file contains, the more its size can be reduced.
Will text-based PDFs get smaller too?
Text-centric PDFs are already small, so the effect is limited — and in some cases rasterizing can even increase the size. Since compression has limits, we recommend using it on image-heavy PDFs.
Can I still select or search text after compression?
No. Because the tool rasterizes each page to shrink it, the compressed PDF no longer has selectable or searchable text. Keep this in mind if you need to retain the text layer.