SMALLER FILES, NOTHING UPLOADED
Shrink a PDF down to size.
Drop in a PDF, pick how much to compress it, and download a smaller file in seconds. The whole thing runs on your own device, so the file never leaves your computer.
Drop a PDF here, or browse
One PDF at a time. Nothing is uploaded anywhere
A middle ground between file size and sharpness. Good for most documents.
Download your smaller PDF
How this free PDF compressor works
Every page of your PDF is redrawn in the browser at a lower resolution and saved as a compressed image, then all the pages are put back together into a new PDF. That process is what makes the file smaller. It works especially well on PDFs made of scans, photographed pages, or screenshots, since those are already images and just get recompressed more efficiently.
It is not a good fit for a PDF where you need to keep the text itself selectable and searchable, because the text becomes part of an image along the way. For that case, exporting a lighter PDF from the original program that made it, or simply keeping the original, is the better option.
Nothing about your file leaves your device at any point. The PDF is read, redrawn, and rebuilt entirely inside your browser, the same as every other tool on this site.
Choosing a compression level
High compression gives the smallest file and is best for long documents you mostly need to store or send quickly, where a bit of softness in scanned pages is fine. Balanced is a good default for most everyday PDFs. Best quality keeps pages sharper and the file larger, which suits documents with fine print or detailed images.
Is this PDF compressor free?
Yes. Compressing a PDF here is completely free, with no account, no watermark, and no limit on how many files you compress.
How does this tool actually shrink a PDF?
Each page is redrawn at a lower resolution and saved as a compressed image, then the pages are rebuilt into a new PDF. It is a real reduction in file size, not just a renamed copy.
Will the text still be selectable afterward?
No. Because every page becomes an image, any text on it is no longer selectable or searchable in the compressed file, even though it still looks like normal text on the page.
Which compression level should I choose?
Balanced works well for most files. Choose high compression when file size matters more than sharpness, and best quality when the PDF has fine print or detailed images worth preserving.
Why did my file get bigger instead of smaller?
This can happen if the original PDF was already small or mostly plain text, since turning a simple text page into an image sometimes takes more space than the text did. If that happens, the tool offers the original file to download instead.
Is there a page limit?
No hard limit, though very long PDFs take longer to process and use more of your device's memory while compressing.
Are my files uploaded anywhere?
No. The PDF is read and rebuilt entirely inside your browser on your own device, so it is never uploaded anywhere.
Can I compress a password protected PDF?
Not directly. The PDF reader this tool uses cannot open a file that is locked with a password, so remove the protection first and then compress it.