How to reduce a PDF's file size
Scanned documents and image-heavy brochures are the PDFs that blow past upload limits. Compressing one takes a minute here: add the file, pick a level, and download a smaller copy — while the original stays untouched on your device.
Step by step
Open the compress PDF tool
Start the free tool — nothing to install and no account needed.
Add your PDF
Select the document you want to shrink; it is read on your own device and never uploaded.
Pick a compression level
The balanced level is a good starting point for scans — a 12 MB scanned document typically comes back around 3 MB.
Compress and check the result
Pages are re-rendered and rebuilt as JPEG images; the tool compares sizes and only offers the new file when it is actually smaller.
Download the smaller PDF
Save the compressed copy and keep the original as your high-fidelity master.
Tips that save a second try
This tool shines on scans and photo-heavy documents. A text-based PDF often comes back larger — and the tool tells you so instead of pretending otherwise.
Compression is genuinely lossy: pages become images, so text is no longer selectable or searchable. Keep the original if that matters.
For a text document, splitting out just the pages you need is usually a better way to cut size than compressing.
Common questions
Why did my PDF get bigger instead of smaller?
It was already efficiently stored. A text PDF holds glyphs and vectors, which are far more compact than a picture of the same page — so when the rebuilt document would not be smaller, the tool says so and leaves the original alone.
Will my text still be searchable afterwards?
No. Each page is rebuilt as an image, so text becomes part of the picture. If searchable text matters, keep the original and reduce size another way.