Free Online PDF Compressor
Reduce the size of PDF files without uploading them. Choose a compression level, and your text stays sharp and searchable.
Compress your PDF
or drop PDFs here
Your PDFs
Your compressed PDFs
- Files stay on your device
- No sign-up
- No watermark
How to compress a PDF in 3 steps
Add your PDF
Drop one or more PDF files onto the page, or tap "Choose PDF files" to pick them from your device.
Pick a level
"Balanced" suits most documents. Choose "Smallest size" for strict email or upload limits.
Download
Check the new size and page count, then download each PDF or all of them as a ZIP.
Three levels plus a maximum setting
- High quality lightly recompresses images and keeps them sharp enough for printing.
- Balanced reduces scans and photos to about 150 dpi, which looks sharp on any screen. It's the right choice for most documents.
- Smallest size goes further, to about 100 dpi, for strict email and upload limits.
- Maximum compression turns every page into an image. It's often the smallest option for scanned documents, but text can no longer be selected or searched.
Whichever level you choose, the compressor only swaps in a new version of an image when it saves real space. Your PDF never gets bigger.
Text stays sharp and searchable
A PDF stores text as text, not as pixels, so it stays perfectly sharp at any zoom level. The standard levels leave the text, fonts, links and form fields as they are, and work on the parts that actually make PDFs heavy:
- photos and scanned pages, which are recompressed and resized,
- data that was stored without any compression,
- leftovers such as page thumbnails, editing data and unused objects.
The document structure is then packed into compressed object streams, a feature of modern PDF readers that removes much of the overhead older PDFs carry.
Small enough for email and upload forms
Email services and online forms often cap attachments: Gmail allows up to 25 MB, and job portals or government sites may accept just a few megabytes. Scanned contracts, photographed receipts and image-heavy presentations quickly go over those limits.
Start with Balanced. If the file is still too large, run it again with Smallest size, and use Maximum compression for scans when nothing else is small enough.
Your documents never leave your device
The PDFs you compress are often private: contracts, statements, medical letters and IDs. VideosCompressor processes them inside your browser using your device's own processor. Nothing is uploaded, stored or seen by anyone else.
Password-protected PDFs are left alone, because compressing them would remove the protection their author chose.
Frequently asked questions
Is the PDF compressor free?
Yes. It's free to use, with no account, no watermark and no limit on the number of files. The site is funded by a small number of clearly labelled ads.
Are my PDFs uploaded anywhere?
No. Contracts, bank statements and IDs often travel as PDFs, so we built the compressor to work entirely in your browser. Your files never leave your device.
Will the text in my PDF still be searchable?
Yes, with High quality, Balanced and Smallest size. Those levels only recompress the pictures inside the PDF and clean up its structure; text, links and fonts are untouched. Only Maximum compression turns pages into images.
Why did my PDF barely get smaller?
Most of a PDF's size usually comes from photos and scanned pages. A PDF that is mostly text, or whose images are already well compressed, has little to remove. If the new file wouldn't be smaller, we give you back your original.
How small does a PDF need to be for email?
Gmail accepts attachments up to 25 MB in total, and many other email services and upload forms set similar or lower limits. Smallest size is the best choice when you need to get under a limit.
Can I compress a password-protected PDF?
No. Compressing would remove the protection the author set, so protected PDFs are refused. Remove the password in the app that created the file, then try again.
What happens to digitally signed PDFs?
Any change to a signed PDF makes its signature invalid, and compression is a change. We tell you when a file was signed, so you can decide whether to send the original instead.