Compress PDF
Good on scans, wrong for text documents — and it will tell you which one you have before you download anything. Everything happens in your browser.
- Nothing uploaded
- No sign-in
- No watermark
Compress a PDF
What this actually does, and when not to use it
There are two ways to make a PDF smaller. The good way rewrites the file's internal structure — recompressing embedded images, dropping duplicate fonts, subsetting glyphs — and keeps everything readable. That needs a proper PDF engine, and the tools that do it well run on a server, which means uploading your document.
The other way, the only one available to a browser, is to draw each page as a picture and staple the pictures into a new PDF. For a scanned document that is already nothing but pictures, this works well and can cut the size by more than half. For a PDF generated from Word, a contract, an invoice, a report — anything whose text is real text — it is actively harmful: the file usually grows, and the text stops being selectable, searchable or copyable.
So: use this on scans. The result shows you the before and after sizes before you download anything, and says plainly when the file got bigger.
What you lose
Selectable text, search, copy and paste, internal links, bookmarks, form fields and any digital signature. A signed document in particular becomes an unsigned picture of a signed document, which is not the same thing and will not be accepted where the signature mattered.
Better options for a text PDF
If your PDF is too large and the text is real, the weight is almost always in embedded images or fonts. Exporting again from the original application with image quality turned down usually beats anything done after the fact. If the file is large because it has pages you do not need, deleting them or pulling out the pages you want will shrink it without damaging anything.
Your files stay on your device
No PDF is uploaded here. The file is opened and rewritten inside your own browser, so there is no server holding a copy and nothing to delete afterwards. For contracts, statements and identity documents — the things people most often need to merge or split — that is the whole point.
Frequently asked questions
Why did my PDF get bigger?
Because it was text, not a scan. Text is stored very compactly; a picture of that text is not. The tool tells you when this has happened so you can keep the original.
Does compressing a PDF lose quality?
Yes. This approach converts pages to JPEG images, which is lossy. The tool drops the resolution only as far as it has to in order to reach the size you asked for, so a generous target keeps more detail than a tight one.
Will the text still be selectable?
No. Every page becomes an image, so text can no longer be selected, searched or copied. If you need that, this is the wrong tool for your file.
How do I get a PDF under a specific size limit?
Start at Balanced and check the result. If it is still too big, try Strong. If Strong is not enough, the document probably has more pages than the limit allows for — split it, or go back to the source and export at a lower image quality.
Is my document uploaded anywhere?
No. Both the rendering and the rebuilding happen in your browser. The file never leaves your device, which is the reason this tool is limited to the rasterising approach in the first place.