Reduce file size while optimizing for maximal PDF quality.
or drop PDF here
PDF compression reduces the file size of a PDF document, most often by re-encoding the images it contains at a lower resolution or quality level. Large PDFs are usually large because of high-resolution scans or images embedded in them, not the text itself, so compression targets that image data to shrink the overall file.
The trade-off is a balance between file size and visual quality: more aggressive compression produces a smaller file but with more visible loss of image detail, while lighter compression keeps quality closer to the original at the cost of a larger file.
This is a browser-based PDF compressor. Upload a PDF, choose a compression level, and the tool re-renders every page as an optimized JPEG image at a resolution and quality tuned to that level, then reassembles those images into a new, smaller PDF.
Three compression levels are available — Extreme (smallest file, more visible quality loss), Recommended (a balanced middle ground for everyday sharing), and Less compression (largest file, closest to original quality) — so you can choose the right trade-off for your use case. All processing happens locally using pdf.js and pdf-lib, and you'll see exactly how many bytes were saved once compression finishes.
Click "Select PDF file" or drag and drop the document you want to shrink.
Choose "Extreme compression" for the smallest possible file, "Recommended compression" for a balanced result, or "Less compression" to preserve more image quality.
Click "Compress PDF." The tool renders each page as an optimized image and rebuilds the document at the chosen quality level.
Once processing completes, check how much smaller the file is compared to the original.
Download the compressed PDF, ready to share or upload wherever file size matters.
Because compression re-renders each page as a JPEG, text in the output PDF is no longer selectable or searchable — this is expected behavior, not a bug, and is the trade-off for smaller file size.
Extreme compression is tuned for image-heavy scans; on text-heavy documents it can make small fonts look blurry. Try "Recommended" or "Less compression" if legibility suffers.
If a PDF is already mostly text with few or no images, compression may save very little, since there's no large image data to re-encode.
Password-protected PDFs may not load correctly for compression. Remove the password first using the Unlock PDF tool.
Very large or high page-count PDFs are rendered page by page in the browser, which can take noticeably longer than typical documents — let it finish rather than reloading the page.
A typical use case reducing a large scan down to a size that fits under a common email attachment limit.
Input
scanned-contract.pdf — 10.69 MB, 23 pages, Recommended compression
Output
scanned-contract-compressed.pdf — roughly 2-4 MB depending on image content, same 23 pages
No. Compression happens entirely in your browser using pdf.js and pdf-lib. Your document is never sent to a server.
"Recommended compression" is a good default for most documents. Use "Extreme compression" when file size matters most and some quality loss is acceptable, or "Less compression" when you want to preserve image quality as closely as possible while still saving some space.
Yes. This tool compresses pages by converting them to optimized images, so text in the resulting PDF is part of the image and can no longer be selected, searched, or copied.
PDFs that are mostly text with few images have little image data to compress, so the size reduction will be modest. Compression has the biggest impact on documents with large photos or high-resolution scans.
Not directly — remove the password first with the Unlock PDF tool, then compress the unlocked file.
No. Every page from the original document is preserved in the compressed output — only the file size changes, not the page count or content.