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Compress PDF - Shrink Your File Size in the Browser

Shrink a PDF's file size in your browser, either losslessly or by rasterising pages.

Add a PDF

Compress

Add a PDF to see every page as a thumbnail, or several to compress them in one batch. Compression happens in this tab — nothing is uploaded.

About Compress PDF

This tool compresses a PDF entirely on your own device, in one of two modes. Keep Text loads the PDF with pdf-lib, strips its title, author, subject, keywords, producer and creator metadata, and re-saves it with object streams enabled - the text stays selectable and searchable throughout, so the saving is usually modest. Rasterise renders each page to a JPEG at a DPI and quality you pick, then rebuilds the PDF from those images at the original page size and with rotation baked in - this can shrink a scanned or image-heavy file dramatically, but the resulting text is no longer selectable, searchable or accessible to a screen reader. If the compressed file would come out larger than what you started with, the tool hands back your original file unchanged and says so.

Features

100% Private

All processing happens in your browser. Your files are never uploaded to any server.

Instant

Pages are processed one by one with live progress, and you can stop a long job at any point.

Two Modes

Keep the text selectable for a light shrink, or rasterise pages for a much bigger drop in size.

100% Free

No signup, no watermarks, no limits. Completely free to use forever.

How to use Compress PDF

  1. 1

    Add your PDF

    Drop the PDF into the upload area, click to browse, or paste it with Ctrl+V. Every page appears as a thumbnail.

  2. 2

    Pick a mode

    Choose Keep Text for a lossless shrink with selectable text, or Rasterise for a much bigger reduction that turns pages into images.

  3. 3

    Set the quality

    In Rasterise mode, pick Light, Balanced or Strong, or open the advanced panel to set your own DPI and JPEG quality.

  4. 4

    Run it

    Click Compress PDF. Progress is shown page by page and can be cancelled at any point.

  5. 5

    Download the result

    Check the before and after size and percent saved, rename the output if you like, then save it or hand it straight to another PDF tool.

Use cases

  • Getting a large report under an email attachment size limit
  • Shrinking a scanned document before archiving it
  • Reducing a PDF's size before uploading it to a portal with a cap
  • Trading selectable text for the smallest possible file on a pure image scan

Privacy

Compression happens in your browser using JavaScript. Your PDF is never uploaded to a server, nothing is logged, and closing the tab discards it. Rasterise mode permanently converts text to images inside the output file - only choose it when you no longer need that text to be selectable or searchable.

Frequently asked questions

Yes, this Compress PDF tool is 100% free with no hidden charges, no signup required, and no usage limits.
Absolutely. Compression happens directly in your browser using JavaScript. Your file is never uploaded to any server, so nothing leaves your device.
In Keep Text mode, the tool only strips metadata and re-saves with more efficient object streams - it never touches the actual page content, so a PDF that is already mostly text or was already well optimised may shrink by only a few percent, sometimes close to zero. That is expected, not a failure. If the file didn't shrink at all, the tool hands back your original unchanged rather than a slightly bigger file. For a bigger reduction, especially on a scanned or image-heavy PDF, switch to Rasterise mode.
It converts every page into a JPEG image and rebuilds the PDF from those images. The result looks identical, but the text is no longer real text - it can't be selected, searched, copied, or read aloud by a screen reader. Only use Rasterise on a file where you don't need the text to stay live, such as a scan you are archiving as an image.
Use Keep Text when the PDF has real text you might need to select, search, or copy - it is lossless but the size drop is modest. Use Rasterise when you need the smallest possible file and the PDF is mostly scanned pages or images, or when you don't need the text to stay selectable.
No. Both modes preserve each page's original physical size, and a rotated page is baked in the right way round rather than coming out sideways.
They set the resolution and JPEG quality used in Rasterise mode. Light renders at 150 DPI and 80% quality for the smallest visible loss, Balanced at 120 DPI and 65% quality, and Strong at 96 DPI and 50% quality for the biggest size drop. An advanced panel lets you set your own DPI and quality directly. Target size mode instead tries up to eight DPI and quality combinations to get under 100 KB, 200 KB, 500 KB, 1 MB or a size you type in, and tells you if it can't. You can also drop up to 20 PDFs at once and download them together as one zip.
No. A password protected PDF has to be unlocked first. The tool says so plainly when you drop one in, rather than failing silently.

Related tools

Add Watermark

Free online tool to add a text watermark to a PDF. Choose one of nine positions, a straight or diagonal angle, the font size, opacity and colour, then watermark every page or only the pages you pick. No signup required, 100% private.

Split PDF

Free online tool to split PDF files. Extract the pages you want into a single document, or break a PDF into several files by range or every N pages and download the lot as a zip. No signup required, 100% private.

Organize PDF

Free online tool to organize PDF pages. Every page is shown as a thumbnail you can drag into a new order, rotate, or delete, and the rebuilt PDF downloads straight from your browser. No signup required, 100% private.

Developed by MadMVP

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