Compress PDF
Work with your PDF directly in the browser—fast, private, and without uploading the document.
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Privacy & limitations
Your files stay on this device
A target size is best-effort guidance, never a guaranteed exact byte count — the tool reports the real output size and warns you when it could not reach the target. Compression mainly comes from downsampling and re-encoding embedded images and from a cleaner document container. PDFs that are already optimized or mostly vector/text (few or no rasters, already-subset fonts) may shrink little or not at all.
How to use this tool
- Add your PDF with the file picker or drag-and-drop — this app never uploads it, everything stays on your device.
- Pick a preset: High quality keeps the most visual detail, Balanced suits most documents, and Strong produces the smallest file with the most visible compression.
- Optional: enter a best-effort target size (e.g. 5 MB). this app steps down automatically toward the target and always shows the size it actually achieved.
- Review the input/output size comparison and a preview of representative pages, then download the compressed file.
Frequently asked questions
How do I compress a PDF to under 1MB?
Enter 1 MB as your target size and pick the Strong preset. The tool steps down image quality and re-encodes embedded images automatically, then reports the exact size it achieved — if a PDF is already mostly text with few images, it may not be able to reach 1MB.
Does compressing a PDF reduce quality?
Compression mainly comes from downsampling and re-encoding embedded images, so visible text usually stays sharp. Use the High quality preset if your PDF contains photos you don't want visibly softened.
Is it safe to compress a PDF online?
This tool compresses your PDF locally in your browser using Web Workers — the file is never uploaded to a server, so it's as safe as any other action you take on your own device.