Drop your PDF here
Single PDF file · See size reduction before downloading
Choose PDF File
⚠️ Browser compression note: Browser-based PDF compression works by removing redundant metadata, optimising internal structure, and removing unused objects. For PDFs containing mostly text, savings are typically 5–30%. For image-heavy PDFs, use a lower quality setting for larger reductions. Server-based tools can compress further, but require uploading your file.
Loading PDF...
PDF Compressed!
Original
→
Compressed
How PDF compression works in the browser
Browser-based PDF compression uses JavaScript (pdf-lib) to load your PDF, analyse its internal structure, remove redundant objects and metadata, and re-save a cleaner version. This achieves 5–40% size reduction depending on the PDF content.
What gets compressed
- Metadata and hidden objects: PDFs often contain unused font definitions, embedded ICC colour profiles, and document history data that can be removed
- Internal structure: Cross-reference tables and object streams are optimised for smaller output
- Redundant content streams: Duplicate or unused content is identified and removed
What cannot be compressed in the browser
Images embedded in PDFs cannot be easily re-compressed without a server. If your PDF contains many high-resolution photos (e.g. a scanned document), browser compression provides limited reduction. For such PDFs, try our Image to PDF tool with a lower quality setting to create a smaller PDF from scratch, or use a server-based compression service for very large files.
When you need smaller PDFs in India
- Most government portals have 1MB or 2MB upload limits for documents
- Gmail has a 25MB attachment limit; most corporate email has 10MB
- WhatsApp on slow connections works better with smaller PDFs
- NSDL, UIDAI, and ITR filing portals require specific size limits
- College admission portals typically require documents under 500KB
Frequently asked questions
How much can browser compression reduce my PDF size?
For text-based PDFs (like salary certificates, bank statements, or insurance documents), you can typically expect 10–35% reduction. For image-heavy PDFs (scanned documents, photo PDFs), the reduction may be smaller (5–15%) in the browser without re-encoding images.
Will compression affect the readability of my PDF?
At Low and Medium compression levels, text and image quality is preserved. At High compression, some image quality reduction may occur. For official document submission, use Low or Medium compression.
My PDF is still too large after compression. What should I do?
If the PDF contains scanned images, try printing it to a virtual PDF printer (Windows: Microsoft Print to PDF; Mac: Print → Save as PDF) at lower resolution first. Then compress the result. Alternatively, use our Image to PDF tool to recreate the PDF with optimised image quality settings.
Does this work for password-protected PDFs?
No. Remove password protection before compressing. You can do this in Adobe Acrobat, Preview (Mac), or various online tools. We plan to add password removal as a future feature.
Is there a limit on the PDF size I can compress?
The limit is your device's available memory. Most devices handle PDFs up to 50–100MB. For very large PDFs, use a laptop or desktop rather than a mobile phone.