Compress PDF — Shrink Your PDF File Size for Free

What is the Compress PDF tool?

Compressing a PDF means reducing how much disk space the file takes up, so it slips under email attachment limits (often 25 MB), uploads faster to forms and portals, and takes up less storage. Our free compressor does this by re-building your document: it renders every page as an image at the resolution you choose, then assembles those images into a brand-new PDF with JPEG compression applied. The visual layout stays the same — headings, photos, tables and page breaks all appear where they were.

One thing to know up front: this uses image-based re-compression — file size drops a lot, but text in the new PDF is not selectable. The rebuilt file contains pictures of your pages rather than real text, so you cannot highlight, copy, or search the text afterwards. If keeping selectable text is more important than size, do not compress — just use the original file.

How to use it (3 steps)

1. Add your PDF. Drop it onto the zone or click to browse. The tool shows the page count and current file size so you can compare before and after.
2. Pick a compression level. High (150 DPI) for documents you will still read on screen, Medium (110 DPI) for everyday emailing — the default and the best balance, or Low (80 DPI) when you need the absolute smallest file.
3. Click "Compress PDF". Pages are rendered and rebuilt one by one (the progress bar keeps you posted), then compressed.pdf downloads automatically with the before/after sizes shown.

When you'll need it (use cases)

• Email attachments: your 40 MB scanned contract bounces back — compress it to a few MB and it sends first try.
• Job and university portals: application forms often cap uploads at 5–10 MB — compress your CV or portfolio to fit.
• WhatsApp and messaging: large PDFs send slowly and eat mobile data — a compressed copy shares in seconds.
• Phone storage: keep a lightweight copy of manuals, tickets, and receipts on your phone instead of the full-size originals.
• Sharing reports: a 100-slide deck PDF becomes small enough to post in a group chat without timing out.

Tips for the best results

• Keep your original file. Compression rebuilds the PDF from images, so this is a one-way change — you cannot get the selectable text back from the compressed copy.
• Use High for anything you will read on screen; Medium for sending; Low only when size matters more than fine detail like small print.
• Documents that are mostly photos shrink the most. A PDF that is already mostly text may shrink less, since there is less image data to cut.
• Works best with files under 50 MB — bigger files are fine but rendering each page takes longer, especially on phones.
• If you need selectable text after shrinking, compress a copy and keep the original for your own records — send the small one, archive the big one.