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Add your PDF
Drop the document onto the box above, click to browse, or paste it from your clipboard. It is weighed and read locally — nothing is uploaded.
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Pick the compression level
Light tidies the file losslessly — same content, modern container. Balanced re-encodes pages with settings you will struggle to see. Strong squeezes hardest, and turns text into images to do it.
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Click “Compress PDF”
Compression runs on your device, page by page, with live progress. Depending on the file, this is where megabytes quietly leave.
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Check the honest result
The result card shows the new size and the time it took. If compression could not beat your original, you get the original back untouched — and a message saying so. No fake wins.
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Download the smaller file
One click saves the compressed PDF. Send it where the size limit used to hurt — email attachment sizes, upload forms, chat apps.
Compress a PDF
Shrink your PDF locally — pick the level, keep the promise that the output never grows — right in your browser.
Drop a PDF here
Add the PDF file to shrink.
Select a PDFYou can also paste files with Ctrl+V
How to Compress a PDF
Why choose our compress pdf tool?
The never-larger guarantee
Some compressors hand back a file that grew. This one mathematically cannot: when the compressed result would be bigger than the original, you receive the original bytes back with a clear note instead.
Three levels, one honest trade-off
Light keeps everything — text stays text, quality stays identical. Balanced re-encodes images where the eye barely notices. Strong trades selectability for size: pages become images, disclosed upfront.
Private by construction
Compression happens in your browser on a background worker. Financial reports, legal filings, medical letters — they are never uploaded, stored, or seen by any server.
Real progress, cancellable
Large documents compress page by page with a live counter, and the Cancel button works mid-run — no zombie processing after you change your mind.
Free, unlimited, no watermark
No account, no daily quota, no branding stamped on your pages. Compress one file or fifty; the price stays zero.
Tips for compress pdf
- Scanned documents shrink the most — they are images already, and re-encoding is where the wins are.
- Text-heavy PDFs made by modern tools are usually already tight: expect Light to change little, and reach for Strong only if you accept images-instead-of-text.
- Deleted pages first, compressed second: removing dead weight before compressing compounds the savings.
- Email providers cap attachments around 20–25 MB; if you are just over, Balanced is usually enough.
- If the tool says your file is already optimized — believe it. Forcing more would only reduce quality for no gain.
compress pdf — Frequently asked questions
How do I compress a PDF?
Add the file, choose Light, Balanced or Strong, and click Compress. The smaller file downloads from your browser; your original stays untouched.
Which compression level should I choose?
Start with Balanced — most files shrink visibly with no obvious loss. Choose Light when the content must stay byte-identical in kind (text remains text), and Strong only when size matters more than text selection.
Can a compressed PDF be larger than the original?
No — this tool guarantees it. If compression cannot produce a smaller file, you receive your original bytes back with a note that the document was already optimized.
Will text stay selectable?
With Light and Balanced, yes. Strong converts pages to images to squeeze the hardest, so text stops being selectable — that is exactly what its label says.
How much smaller will my file get?
It depends entirely on the content. Scanned documents often shrink 50–90%, image-heavy marketing PDFs 30–70%, text PDFs from modern tools often nothing at all — the tool tells you honestly when there is nothing to win.
Are my documents uploaded anywhere?
Never. All processing runs locally in your browser via a Web Worker. You can compress files with the network disconnected.