Compress PDF — Free, Local, Private
Reduce PDF file size in your browser — predicted output size shown before you compress, no upload required
Drop one or more PDFs onto the page. We analyse each file locally and show the estimated output size for every preset (Light, Recommended, Strong, Extreme) before you click compress. 100% in-browser — your PDFs never leave your device. No signup, no watermark, no per-file charge.
Drop your PDFs here
or
No upload needed. Everything runs 100% locally in your browser.
How to Compress a PDF for Free
1. Drop your PDFs
Drag one or more PDFs onto the drop zone above, or click to browse. The files load into your browser and are analysed there — nothing is uploaded to a server. Multi-file batches are supported; drop a whole folder if you want.
2. Check predicted sizes
As soon as analysis finishes, each of the four preset cards (Light, Recommended, Strong, Extreme) shows the estimated output size for your batch. That's the number you'd actually get if you clicked compress — not a marketing claim.
3. Pick the preset that fits
Need email-attachable (under 25MB)? Recommended is almost always enough. Targeting under 500KB? Check the Strong card. Need the smallest possible file, don't care about searchable text? Pick Extreme. Each card tells you the tradeoff honestly.
4. Compress and download
Click Compress. The smaller PDF is built locally in your browser. Each compressed file appears on the ready screen with a Download button. No watermark, no signup, no upload.
Why Use Our Free PDF Compressor?
Truly Free, Forever
No trial, no hidden paywall, no per-file charge, no daily task cap. Compress as many PDFs as you want, as often as you want. The service is ad-supported so it stays free for everyone.
Predicted Sizes, Not Surprises
Most online compressors make you upload, wait, and hope for a decent reduction. We analyse your PDF locally and show the estimated output size for every preset before you click compress. Pick the preset that hits your target. Stop guessing.
No Account, No Email
Start compressing immediately. No signup, no email capture, no credit card on file. Same way desktop software used to work before "free trials".
Files Never Leave Your Device
All compression happens locally in your browser. Your PDFs don't touch our servers because we don't have any for your files — we literally cannot see your documents.
No File Size or Batch Limit
Since compression runs in your browser, the only limit is your device memory. Drop a 500MB scan or a 100-file batch — no artificial "upload cap" exists here.
No Watermark, No Branding
Your compressed PDF is exactly your file, smaller. No "compressed with pdfedit.com" text, no stripe bar on the last page, no inserted logo.
Fair Software
No dark-pattern upsells, no "upgrade to download", no forced newsletter gates. Every tool on pdfedit.com works for everyone, from the first click.
Works Offline
Once this page has loaded you can disconnect from the internet and the compressor still works. Perfect for confidential documents you'd rather process without a network around.
The Four Compression Presets, Explained
Light — visually identical
Re-encodes every embedded photo at a high quality level and strips hidden metadata. Typical reduction 20-40% with no visible quality loss. Best for contracts, reports, and any document where image fidelity matters.
Recommended — the default
Same as Light, but also downsamples images that exceed 1600 pixels on the longest side (print resolution → screen resolution). Typical reduction 50-70%. You'll have to squint to see the difference on photos, and text stays pixel-perfect and searchable. Picks the sweet spot for most users.
Strong — aggressive squeeze
Re-encodes at quality 55, downsamples to 1200px. Typical reduction 65-85%. Visible softness on detailed photos but diagrams, logos, and text stay crisp. Use this when you need to hit a tight size cap (under 1MB) and your source has lots of photos.
Extreme — smallest possible
Rasterizes every page as a 110 DPI JPEG. Typical reduction 80-95%. The output is image-only — text is not searchable. Use it when size is the only thing that matters (emailing a 500-page scan, archiving on a mobile device).
PDF Edit vs Adobe, Smallpdf, iLovePDF
| Feature | PDF Edit | Adobe | Smallpdf | iLovePDF |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Files uploaded to a server? | No — 100% local | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Predicted output size before compress? | Yes — all 4 presets | No | No | No |
| Account required? | Never | Free tier limited | Free tier limited | Free tier limited |
| Daily file limit? | None | None (cloud) | 2 tasks/hour free | Size + count caps |
| Batch multiple files? | Unlimited | Yes (paid) | Yes (paid) | Yes (paid) |
| Choice of compression level? | 4 named presets | 3 presets | 2 presets | 3 presets |
| Watermark on output? | No | No | No | No |
| Works offline after load? | Yes | No | No | No |
When the files you're compressing are sensitive — legal exhibits, medical records, financial statements, proprietary drawings — local-only is the difference between "your data touched someone else's server" and "your data never left your machine". That's the entire pitch. Every minute your PDF sits on someone else's infrastructure is a minute of risk you signed up for.
Who Compresses PDFs?
Email attachments
Gmail, Outlook, and most corporate mail servers cap attachments around 20-25MB. The Recommended preset almost always lands a typical 50-100MB photo PDF safely under the cap, so your client, manager, or landlord actually gets the file.
Forms with strict size limits
Government portals, university applications, and job boards often cap uploads at 2MB or 5MB. Use the predicted-size preview to hit the cap exactly — no more "file too large" after you've just spent ten minutes filling a form.
Scanned documents
Mobile scanners love to save photos at 300 DPI, producing 30MB PDFs for ten pages of text. Strong or Extreme takes those back to a reasonable size without making the text unreadable.
Legal filings
E-filing systems often cap submissions at 10-20MB per document. Attorneys compress exhibits and discovery productions here because local-only means privileged content never crosses a third-party server on its way to being smaller.
Medical records
HIPAA-covered data needs to stay on the device. Clinics and billing teams compress intake forms, lab results, and insurance submissions here because the service never sees the bytes.
Students and researchers
Tighten up 200MB of lecture slides before emailing them to yourself or uploading to a shared drive. Works on locked-down school laptops and Chromebooks where nothing else installs.
Compress PDFs on Any Device
Our PDF compressor works on any device with a modern browser — Windows, Mac, Linux, Chromebook, iPad, iPhone, and Android. No software to install, no plugins needed, no admin rights required. Once the page has loaded, you can disconnect from the internet and continue compressing — everything runs locally.
How Does Browser-Based PDF Compression Actually Work?
Most of what makes a PDF large is the embedded photos. We walk every image inside the PDF and re-encode it at a smaller size — typically 15-20% smaller than what your browser's default encoder would produce at the same visual quality. On the Recommended and Strong presets we also shrink oversized photos before re-encoding (a 4000×3000 photo becomes 1600×1200 or 1200×900 automatically) and strip metadata that's just taking up space. On the Extreme preset every page is rendered as a low-resolution image — producing a file that's usually 5-10% of the original size, at the cost of the text being no longer searchable. Everything runs in your browser; no part of your file is sent anywhere.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I compress a PDF for free without losing quality?
Drop your PDF on the page above and pick the Light preset. It re-encodes embedded photos at a high quality level — you won't see the difference, and the file typically shrinks 20-40%. Text, diagrams, and logos stay untouched. For bigger savings with still-searchable text, pick Recommended.
How do I compress a PDF to 100KB, 500KB, or 1MB?
Drop the file and look at the predicted size on each preset card. For 100KB targets on short image-heavy PDFs, Extreme is the answer. For 500KB-1MB targets, Strong usually lands it. For <10MB targets on a 50MB scan, Recommended is enough. The predicted sizes take the guesswork out.
Is this PDF compressor really free?
Yes, 100% free forever. No trial period, no premium tier, no per-file charge. The service is ad-supported.
Is my PDF uploaded to a server?
No. Compression runs entirely in your browser. Your files never touch our servers — we don't have any for your files. You can verify this in your browser's Network panel.
Can I compress multiple PDFs at once?
Yes. Drop as many files as you want. Each is analysed individually and the preset cards show the total predicted size across the whole batch. Clicking Compress processes them one after another.
Will the compressed PDF have a watermark?
No. Your compressed PDF is exactly your file, smaller. No watermark, no branding, no "compressed with…" text.
Is there a file size limit?
No artificial limit. Files up to a few hundred megabytes compress without trouble on a typical laptop. Very large files (>500MB) may bump into browser memory limits on older machines.
Does it work offline?
Yes, once the page has loaded. The compression runs entirely in your browser — you can disconnect and keep working.
Will my text still be searchable after compression?
On Light, Recommended, and Strong: yes — the text layer is left untouched. Only embedded JPEGs are re-encoded. On Extreme: no — pages are rasterised as images, so the text becomes part of the picture and is no longer selectable or searchable.
Does it support password-protected PDFs?
Yes, as long as you know the password. You'll be prompted to enter it when compression starts. The password is used in-memory to decrypt the file and is never stored anywhere.
How do I compress a PDF for email? (Gmail, Outlook, WhatsApp)
Drop your PDF on the page above. The preset cards immediately show the predicted size for Light, Recommended, Strong, and Extreme. Pick the one that fits your provider's attachment cap: Gmail allows 25 MB per email, Outlook also 25 MB (Office 365 work accounts are typically 35 MB), WhatsApp 100 MB per file, iMessage 100 MB. The Recommended preset usually clears all four with room to spare for typical multi-page PDFs. Compression runs entirely in your browser — your PDF never reaches our servers, which matters most when you're emailing contracts, invoices, medical records, or anything else sensitive enough to attach.
How does PDF compression work?
PDFs combine three streams: text (vector outlines + font tables), images (usually JPEG or PNG bitmaps), and metadata (bookmarks, form fields, embedded files). The biggest space savings almost always come from re-encoding the embedded images at a lower JPEG quality — that's what every preset does, with progressively more aggressive quality settings as you go from Light to Extreme. The Extreme preset additionally rasterises any pages that are pure scans, dropping the original at 600 DPI down to a perceptually equivalent 96-150 DPI image. Text streams are left untouched on Light, Recommended, and Strong, so search and copy/paste still work; on Extreme, scanned text is OCR-replaceable but not selectable. We never strip the PDF's structure, encryption, signatures, or accessibility tags.
Can I compress a PDF on my iPhone, iPad, or Android phone?
Yes. The compressor runs in any modern mobile browser — Safari on iPhone/iPad, Chrome and Firefox on Android, Samsung Internet, Brave Mobile. Drop a PDF from Files, iCloud Drive, Google Drive, Dropbox, or your photo library, pick a preset, and download the smaller PDF straight back to your device. Because everything runs locally, your PDF never leaves the phone — relevant for medical records, signed contracts, and tax documents that you wouldn't want sitting on a third-party server.