Compress PDF
Make a PDF smaller in your browser — losslessly by default, so nothing on the page changes.
- Runs in your browser
- Nothing is uploaded
- No account
- No watermark
Drop a PDF to make it smaller
or · paste with ⌘/Ctrl + V
About
What Compress PDF does
Make a PDF smaller without pretending nothing was given up. The safe pass runs the moment the file lands: it rebuilds the embedded fonts with only the tables a PDF reader actually uses, collapses pictures stored twice, and throws away objects nothing points at. Not a mark on the page changes — on a browser-printed document that alone is around a fifth of the file.
Then it tells you where your bytes actually went, because "why is this 40MB" has an answer and almost nothing gives it. Usually the answer is pictures, and if you choose to re-encode them the tool reports what it did and, just as importantly, what it left alone and why.
Everything happens on your own machine: the file is decoded, processed and re-encoded by your browser, and never leaves your device. There is no upload, no queue and no account.
Why this one
Why use Compress PDF here
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Lossless by default
Unused font data and leftovers are trimmed first: the file gets smaller and not one pixel changes.
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Stronger when you choose
Smaller and Smallest re-encode the pictures, and you see the new size before you download.
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Nothing is uploaded
The PDF is compressed by your browser, so confidential files never leave your device.
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Free, with no limits
No daily quota, no sign-up and no watermark on the result.
How it works
How to use Compress PDF
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Drop in the PDF. The lossless pass runs straight away and shows you what it saved.
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Read the breakdown: pictures, embedded fonts, text and vectors, structure. That is where the size is.
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Leave it lossless if the saving is enough, or pick Smaller or Smallest to re-encode the pictures too.
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Adjust picture detail and quality if you want, then download.
Questions
Frequently asked
How do I reduce the size of a PDF?
Drop the PDF here and it is compressed straight away, losslessly. If it needs to be smaller still, choose Smaller or Smallest to shrink the pictures, then download.
Is Compress PDF free, and is my file uploaded?
It is free, with no limits and no sign-up, and nothing is uploaded: compression runs in your browser, which makes it safe for confidential documents.
Will the text still be selectable and searchable?
Yes, always. Text is never turned into a picture here — no setting does that. Some tools quietly rasterise whole pages to hit a small number, which destroys selection, search and accessibility; this one re-encodes pictures and leaves everything else alone.
If nothing on the page changes, what is Lossless actually removing?
Mostly font data a reader never looks at. A PDF supplies its own character widths and its own glyph selection, so an embedded font is only ever asked for outlines — yet producers ship hinting, family names, PostScript glyph names and OpenType layout tables along with them. Rebuilding the font with only what a viewer reads took 22–27% off the text documents we measured, and rendered pixel for pixel identically.
How much smaller will my file get?
It depends entirely on what is in it, which is why the breakdown comes first. A document that is mostly pictures can lose most of its size; one that is already lean may barely move, and the tool will say so rather than inventing a number. On a 40MB slide deck we measured 2.1MB.
Why were some pictures left untouched?
Because making them smaller would have made them worse for nothing. A picture already stored lean, a drawing that is better off lossless, or one where every re-encoding came out larger than the original is kept as it was — and each is listed, with the reason, under what happened.
My PDF came out of Illustrator or InDesign. Is anything lost?
Not unless you ask. Those applications hide a private copy of the artwork inside the PDF so they can re-open it as an editable file. It never shows on the page, and dropping it can be a large saving — so it is offered as a switch with its real size next to it, never taken quietly.
Can it compress a password-protected PDF?
Yes, if you know the password: it is unlocked in your browser to be read. Be aware that the compressed copy comes out unprotected and will open without the password, and the tool tells you so in the result.
Can I compress a PDF to a specific size, like under 1 MB?
Not by typing a target yet. The size is shown for each setting, so step up from Lossless to Smaller or Smallest until the file fits.
Does it work on a Mac, iPhone or Android phone?
Yes. It runs in any modern browser, on Mac, Windows, Linux, iPhone, iPad and Android, with nothing to install.
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