Shrink a PDF before sharing
Upload a PDF and download a rewritten copy with conservative compression settings.
Input
large-document.pdf
Output
compressed.pdf
PDF Tools
Compress PDF
Compress a PDF with temporary server processing and download a smaller PDF when possible.
Waiting
Temporary server processing
Input
Compress PDF. Sign in to use paid server processing. Compress PDF accepts PDF files up to 50 MB; files expire 1 hour after processing starts. Built for one-off jobs; larger batches need future account caps.
PDF onlyUp to 50 MBUp to 200 pagesStandard processingExpires after 1 hour
Drop a PDF hereTemporary upload required. Your file is checked before processing starts.
Guide
How to use Compress PDF
Step-by-step
- Choose a pdf file for temporary processing.
- Start the compression job and wait for the status to change from queued or running to completed.
- Download the pdf result and review it before sharing or archiving.
- Use the related tools on this page for cleanup, validation, conversion, or the next step in the workflow.
Questions
Is Compress PDF free to use?
Yes. The public tool is free to use with conservative temporary processing limits.
Are my files uploaded?
Yes. This tool uses temporary server processing, and job files are designed to expire automatically.
What should I check before using the pdf result?
Compression may change file structure and can affect visual fidelity for some PDFs. Review the final output before using it in production work.
What can I do after this?
Good next steps include PDF File Size Inspector, PDF to JPG, and PDF to Text.
Workflow fit
Use Compress PDF in the right place
If you are unsure, start from the PDF chooser and pick by task: inspect, organize, compress, convert, print, compare, or flatten.
Best for
- PDF workflows where page order, hidden document signals, output size, or final sharing quality matters.
- Preparing a review, upload, print, or archive copy without turning the page into a generic article detour.
- A focused compress task where the expected output is pdf.
Before you start
- This tool uses temporary server processing, so avoid uploading files you are not allowed to process in an external service.
- Keep an original PDF copy outside the workbench before creating edited, flattened, compressed, or converted outputs.
- If the document has passwords, unusual permissions, forms, annotations, or scripts, inspect those signals before finalizing a sharing copy.
- Finish page-order changes before adding page numbers, watermarks, compression, or other final-copy operations.
- Check whether size reduction is more important than preserving every visual or structural detail.
Quality checks
- Inspect the compressed result because smaller files can trade off detail, metadata, or structure.
- Open the output PDF in a reader after processing; PDF structure can change even when the visible pages look similar.
- Check page count, page order, orientation, metadata, and file size against the actual destination requirement.
- Use checksums when the exact final copy needs to be referenced later.
- Download and open the file output before leaving the page or deleting the source copy.
Common mistakes
- Compressing a PDF before deleting, extracting, or reordering pages creates extra throwaway versions.
- Assuming visible page content is the whole document misses metadata, links, attachments, actions, annotations, and permissions.
- Using text extraction on scanned pages will not create OCR text. Treat no-text results as a scan signal.
- Uploading sensitive files without checking retention, limits, and whether local tools could solve the task first.
- Compressing multiple times instead of returning to the best available source and making one final output.
Continue the workflow
Use these when the current result is only one step in a longer task.
Verify or clean up
Use these when the output needs checking, cleanup, comparison, compression, or a final share-ready pass.
Execution depth
Finish the job with fewer retries
Use these checks when the result will be emailed, uploaded, published, imported, or used as a final handoff copy.
Good uses
- Shrink a scan-heavy packet before email.
- Create a smaller upload copy after page cleanup.
Bad inputs
- Already optimized PDFs.
- Files where visual fidelity matters more than size.
- Documents that still contain pages you plan to remove.
Output checklist
- Compare the before and after file size.
- Open image-heavy pages at normal zoom.
- Check page count, forms, links, and metadata after compression.
Failure modes
- Compression may not shrink vector-heavy or already optimized PDFs.
- Visual fidelity can change.
- Encrypted or malformed PDFs fail safely.
Runtime limits
- Temporary server job.
- Best after page deletion/reordering is finished.
- Not a privacy cleanup by itself.