Compress PDF
Compress one or many PDFs at once, directly in your browser.
Something not working, or a feature missing?Report a problem or suggest a tool
How to Use
- 1Drop in one or more PDF files.
- 2Drag the compression level slider to preview the size of every file, or switch to Target file size and enter a limit such as 200 KB.
- 3Download each PDF on its own, or all of them as a ZIP.
Features
- Text, fonts and drawings stay sharp and selectable, only images are shrunk
- Compress up to 20 PDFs in one go
- One slider sets the level for the whole batch
- Or compress to a target file size, like 100 KB or 1 MB
- Live size and savings preview per file, plus a batch total
- Download individually or all at once as a ZIP
- Never enlarges a file, it keeps the original when nothing can be saved
- No upload, 100% in-browser
PDUtilities Compress PDF shrinks PDF files entirely in your browser. Drop in a batch, set a single compression level with the slider, and every file is re-priced live so you can see the exact size before you commit. Download them one by one or take the whole batch as a ZIP. Nothing is ever uploaded.
How PDF compression works here
Most oversized PDFs are big for one reason: they contain images. A scanned document is nothing but a stack of photographs, and a report exported from a phone or design tool often embeds pictures at many times the resolution a screen or printer needs. This tool finds every image, works out how large it is actually shown on the page, and resamples it to a resolution and JPEG quality set by the slider. Text, fonts and vector drawings are left exactly as they are, so they stay perfectly sharp. Lower on the slider means fewer pixels and stronger JPEG compression; higher means sharper photos and a larger file.
Because the slider recalculates the result for every file in the batch, you can watch the size change before you download anything. That matters when you are aiming at a hard limit, such as an upload form that rejects anything over 2 MB or an email server that refuses attachments over 20–25 MB. Nudge the slider until the total fits, then stop: going further only costs quality.
Choosing a compression level
| Your document | Suggested level | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Scanned forms, receipts, ID copies | Low to middle | Scans compress dramatically and stay readable at modest resolution. |
| Photo-heavy brochures or portfolios | Middle to high | Keeps photographs presentable while still trimming oversized images. |
| Documents you need to print | High | Keeps photos and charts detailed on paper; the text is sharp at any level. |
| Already-small text PDFs (under ~300 KB) | Leave as is | There is little image data to remove; the tool will usually keep the original. |
What to know before you compress
- Text stays text. It can still be selected, copied, searched and read by screen readers, and links, bookmarks and form fields keep working.
- Target sizes have a last resort. If a target size can't be reached by shrinking images, pages are turned into images to get there, which makes text unselectable. The tool says so whenever that happens.
- You never get a bigger file. Images that are already compact are left alone, and if nothing can be saved, which is common with lean text-only PDFs, the tool hands back your original.
- Batches share one level. All files in a batch use the same slider value. If one file needs gentler treatment, compress it on its own.
If a single file is still too large at a level you are happy with, check whether every page is needed. Removing a few image-heavy pages with the PDF Page Remover often saves more than squeezing quality further.
Why it runs in your browser
The documents people most often need to shrink, such as bank statements, payslips, ID scans and signed contracts, are exactly the ones you should not hand to an unknown server. Here, the PDF is read and compressed by your own browser, so the file never leaves your device. The trade-off is that very long documents use your computer's memory, which is why a batch is capped at 20 files.