Reduce PDF File Size for Free
Reduce PDF file size to get under email and portal limits. Type the size you need, check the estimate and save a lighter PDF with selectable text.
- Free to use, no login
- Runs locally in your browser
- Clean output, no stamp
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Make a PDF smaller in three steps
Drop in the PDF you need to slim down, or a whole batch of them.
Choose a preset or type a maximum size in KB or MB and read the predicted result.
Start the job and save the lighter file, or grab every file together in one ZIP.
Get the size down, keep the document usable
Built for size limits
Job portals, school platforms and mail servers often reject big attachments. Enter the limit itself, for example 500 KB, and the tool works toward it, measuring the actual output each time.
Words remain real text
The savings come from the photos and scans in the file. Headings, paragraphs and line art are not touched, so you can still copy, search and zoom into the wording.
A forecast before you commit
Each preset card shows how big the result should be and the percentage saved. Those numbers come from trial runs on real pictures from your document, not from a generic guess.
A pile of PDFs in one go
Load a stack of reports or invoices together. They are processed one after another, and you save each one separately or take them all in a single ZIP, without any program to install or account to create.
Reduce PDF file size for everyday tasks
A PDF gets heavy when it carries photos, scans or screenshots at a resolution far above what a screen or office printer needs. This toolbox re-encodes those pictures as JPEG at a lower resolution, merges repeated fonts and images, clears out leftover objects and saves the result in a compact structure. The typed words stay as text the whole time.
Who uses it, and for what
- Students uploading a lab report full of phone photos to a course portal that caps files at a few megabytes.
- Job seekers and HR teams sending a CV with a portfolio, or onboarding packs, through application forms with strict attachment rules.
- Real estate agents mailing a listing brochure packed with property photos to several buyers at once.
- Freelancers and offices archiving a month of scanned receipts and invoices so the shared drive does not fill up.
- Teachers posting illustrated worksheets that pupils open on older phones and slow connections.
Practical tips
Start with Recommended and look at the predicted size on the card. If the portal limit is lower, switch to Target size and type that exact number. For one file you can open the page 1 comparison and zoom in on a photo to judge the quality before saving. Keep Light for anything that will be printed in colour.
What it cannot shrink
Pictures stored as CMYK, indexed colour, JPEG 2000 or JBIG2 are passed through unchanged, as are tiny icons. A file built mainly from such images, or from plain text, will see a smaller drop. Protected PDFs can still be processed (after you enter the password, if one is needed to open them), but their pages become images and the text is no longer selectable.
Other PDF fixes in the toolbox
Questions people ask about this task
How can I make a PDF small enough to email?
Load it and keep the Recommended preset, which lowers photo resolution to roughly 130 DPI. Image-heavy files often shrink a lot this way while pages still read clearly; if your mail service has a strict cap, use Target size instead.
What is the smallest size I can get?
Pick Extreme for about 72 DPI pictures, and switch on grayscale under More options if colour is not important. If you set a target that still is not reached, a single file can be turned into page images with the Maximum method.
Do I need to install software to shrink a PDF?
No. The work happens inside your web browser on Windows, Mac, Linux, Android or iPhone. Nothing is sent to a server, so it also works for confidential paperwork.
Will my links and fonts still work afterwards?
In the standard method, yes. Fonts, hyperlinks and vector drawings are copied over untouched; only embedded pictures are re-encoded as JPEG.
My file stayed the same size. What happened?
A document made mostly of typed text, or one whose pictures were already optimised, has very little to remove. Rather than hand back a bigger file, the tool returns your original and explains why.
Does it remove hidden data from the PDF?
By default it drops the title and author fields, XMP metadata, page thumbnails and private data saved by editing apps. You can keep the metadata by turning that switch off.