Compress PDF
Strip metadata and optimize PDF structure to reduce file size. No upload needed.
100% in your browser — files never leave your device
Client-side compression strips metadata and optimizes PDF structure. This typically achieves 10-30% reduction. For heavy compression of scanned documents (image recompression), a server-side tool like Stirling-PDF is needed.
What client-side PDF compression does
PDFs generated by office software often carry significant overhead: author metadata, revision history, embedded fonts that could be subsetted, and object cross-reference tables with gaps from prior edits. None of this is visible content, but it adds to file size.
This tool removes that overhead by parsing the PDF structure in your browser and writing a clean copy. You typically see 10-30% reduction on office-generated documents. Scanned PDFs where most of the size is JPEG or CCITT-compressed image data will see minimal gains because the image streams are not touched.
If you need to compress a scan-heavy PDF substantially, the right tool is one that resamples embedded images — that requires heavier processing than a browser can efficiently do. For structural bloat, this tool is instant and requires no upload.
Frequently asked questions
Are my files uploaded to compress a PDF?
No. Compression runs entirely in your browser. Your file is never sent to a server — all processing happens locally with JavaScript.
How much will my PDF shrink?
This tool performs structural compression: it strips embedded metadata, removes unused objects, and optimizes the PDF structure. This typically achieves 10-30% reduction for text-heavy documents. PDFs dominated by high-resolution images may see little change because the image data itself is not recompressed.
Will compression affect image quality?
No. This tool does not recompress or downsample images. It operates on the PDF structure only, so images retain their original quality. For aggressive image recompression you would need a server-side tool.
What is stripped during compression?
The compressor removes embedded metadata (author, creation date, software tags), unused object references, and redundant structure. It does not remove content, annotations, or form fields.
Is there a file size limit?
No hard limit is enforced. Very large PDFs (multi-hundred MB) may be slow on low-memory devices since the entire file is held in memory during processing.