Compress PDF
Reduce a PDF's file size directly in your browser. Choose Low for a lossless clean-up that leaves every page untouched, or Balanced or Strong to rebuild each page as a compressed image — the biggest savings for scanned and image-heavy PDFs — then compare the before/after size before you download.
🔒 Private & browser-based: your file is processed locally on your device and is never uploaded to our servers.
Drop your PDF here
up to 200 MB
About this tool
Reduces a PDF's file size directly in your browser, using either a lossless metadata-only pass, or a page-image recompression pass for image-heavy files.
How to use it
- Upload a PDF.
- Choose a compression level and read what it actually does.
- Click Compress, compare the before/after size, then download.
FAQ
Is compression guaranteed to make my file smaller?
No. A PDF that is mostly text is already compact, and the Balanced and Strong levels can make it much bigger, because they turn each page into an image (in our test, an 11 KB text PDF became 329 KB with Balanced). Scanned and photo-heavy PDFs usually shrink a lot. The tool always shows the original size, the new size and the change, so you can keep whichever is smaller.
Is this lossless?
Only the Low level. It removes document metadata (title, author, subject, keywords, creator and producer) and re-saves the file with a more compact internal structure; every page, including selectable text, images and links, is left exactly as it was, so savings are usually small. Balanced and Strong are lossy: they replace each page with a JPEG image.
What's the difference between the three levels?
Low is the lossless clean-up described above. Balanced redraws each page as an image whose longest side is 1,600 pixels (about 137 DPI on an A4 page) and saves it as a JPEG at 80% quality — usually readable on screen with a large size reduction for scans. Strong does the same at 1,000 pixels (about 85 DPI on A4) and 60% quality for the smallest file, with visibly softer detail.
Can I still select, copy or search text after compressing?
After Low, yes. After Balanced or Strong, no: each page becomes a single image, so text can no longer be selected, copied or searched, links stop working, and screen readers cannot read the page. Keep your original file if you need any of those.
Which level should I choose?
Balanced for scans, photographed documents and image-heavy PDFs; Strong only when a scan must fit a very small upload limit (zoom in to check small text afterwards); Low for text documents such as reports, CVs and invoices exported from software, which the image-based levels usually make larger.
Are my files uploaded anywhere?
No. Compression happens entirely inside your browser tab. Nothing is sent to any server.
From the blog
- How to Compress a PDF Without Ruining It: Lossless vs. Lossy, Explained
A 12 MB scan can drop below 1 MB, and a small text PDF can grow nearly 30 times larger, using the same "compress" button. Here is why, how to choose the right compression level, and how to shrink a PDF in your browser without uploading it.
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