PDF Compressor
Best on scanned documents and image-heavy PDFs. It works by re-rendering each page as an image, so read the trade-off below before using it on a text document.
Drop a PDF here or click to choose
Nothing is uploaded
Read this before compressing a text PDF
This works by rendering each page to an image and rebuilding the PDF from those images — which makes scans much smaller and text documents worse. A scanned document is already pictures, so re-encoding them at lower quality genuinely shrinks the file, often by 60–90%. A text-based PDF stores letters as compact instructions, and turning those into pixels usually makes the file bigger while destroying the searchable, selectable text. If your PDF is text you generated from a document, do not compress it here.
When this helps and when it hurts
| Your PDF | Result |
|---|---|
| Scanned document or photographed pages | Big saving — often 60–90% |
| Presentation with large photos | Good saving |
| Brochure or magazine export | Good saving |
| Text document exported from Word or LaTeX | Usually larger, and text stops being selectable |
| Form you need to keep fillable | Do not — the fields are lost |
| Anything needing to stay searchable | Do not — the text layer is discarded |
The tool reports honestly when the compressed version is not smaller, rather than handing you a worse file and calling it a saving.
Other ways to get under an email limit
- Re-export at lower quality. Most programs offer a "smallest file size" or "web" PDF export, which compresses images while keeping text as text. Always try this first.
- Split the document. Two emails of 15 MB beat one of 30 MB. The PDF splitter does this without re-rendering anything.
- Compress the images first. If you are building the PDF from photos, run them through the image compressor and then use image to PDF.
- Scan at a lower dpi. Documents scanned at 600 dpi are four times the size of 300 dpi with no readable benefit for plain text.
- Use a link instead. Cloud storage sidesteps attachment limits entirely, and most workplaces prefer it.
How to use the PDF Compressor
- Drop in your PDF.
- Pick a level — balanced suits most scans.
- Press compress. Progress is shown page by page.
- Check the size shown before downloading; if there is no saving, the tool says so.
Frequently asked questions
Is my PDF uploaded?
No. The rendering library is fetched from a CDN; your document is read, rendered and rebuilt entirely on your device.
Why did my file get bigger?
Because it was a text PDF. Text is stored very compactly as drawing instructions, and converting it to images is almost always larger. The tool tells you when this happens rather than pretending otherwise.
Will the text still be selectable?
No. Pages become images, so text cannot be selected, searched or copied. That is the fundamental trade-off of this approach.
What email attachment limit should I aim for?
Gmail and Outlook both cap around 20–25 MB, and many corporate systems are stricter at 10 MB. Aim under 10 MB to be safe.
Can it compress a password-protected PDF?
No. Remove the password first in the program that created it or in Acrobat.
Does it keep bookmarks and links?
No. Rebuilding from images discards bookmarks, links, form fields and any text layer.
Related tools
Last reviewed September 4, 2026. Results are estimates for general information only.