PDF Tools

Compress PDF Online

Reduce a PDF's file size with three compression levels, entirely inside your browser.

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PDF CompressorLive
Drop a PDF file or click to uploadPDF files only
Overview

How does this PDF compressor work?

Every page is re-rendered as a JPEG image at a reduced resolution and quality, then rebuilt into a new PDF, entirely in the browser. This is the same approach most browser-based PDF compressors use, and it's the only way to meaningfully shrink a PDF without a server — the trade-off is that text in the compressed file is no longer selectable or searchable, since every page becomes a picture of itself rather than real text.

Guide

How to use it

1Upload a PDF file
2Choose a compression level
3Click Compress and check the before/after size
4Preview the result, then download it
Why it helps

Features & benefits

Three compression levels to balance size and quality
See the exact size reduction before downloading
Preview the compressed PDF right in the tool
Keeps the original page dimensions
100% private — nothing leaves the device

Why this runs entirely in your browser

PDF files often contain sensitive or confidential documents, so nothing is uploaded to a server. Rendering, compressing, and rebuilding the PDF all happen locally using your browser's own processing power, directly in the tab.

Common uses

Shrinking a scanned document below an email attachment limit, reducing a photo-heavy PDF before uploading it to a form, or making a large report smaller to share more quickly.

Frequently asked questions

A few things people usually want to know before trusting the numbers.

No. Every page is redrawn as a JPEG image to shrink the file size, so the compressed PDF is effectively a set of pictures rather than real text — you won't be able to select, search, or copy text from it afterward.

"Low compression" keeps the most detail and produces the largest file of the three; "High compression" produces the smallest file but with noticeably reduced sharpness, especially on pages with fine text. "Medium" is a reasonable starting point for most documents.

This can happen with PDFs that are already mostly plain text and very small to begin with — converting simple text pages into images sometimes takes up more space than the original compact text data did.

PDFs that require a password just to open can't be compressed, since the tool can't read their contents without that password. PDFs that only have owner or permission restrictions but no open password can usually still be compressed without issue.

No. All compression happens locally in your browser using JavaScript running on your own device. Nothing you upload here is ever sent to a server, stored remotely, or shared with anyone — closing the tab clears everything.