Compress PDF For Free

Compress PDF Online — Free PDF Compressor by pdfFiller

pdfFiller's PDF compressor reduces PDF file size right in your browser — no software to install, no Adobe Acrobat license. Choose between three document quality levels, see the estimated output size for each before you save, and keep your text razor-sharp while images are optimized. Files up to 100 MB and 1,500 pages are supported, and the compressed file can be saved as a PDF or converted to Word, Excel, PowerPoint, or an image in the same step. pdfFiller is trusted by 64 million users who process over 250,000 PDFs every day, and rated 4.6★ on G2, 4.5★ on Capterra, and 4.4★ on TrustRadius from 2,500+ verified reviews. It works in any browser on Windows, Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Android.

Why reduce PDF size at all?

Most file-size problems show up at the worst possible moment. Gmail rejects attachments over 25 MB and Outlook caps them at 20 MB, while many government portals, court e-filing systems, university application platforms, and job sites enforce upload limits of 10 MB, 5 MB, or even 2 MB. A scanned 40-page contract, a photo-rich real estate brochure, or a slide deck exported to PDF can blow past those limits easily. When that happens, you have three bad options — delete pages, ask the recipient to use a file-transfer service, or rebuild the document from scratch — and one good one: compress the PDF. Compression makes the PDF smaller in seconds while the document itself stays complete, readable, and professional. Smaller files also upload and download faster, open more quickly on mobile connections, load faster when embedded on a website, and take up less room in your inbox and cloud storage.

What makes a PDF so large — and how compression fixes it

Almost all of a PDF's weight comes from images: scans saved at 300+ DPI, embedded photos, logos, charts exported as graphics, and signature images. Embedded fonts, duplicated objects, and leftover metadata add more on top. That's why a three-page scan can outweigh a 100-page text document — the scan is really a stack of large pictures. A PDF compressor reduces file size in two complementary ways. Lossless optimization strips redundant data — unused objects, duplicate resources, bloated metadata — without touching visual quality at all. Lossy compression resamples images to a lower resolution: invisible on screen at sensible settings, but dramatically smaller on disk. pdfFiller applies both. Text and vector content stay perfectly crisp at every setting, fonts and formatting are never altered, and you control how aggressively images are optimized — which is exactly where the size savings live.

Three quality levels — and the file size shown before you save

Unlike one-button compressors that hand you a single mystery result, pdfFiller lets you choose how to balance quality and size. In the Compress dialog you'll see three Document quality options — High (large file size), Good (medium file size), and Low (small file size) — each with the estimated output size displayed right on the card, down to the kilobyte. Need to make the PDF smaller to squeeze under an upload limit? Pick Low and check the estimate. Preparing a portfolio or print-ready file? Keep High and still shave off the redundant data. Most documents land best on Good — a noticeably condensed PDF with no visible quality difference on screen. Because the estimate appears before you commit, there's no compress-download-check-repeat loop: you know the result up front and save exactly once.

What you get with pdfFiller's PDF compressor

• Three document quality levels — High, Good, or Low, with the estimated output file size shown next to each option before you hit Save.
• Big-file support — compress PDF files up to 100 MB and 1,500 pages; DOC, DOCX, PPT, PPTX, XLS, XLSX, JPEG, and PNG files up to 25 MB are converted to PDF and condensed in the same pass.
• Compress and convert in one step — in the same dialog, choose the output format under 'Save as': keep it as a PDF, or save the compressed result as DOCX, XLSX, PPTX, JPEG, or PNG.
• Sharp text at every level — compression optimizes image data while text and vector content stay crisp; fonts, layout, links, and form fields are never altered.
• Edit before you compress — fix a typo, redact a name, add a signature, or delete unneeded pages in the same editor, then compress the final version once.
• Flexible destinations — under 'Save to', send the smaller file to your device's Downloads folder or directly to connected cloud storage.
• Bank-level security — files are protected with 256-bit AES encryption in transit and at rest; pdfFiller is HIPAA, SOC 2 Type II, GDPR, CCPA, and PCI-DSS compliant, and your documents are never used to train AI models.
• Any device, any browser — Chrome, Safari, Edge, and Firefox on Windows, macOS, ChromeOS, iOS, and Android. Nothing to install, nothing to update.

One upload covers the whole job: reduce the PDF's size, fix what needs fixing, sign it, and send it — all without leaving the editor or juggling three different single-purpose tools.

How to compress a PDF in 4 steps

Reducing your PDF's file size takes under a minute. Drop your file into the upload area at the top of this page to begin — a free pdfFiller account is all you need, and it keeps your compressed files saved and synced across your devices.

1. 1.
   Upload your PDF
   Drag your file into the upload area at the top of this page or select it from your device — PDFs up to 100 MB are supported. You'll need to be signed in to your pdfFiller account so your document and its compressed copies stay saved in your secure workspace.
   

   
2. 2.
   Click ‘Compress’ in the editor
   Your document opens in the pdfFiller editor with the ‘Compress’ button in the top menu. Before compressing, you can optionally edit the file — correct text, redact sensitive details, add an eSignature, or remove pages you don't need, which makes the PDF smaller still.
   

   
3. 3.
   Choose the document quality and check the estimated size
   In the Compress dialog, pick your output format under Save as (PDF, or convert to DOCX, XLSX, PPTX, JPEG, or PNG), choose where the file goes under Save to, and select High, Good, or Low document quality. The estimated file size appears under each option — if the file needs to fit a specific limit, pick the quality level whose estimate is under it. Hit Save to compress.
   

   
4. 4.
   Download your smaller PDF
   Your condensed file lands in the destination you chose — your Downloads folder or connected cloud storage. The original stays untouched in your workspace, so you can re-compress it at a different quality level, keep editing, or send it for signature anytime.
   

   

Need to hit an exact size limit, like 2 MB or 1 MB?

Open the Compress dialog and compare the estimated sizes across the three quality levels — for typical scanned or image-heavy documents, the Low setting is enough to get under common 2 MB and 1 MB upload caps, and the estimate tells you before you save whether you've made it. If a very long, image-dense file still lands over a strict limit, shrink the source first: delete pages you don't need in the editor, or export only the relevant page range, then compress the result. And remember the diagnosis from above — text-only PDFs are already small and condense less, so if a 'text' document is unexpectedly huge, it's almost certainly a scan, and compression will shrink it dramatically.

More ways to make a PDF smaller

Compression does the heavy lifting, but a few habits keep PDF size down from the start. Scan documents at 150–200 DPI instead of 600 when they're destined for email — for ordinary paperwork, the visual difference is negligible and the size difference is enormous. Insert photos as JPEG rather than PNG or TIFF wherever photographic quality is acceptable. Remove pages that don't need to travel with the file, such as blank scanner pages, fax cover sheets, and duplicated appendices. Flatten heavy annotation layers once a review round is finished. And when a recipient only needs to read the document rather than print it, choose the Good or Low quality level without hesitation — on a screen, the condensed version is indistinguishable. Combine these habits with pdfFiller's compressor and even sprawling, scan-heavy files come out small enough to email, upload, and archive without friction.

Why choose pdfFiller to compress PDFs?