PDF Compressor

What this does

Shrink a PDF down to email-friendly size — without crushing it into pixel mush.

Pick a compression intensity, drop in your PDF, and download a smaller version. We optimize image streams (the part that actually causes 30 MB PDFs), leave text crisp, and run everything in your browser so nothing uploads. Most real-world PDFs shrink by 40–80%.

How to compress a PDF

Optimal settings for the three most common scenarios.

1. 1

   Pick your intensity

   Light (75) keeps near-original quality and trims 20–40%. Medium (55, our default) is what most people want — text stays crisp, images get re-encoded, total size drops 50–70%. Aggressive (35) is for when you need to fit a 50 MB packet under Gmail's 25 MB cap and don't care if photos look slightly soft.

2. 2

   Drop in your PDF

   Click or drag your file into the dropzone. We've tested files up to 500 MB; below 100 MB compresses in under 10 seconds on a modern laptop.

3. 3

   Download the smaller version

   The compressed PDF appears with a side-by-side size comparison and percent reduction. Your original is untouched — if you don't like the result, lower the intensity and try again.

When you'd compress a PDF

How this compares to other PDF compressors

We benchmarked a 32 MB photo-heavy PDF across the major free tools.

Feature	BBulkShare	iLovePDF	Adobe Acrobat (web)	Smallpdf	PDF24
Runs in your browser	Yes	No	No	No	Yes (partial)
Files uploaded to server	Never	Yes	Yes	Yes	Optional
Compression intensity control	Slider 1–100	3 presets	3 presets	2 presets (Pro = 3)	5 presets
32 MB photo PDF → result	11.4 MB (64% off)	10.2 MB	13.1 MB	9.8 MB	12.7 MB
Account required	No	After 2/day	Yes	After 2/day	No
File-size cap (free)	No cap	100 MB	100 MB	5 GB total	300 MB
OCR text remains searchable	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Works offline once loaded	Yes	No	No	No	No

Tips for better compression

1. 01

   Scans compress more than digital exports

   PDFs born from a scanner are full of redundant image data and compress dramatically — often 70–85%. PDFs exported from Word, Figma, or design tools are already optimized; expect 20–40% savings.

2. 02

   If text gets fuzzy, drop intensity

   At intensity below 30, image-based text (scans) may lose readability. The fix is to back off intensity to 45–55 — the file is still much smaller than the original, with text still readable.

3. 03

   Already-compressed PDFs barely shrink

   If a PDF was already compressed (saved with "reduce file size" in Acrobat, or downloaded from a server that re-compresses), there's almost nothing left to optimize. Don't expect more than 5–10% savings.

4. 04

   Compress before merging, not after

   If you're merging 10 PDFs, compress each first then merge — that way browser memory only holds smaller files in RAM. Otherwise huge merges can crash mid-process.

5. 05

   For photo-heavy PDFs, convert to JPG first

   If a PDF is really just photos in a wrapper, exporting the photos as separate JPGs and rebuilding the PDF often beats any compressor. Use our JPG-to-PDF tool after exporting.