How to compress a PDF and make it smaller
Attachment limits, upload caps, slow connections — oversized PDFs get in the way constantly. The fix takes seconds, and if you pick the right compression level, nobody will see the difference.
Compress a PDF in three steps
1. Open the free Compress PDF tool below and upload your file.
2. Pick a level: light (lossless cleanup), balanced (recommended), or strong (smallest file).
3. Click Process and download the smaller PDF — you'll see exactly how much it shrank.
Which level should you choose?
Light mode only cleans up the file's internal structure — zero quality change, modest savings. Balanced re-samples images to 150 DPI, which is sharp on screens and fine for standard printing; scanned documents often shrink 50–90%. Strong pushes images to 96 DPI for the absolute smallest file — good for drafts and archives, not for print.
Why is my PDF huge in the first place?
Almost always: images. A text-only PDF is tiny; a phone-scanned contract embeds full-resolution photos of every page. That's why compression helps scans dramatically but barely touches already-lean text documents.
Need to hit a specific size limit?
Try balanced first. If you're still over the limit, run strong. Still over? Split the document and send it in parts, or check whether some pages (like photo appendices) can be removed before compressing.