A free PDF compressor that shrinks the photos in your PDF to what each page shows, keeps the text sharp, and uploads nothing.
5.0(1 rating)Drop a PDF to make it smaller, with its text kept sharp. It all happens in this browser.
Your files
Settings
Photos keep 150 pixels per inch of the page. For email and uploads.
Compress
Add a file to start.
Everything happens in this browser, so your files never leave your computer.
This free PDF compressor makes a PDF smaller in your browser. It shrinks the photos inside to the size each page actually shows them.
Text, drawings and fonts stay exactly as they are, so the words stay sharp and searchable. Nothing is uploaded.
A 10.6 MB PDF of 3 photos came down to 215 KB at the default setting.
Here's what a PDF compressor is, how this one works, which level to pick, and how it did against CloudConvert.
What is a PDF compressor?
A PDF compressor makes a PDF file smaller, so it fits under an email limit or an upload form's.
Most of a big PDF is its photos. A phone photo in a PDF often holds far more pixels than the page can show.
This one keeps as many pixels as each page needs, and leaves the rest of the file alone.
How it makes a PDF smaller
First it reads how big each photo is drawn on its page. A photo shown 3 inches across needs about 450 pixels at 150 pixels per inch, whatever the file holds.
Then it saves each photo again as a JPG, and puts it back only if that's at least 10% smaller.
Photos it can't bring back looking the same stay as they are, like print colors or cut-out masks.
High, Balanced or Small?
Pick the level by where the PDF is going:
- The 3-photo PDF
- 543 KB
- Lowest page score
- 81.8
- Best for
- Printing, and photos that must stay crisp
- The 3-photo PDF
- 215 KB
- Lowest page score
- 73.3
- Best for
- Email and upload forms, the default
- The 3-photo PDF
- 88 KB
- Lowest page score
- 63.2
- Best for
- Tight upload limits
High keeps 200 pixels per inch of the page, Balanced 150 and Small 110. A score of 80 and up looks the same side by side.
Compared with CloudConvert
I compressed the same 4 PDFs here, at Balanced, and with CloudConvert at its default settings. Then I drew every page and scored it against the original page:
- Original
- 10.6 MB
- CloudConvert
- 270 KB, lowest page 70.5
- This compressor
- 215 KB, lowest page 73.3
- Original
- 2.8 MB
- CloudConvert
- 238 KB, lowest page 42.8
- This compressor
- 206 KB, lowest page 57.8
- Original
- 8.4 MB
- CloudConvert
- 7.0 MB, lowest page 79.5
- This compressor
- 8.4 MB, lowest page 90.7
- Original
- 1.5 KB
- CloudConvert
- 1.8 KB, bigger
- This compressor
- 1.5 KB, unchanged
On the photos and the scan, this compressor made the smaller file and the better-looking pages.
On the text-only PDF, CloudConvert's file came out bigger than the original. This one handed the original back.
The brochure is mostly a map drawn in shapes, with its photos already saved small, so there was little to shrink.
CloudConvert took 16% off it, and its second page scored 79.5, where you can start to see the change up close.
How I tested
I tested on September 29, 2026, with this page's own worker in a real browser.
I drew every page of each PDF at 100 pixels per inch with poppler, the open source PDF reader. Then I scored each against the original page with ssimulacra2, the reference program that ships with JPEG XL:
| Score | What it means |
|---|---|
| 90 and up | Looks identical: no difference even flicking between them at 100% |
| 80 to 90 | Same side by side at 100% |
| 70 to 80 | High quality: hard to notice without comparing |
| 50 to 70 | Medium quality: you can see it up close |
| Under 50 | Visible loss |
The table shows each PDF's lowest page, since one bad page is what you'd notice.
The Yellowstone brochure is the National Park Service's, and the Constitution scan is from Wikimedia Commons. Both are public domain.
Who is the PDF compressor for?
It's for anyone whose PDF is too big to send or upload:
- Invoice generator – freelancers sending invoices and statements by email
- Presentation generator – anyone sharing slides as a PDF
- LinkedIn carousel generator – creators posting carousels, which LinkedIn takes as a PDF
- How to create an online course – course creators sending workbooks and guides
- Image compressor – anyone shrinking photos before they go into a PDF
It works in your browser, so contracts and statements never leave your computer.
More free PDF tools
Here are my other free PDF tools. Each one works in your browser, the same way:
- Merge PDF – join several PDFs into one, in your order
- Split PDF – cut a PDF by pages, or into every page
- JPG to PDF – turn photos and scans into a PDF
- PDF to JPG – save each page as a picture
None of them upload your files, and none add a watermark.
Do more with your PDF
Ask AI about your PDF
Design documents with
Edit the photos in it with
PDF compressor FAQs
Questions about the pDF compressor? Here's what to know.
A PDF compressor makes a PDF's file smaller, mostly by saving the photos inside it again at the size the page shows them.
This one leaves the text, drawings and fonts untouched.
Drop your PDF here, keep Balanced, and click Compress PDF.
Then download the smaller file.
The photos get slightly softer, and the text doesn't change at all.
On Balanced, my photo pages scored 73 to 80, close to the original side by side.
Its size is probably text, drawings or fonts, not photos, or its photos are already small.
The compressor hands the original back when it can't make it smaller.
It depends on the photos inside: 3 full-size photos went from 10.6 MB to 88 KB on Small.
A text-only PDF is usually already small.
Yes, the text isn't touched, so you can still select, search and copy it.
Not yet: take the password off in the app that made it, then compress it here.
Yes, it's free, with no account, no watermark and no limit.
It runs in your browser, so it costs nothing to run.
No, the PDF compressor works in your browser.
Your PDFs never leave your computer.
I did.
I'm Navid Moazzez, and the PDF compressor is one of my free tools on navid.me.
Read more about me.
Navid Moazzez
AI business strategist & AI OS builder
Navid Moazzez helps creators and founders master AI and build their own AI Operating System (AI OS) to automate their business and life.
Navid.me is reader-supported. When you buy through links on this site, I may earn an affiliate commission. Learn more.
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