Compress PDF in this tab with a preset or a target size
Compress PDF files when a portal rejects the size and you still need the same pages. You choose a preset or a target size in kilobytes. The file is rebuilt in this tab. A text-only packet often barely shrinks, and the page will tell you when a rebuild did not get smaller.
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How to compress PDF files
- Add one PDF. If it is encrypted, enter the password you already know before you compress it.
- Pick a preset. Lossless only rebuilds the file. Balanced and Strong recompress ordinary JPEG images. Extreme rasterises every page.
- Leave Target size at 0 to run the preset once. Set a target in KB if you need the file under a number. The search stops at the first result under that size.
- Strip metadata is on by default. It clears the title, author, subject, keywords, and creator, and drops catalog Metadata. Turn it off if a portal reads those fields.
- Press Compress PDF and compare the before and after sizes on the result. Download the new file. The original stays in the list.
Compress PDF options explained
Lossless is a rebuild only. It does not recompress images. If the file was already compact, the result can be the same size or a little larger, and the page says so.
Balanced recompresses JPEG images at quality 0.75 and downsamples a longest side above 1600 px. Strong uses quality 0.6 and a 1200 px longest side. The Downsample images above field starts at 1600 px and can override that limit, from 200 to 4000 px.
Extreme rasterises every page at about 110 DPI and embeds those pictures, so text is no longer selectable or searchable. Use it when the size matters more than selecting a sentence. A target size can go one step further, to about 80 DPI, on the last try.
What actually gets smaller
Most of the saving comes from JPEG images inside the PDF. A contract that is only text and vector lines has little to recompress on Balanced or Strong. Extreme will shrink that contract by turning each page into a picture, and you lose the ability to select the words.
CMYK images, images with a mask, and ICC-based images are skipped and counted. The result tells you how many images were recompressed and how many were skipped. A skipped image is left as it was, which is why a file full of masked graphics may hardly move.
The saved file’s producer line becomes Upload Nothing (uploadnothing.com). That is separate from Strip metadata. If you need a specific producer string, set it afterwards with Edit PDF metadata, which is the tool that keeps the producer you type.
How a target size is chosen
Target size walks a fixed ladder and stops at the first file under the target, with at most six tries. The order is balanced (quality 0.75, 1600 px), strong (0.6, 1200 px), a tighter JPEG pass at 0.5 and 1000 px, another at 0.4 and 800 px, then extreme at about 110 DPI, then extreme at about 80 DPI.
If nothing on that ladder is small enough, you get the smallest result and a warning that the target was not reached. The search does not keep going past six tries, and it does not invent a seventh quality. Set the target to 0 when you want one preset and no search.
Common targets
Limits, formats and output
| Accepted input | |
|---|---|
| Files per batch | 1 |
| Soft size warning | 200 MB or 1,000 pages |
| Hard stop | 500 MB total in memory |
| Output | PDF, or a ZIP when there is more than one file |
| Account | None. The tool runs in this tab. |
Your file never leaves your device
Your PDF is compressed by a script running in this tab. The work runs in a Web Worker in this tab, using WebAssembly for the heavy parts, and the result comes back as a local blob. This site does not upload the file, store it, or log its name.
To verify: load the page, turn on airplane mode, and drop the file again. It still finishes. Or open DevTools, choose Network, and watch the run: there is no upload. The architecture is described on How it works.
Frequently asked questions
Will a text PDF get smaller?
Usually only a little, and sometimes not at all, on Lossless, Balanced, or Strong. Those presets rebuild the file and recompress ordinary images. A packet with no such images stays near its original size. Extreme will make it smaller by rasterising every page, and the text will no longer be selectable.
What does the image count mean?
The result reports how many images were recompressed and how many were skipped. Skipped images include CMYK, masks, and ICC colour spaces, plus a few other encodings this pass will not touch. They are counted so you can see why the file did not shrink as much as you hoped.
Does extreme keep the text?
You can still see the words, because they are painted into the picture. You cannot select them, search them, or copy them as text. PDF to text will then report that no text was found. Keep the original if you still need the text layer.
Can I hit an exact kilobyte size?
You can set a target in KB. The ladder stops at the first file under that number, or returns the smallest of six tries if none qualify. It will not land on the exact byte. A target of 0 turns the search off and runs the preset you picked.
Is there a stamp on the download?
No stamp is drawn on the pages. The site is free because the page can show ads, not because a mark is added inside the PDF. The producer field is rewritten to Upload Nothing (uploadnothing.com) unless you later edit metadata yourself.
What if the tab runs out of memory?
A soft warning appears around 200 MB. The hard stop is 500 MB in memory. Extreme mode is the heavy one, because it renders every page. If that fails, try Strong first, or split the document and compress the parts.
Last updated 2026-09-26. By Tam.