Compress PDF — Free & Private
Reduce a PDF's file size for email attachment limits or faster sharing. Choose a lossless mode that keeps text selectable, or a maximum mode built for scanned documents.
Drag & drop a PDF file here
or select a file from your device — shrink it down for easier sharing
Files are compressed locally in your browser — nothing is uploaded to a serverHow It Works
Shrink a PDF in three simple steps.
Upload your PDF
Drag and drop a PDF file into the box above, or click to browse your device.
Choose a mode
Pick Standard to keep every page's text and images untouched, or Maximum for the smallest possible file size.
Download the result
See exactly how much smaller your file became, then download it instantly.
Why Use PDFHome?
Two honest modes, so you always know what you're trading off.
100% private by design
Compression happens entirely in your browser — your PDF is never uploaded to a server.
Lossless Standard mode
Re-packs the file's internal structure without touching a single pixel of content or a character of text.
Aggressive Maximum mode
Re-renders each page as an optimized image at your chosen quality level — ideal for scanned documents where extreme size reduction matters more than selectable text.
Transparent results
See the exact before-and-after file size, so you always know whether compression actually helped.
Works on any device
PDFHome runs in any modern browser on desktop, tablet or mobile.
Free, no account required
Compress PDF is completely free with no sign-up and no file-size cap.
Frequently Asked Questions
Standard mode re-saves the PDF's internal structure more efficiently without changing any content — text stays fully selectable. Maximum mode converts every page into a compressed image, which can shrink file size dramatically but text is no longer selectable afterward.
Most modern PDFs are already compressed internally, so a lossless re-save mainly helps files that were exported by older or less-optimized software. If you need a much smaller file, try Maximum mode.
Maximum mode works best on scanned documents or PDFs made mostly of photos, where a lower-resolution image is still perfectly readable. For text-heavy documents, Standard mode is usually the better choice since it never sacrifices quality.
Yes. Compression happens entirely on your own device in your browser — your file is never transmitted over the internet.
Usually, but not always — a PDF with very little image content may not shrink much, or could even grow slightly since each page becomes a full-page image. PDFHome always shows you the actual before/after size so you can decide.