How does PDF compression work?

We resize and recompress the photos and scans inside the PDF, then save it again. Text, fonts, links and page structure are not touched. If the file would not get smaller, you get your original back.

Which compression level should I pick?

Recommended is best for documents you want to share with normal viewing quality. Strong is ideal for email attachments. Extreme produces the smallest files but may visibly soften images, use it for archival when size matters more than fidelity.

Will the compressed PDF still be searchable?

Yes, on this page. Only images are recompressed, so search and copy-paste keep working. The exact-size pages, such as Compress to 100 KB, try the same way first. If a tight target needs more, they turn pages into images and tell you, because text is then no longer selectable.

What is the maximum file size I can compress?

100 MB. Browser memory and CPU determine real-world limits, most laptops handle 200 MB comfortably.

Why is the compressed file sometimes barely smaller?

If your PDF is mostly text or vector graphics, there is little to compress. Big savings come from PDFs with photos or scanned pages.

Is image compression lossy?

Yes, we use JPEG for photo content, which is lossy by nature. The Recommended preset uses a high quality factor that is visually indistinguishable in most cases.

Compress PDF Online, Free

Shrink the photos and scans inside your PDF while the text stays selectable. Three quality levels, a before-and-after size, and everything runs in your browser.

Runs in your browser, nothing uploaded

Drop your files

or click to browse from your computer

Up to 100 MBFiles stay in your browser

How to compress pdf

Three steps. Start to finish in under a minute.

Drop your PDF

Upload the PDF you want to shrink. We accept files up to 100 MB on the free tier.

Pick a quality level

Recommended for best balance, Strong for smaller files, Extreme for the smallest possible output.

Download the optimized file

We show the original size next to the compressed size, so you know exactly how much you saved.

Why LovedPDF

Why use LovedPDF for compress pdf

Compression in your browser

Other compressors upload your file to a server farm. We do everything locally, sensitive PDFs never leave your device.

Three presets, no guesswork

Recommended, Strong, Extreme. Each preset is tuned by us to balance file size and quality so you do not have to fiddle with knobs.

Honest results

We show before-and-after sizes and a percentage saved. If a file cannot compress further, we tell you instead of pretending.

What actually makes a PDF big

In most large PDFs, the weight is in the images: scans, photos and screenshots saved at far higher resolution than a screen or printer needs. Text and vector drawings take very little room by comparison. That is why compressing a scanned document can shrink it a lot, while a text-only report barely changes.

This tool recompresses the images inside the file and leaves the text alone, so the words stay sharp and can still be selected, searched and copied. If a file cannot get any smaller, you get the original back, never a larger one.

Hitting an exact upload limit

Job portals, visa forms and exam sites often reject files over a set size. Use the size presets on this site to aim for a target. If shrinking the images alone is not enough, the pages are rebuilt as pictures to reach it, and the tool tells you when that has happened, because text in those pages can no longer be selected.

Frequently asked questions

Merge PDF

Combine PDFs into one file

Split PDF

Split a PDF into pages or ranges

PDF to JPG

Extract PDF pages as images

Scan to PDF

Phone photos to a clean PDF