Compress PDF
Make a PDF smaller while keeping its text selectable. Choose extreme, recommended or light compression. Files are deleted from our server automatically.
Related tools
All PDF tools →This tool needs our server to process your file. It is sent over an encrypted connection, stored only while it is being processed, and deleted automatically within 60 minutes. We never read the contents or keep a copy.
About the Compress PDF
Reduce the size of a PDF so it fits an email limit or an upload form, without turning it into a stack of blurry pictures. Choose how hard to compress, and get back a document whose text is still text — selectable, searchable, and readable by a screen reader.
That distinction is the reason this tool runs on our server rather than in your browser. The browser-side approach to shrinking a PDF is to photograph every page and rebuild the file from those images. It does make the file smaller, by destroying it: text stops being selectable, search finds nothing, assistive technology has nothing to read, and a 20 KB page of crisp vector text becomes a 300 KB photograph of one. What happens here instead is that embedded images are downsampled and fonts are subset to the characters actually used, while the text layer is left exactly as it was.
Three levels cover the realistic cases. Extreme targets 72 DPI images and produces the smallest file, which is right for a text-heavy document going to someone who will read it on screen. Recommended targets 150 DPI and is the setting to use unless you have a reason not to — it typically removes 40 to 70 percent with no difference you would notice. Less compression targets 300 DPI and keeps print quality intact.
Because this one needs a server, it is handled differently from our browser-based tools. Your file travels over an encrypted connection, exists on disk only while it is being processed, and is deleted automatically within the hour along with the result — whether or not you download it. Nobody reads it and no copy is kept. If that is not acceptable for a particular document, the honest answer is to use a desktop application instead.
How to use the Compress PDF
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Add your PDFs
Drop the files onto the box or click to choose them. You can compress up to 20 at once, each up to 500 MB.
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Choose a level
Recommended suits almost everything. Choose Extreme for the smallest possible file when it will only be read on screen, or Less compression when it will be printed.
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Compress
Press Compress PDF. The progress bar shows the upload, then the server does the work — a large scanned document can take a minute or two.
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Download
Each result shows its before and after size. Download it within the hour, after which it is deleted from our server automatically.
Frequently asked questions
Why does this tool upload my file when your others do not?
Because doing it properly needs Ghostscript, which is a program no browser ships. The only way to compress a PDF inside a browser is to render each page to an image and rebuild the document from those pictures, which destroys the text layer entirely. We would rather send the file to a server and keep your document intact than keep it local and hand back something worse.
What happens to my file after I upload it?
It is sent over an encrypted connection, written to a temporary directory outside the web root under a random name, processed, and deleted automatically within the hour along with the result — whether or not you download it. Nobody reads it, nothing is indexed, and no copy is kept. We do not store your IP address or the original filename either.
How much smaller will my PDF get?
It depends entirely on what is inside it. A scanned document full of photographs often loses 70 to 90 percent at Extreme, because the images are far higher resolution than anything needs. A file that is mostly text may barely change, because there was never much to remove. If the result comes out larger than the original, the tool keeps your original and tells you so.
Will the text still be selectable and searchable?
Yes. Text stays as text at every compression level — that is the whole reason this runs on a server. Fonts are subset to the characters actually used, which is invisible in normal use, and images are downsampled. Nothing is converted into a picture of a page.
What does the greyscale option do?
It converts every colour in the document to shades of grey, which usually removes a further 20 to 40 percent on top of the compression level you chose. Use it for a document that will only ever be printed in black and white, and leave it off for anything where colour carries meaning, such as a chart or a highlighted contract.
Can I compress a password-protected PDF?
No. An encrypted document cannot be read without its password, and we deliberately do not ask you to send us one for this. Remove the password first with our Unlock PDF tool, compress the result, and protect it again afterwards if you need to.