Compress PDF: Shrink PDF file size, with before and after sizes. Input: PDF files and values you enter. Output: Results shown on the page and a downloaded file. Privacy: Runs in your browser: inputs and files stay on your device and are not uploaded.
How to compress a PDF
- Drop your PDF on the box.
- Keep Recommended: shrink images, keep text and pick a preset: Recommended (110 dpi) suits most email and upload limits; Print quality keeps more detail.
- For a scanned document that is still too big, choose Scan mode. Choose Lossless to change nothing visible at all.
- Press Compress PDF, compare the before and after sizes, and download.
Which option should I use?
Most oversized PDFs are big because of images: scanned pages, phone photos or high-resolution graphics. The recommended mode finds each image inside the PDF, resizes it to the resolution you choose and saves it as a compressed JPEG, while text, fonts, links and drawings stay exactly as they were. Text stays sharp and you can still select and search it. Images that are already small, and image types it can't safely re-encode, are left alone.
Scan mode renders every page as one JPEG. It shrinks scans the most, but pages become pictures: you can no longer select or search the text, and links stop working.
Lossless keeps everything intact. It rewrites the file with compact object streams and strips metadata, which can save a little or a lot depending on how the PDF was made. In every mode, if the result is not smaller, the tool says so and gives you back your original file.
Tick black and white to remove colour from the images as well; in scan mode it greys the whole page.
Private compression
Online compressors usually upload your document. Here the PDF engine runs in your browser, so tax returns, IDs and medical letters stay on your device.
Example: how much smaller
A 10-page report with text, charts and photos (677 KB) came out at 205 KB, 30% of its size, with the Recommended setting, in under half a second in Chrome on a laptop. Every word stayed selectable and searchable, because only the images are re-compressed. Ghostscript's widely used /ebook setting gave 217 KB on the same file.
An 8-page PDF of phone photos went from 9.3 MB to 791 KB with Recommended, or 332 KB with Smallest. For a hard size limit, such as an upload form that accepts 1 MB, use Compress PDF to a size.
How it compares with free PDF sites
| This tool | iLovePDF (free) | Sejda (free) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Files per task | No fixed limit | 2 | Not stated |
| File size | Your device memory | 200 MB | 50 MB, 200 pages |
| Tasks per day | No limit | Not stated | 3 |
Free-plan limits as published by each service (checked 21 October 2026): iLovePDF pricing, Sejda pricing. They change often; the paid plans lift them.
How can I compress a PDF to under 1 MB?
Use the recommended mode with the Recommended or Smallest preset. If it is a scan and still too big, try Scan mode, or use Compress PDF to a size to aim at an exact limit.
Will the text still be selectable?
Yes in the recommended and lossless modes. Scan mode turns pages into images; run OCR on the result if you need selectable text.
Does compression reduce print quality?
At 72–110 dpi, photos print slightly soft; text is unaffected in the recommended mode. Choose 150 or 200 dpi for documents you will print.
Will compressing make the text blurry?
No. With the Recommended setting text, lines and vector graphics are kept exactly; only photos and other images are re-encoded at a lower resolution. Scan mode is the exception: it turns each page into an image, which suits scanned documents.