Compress PDF — Reduce PDF File Size Online
Most people compress a PDF because a form refuses to accept it. This tool shows you the estimated output size as you drag the slider, so you can stop right at the limit instead of guessing and re-trying.
📖 New here? Read the step-by-step guide: How to Compress a PDF File Free Online
How to use Compress PDF
- Upload the PDFOpen the tool and drop your file in. The page count and current file size appear immediately.
- Drag the Compress sliderAs you move it below 100%, an estimated output size appears underneath. There are also 25%, 50% and 75% presets if you want a quick starting point.
- Check the number, then downloadWhen the estimate is under the limit you need, create the PDF and download it. If the quality looks too rough, go back and try a higher percentage.
How the compression actually works
At 100% nothing is recompressed — that setting exists to preserve quality, not to shrink files. Vector text has no "lower quality" knob, so a PDF full of text cannot be made smaller without changing what it is.
Below 100%, each page is rendered to an image and re-encoded as JPEG. The tool works out a byte budget for every page — that page's share of the original file size, multiplied by the percentage you chose — and then searches for the JPEG quality setting that lands closest to it. Below 25% it also reduces the render resolution, because past that point quality alone cannot get the file small enough.
The practical consequence: a scanned or image-heavy PDF compresses dramatically, while a text-only PDF may barely shrink at all, and its text will stop being selectable once rasterised. If your PDF is mostly text and already small, compressing it is usually the wrong tool — try removing unneeded pages instead.
Hitting a specific limit
Government and exam portals commonly cap uploads at 200 KB, 500 KB, 1 MB or 2 MB. Because the estimate updates live, the reliable method is to drag until the number sits just under the cap — a little margin is wise, since the estimate is close but not exact.
Questions people ask
How do I reduce a PDF to exactly 200 KB?
Drag the Compress slider down and watch the estimated size below it. Stop when the estimate reads a little under 200 KB, then download. Leave a small margin, because the estimate is an approximation.
Why did my PDF barely get smaller?
Because it is mostly text. Text in a PDF is vector data with no quality setting to lower. Compression only saves significant space on scans, photos and image-heavy pages.
Will the text still be selectable after compressing?
No. Any setting below 100% converts pages to images, so text becomes part of the picture. If you need selectable text, keep 100% and reduce the file another way.
Is the file uploaded anywhere?
No. Compression runs in your browser. The file never leaves your device.
PDF ka size kaise kam kare?
Compress PDF kholo, PDF daalo aur Compress slider kam karo — ya seedha ≤200 KB ya ≤500 KB jaisa target chuno. Nayi size download se pehle hi dikh jati hai.