Compress PDF

Make your PDF smaller without losing the bits you care about.

About Compress PDF

There are two reasons people end up here: an email bounced because the attachment was too big, or a portfolio is taking forever to load. Either way, the answer is the same — most of the file size is images, and most of those images can shrink a lot without anyone noticing.

Compress PDF re-encodes the embedded photos and scans at a quality you choose, strips redundant compression streams, and leaves text + vector graphics alone. So body text stays sharp and selectable; only the images get lighter.

If you don't want to think about it, pick **Smart** — we look at the document size and pick a quality that usually gives the best size-vs-look trade. If you have a strong opinion, Custom drops you to a 1–100 slider.

How it works

1
Drag the PDF in, or click "Select files".
2
Pick Smart for one-click compression, or Custom to drive the slider yourself.
3
Hit Compress PDF and download. The response headers report the original vs. compressed bytes so you can sanity-check the saving.

When to use it

Shrink a scanned contract bundle so it fits under the 25 MB Gmail limit.
Bring a 40-page portfolio under the 5 MB cap most job-application portals enforce.
Speed up a downloadable PDF on your marketing site — most visitors bail at 10+ MB.
Trim monthly statement archives before sending to accounting.
Make textbooks readable on phones without burning through data.

Privacy

Files are processed by the Evixpdf engine in-house with the AGPL-free MIT stack — no third-party cloud upload. Sessions auto-purge after processing.

Frequently asked questions

Short answers to the questions people most often ask about Compress PDF. Read the one that matches your situation — they're written to be skimmed.

1Will my text still look sharp after compressing?

Yes. Text and vector graphics are copied through untouched — only the embedded photos and scans get re-encoded. Even at Smallest (quality 15) the body text is just as crisp as the original; it's only the images that get softer.

2What does "Smart" actually do?

Smart looks at your file size and picks a sensible quality automatically: files under 2 MB stay near-lossless (quality 80), 2–5 MB lands at quality 70, 5–10 MB at 60, and anything heavier drops to quality 45 because that's where the real savings are. It's the choice we'd make for you 90% of the time.

3How much smaller will my file get?

Depends on what's inside. Image-heavy PDFs (scans, brochures, photo portfolios) usually shrink 40–70%. A typical scanned contract drops from 8 MB to 2–3 MB at the Balanced preset. PDFs that are mostly text — research papers, ebooks, code documentation — are already efficient and might only shed 5–10%; that's normal, not a bug.

4Is anything lost permanently?

Image quality drops in proportion to how aggressive you go — at Small (35) and Smallest (15) you may see softer edges and JPEG-style noise on enlarged images. Print at original size and most people won't spot the difference. If you need an archival-grade copy, keep the original and only share the compressed one.

5Can I compress a password-protected PDF?

Not directly — encrypted PDFs hide their content from any processor that doesn't have the password. Use the Unlock PDF tool first if you have the password, compress the unlocked file, and then re-encrypt with Add Password if you still need it locked.

Still stuck?

Browse our hand-written guides or ask us directly — we usually reply within a business day.

Read guides Contact support

Flatten PDF

Lock form fields and annotations into the page bitmap.

Crop PDF

Trim margins from every page with per-edge control.

PDF to Images

Convert each PDF page into a high-resolution PNG or JPG.

Ready when you are

Try Compress PDF now

No signup, no email required. Drag your file in and you're done in seconds.