Compress a PDF to a Target Size Without Uploading It
Pick 2 MB, 1 MB or 500 KB. The browser re-encodes the images inside the PDF and repacks the file — the text stays text, selectable and searchable. Nothing leaves this tab.
Drop a PDF here, or click to choose
PDF up to 50 MB on Free · one at a time · nothing leaves your device
How it works
- Your browser reads the file from your disk. No network request carries the document.
- Text, fonts and vector drawings are left byte-for-byte. This tool never renders a page to a picture, so the text stays selectable, searchable and readable by screen readers.
- Embedded images are decoded, scaled down and re-encoded as JPEG — but only when the new image is smaller than the original. Then the file is repacked with compressed object streams.
- If the target is out of reach, it tells you. It reports the smallest honest size instead of turning pages into images and calling that compression.
What it can and cannot do
Scans and photo-heavy PDFs shrink a lot. In testing, a two-page 300 dpi scan went from 3.1 MB to 0.8 MB, and an eight-page photo document from 3.5 MB to 1.7 MB — with the pages still sharp.
A PDF that is mostly text has almost nothing to remove. A 142-page government publication was 98% text, fonts and page structure; re-encoding its one image saved 14 KB. Getting such a file under 2 MB would mean replacing every page with a picture: the text would stop being selectable, and in testing the file grew from 3.1 MB to 64 MB. This tool will not do that.
If your PDF is mostly text and still too large, the fix belongs where the file was made: export it with smaller images, subset fonts, or split it into two documents.
Pricing
Free
$0
- Targets of 10 MB, 5 MB and 2 MB
- PDFs up to 50 MB
- One file at a time
- No upload, no account, no watermark
Pro
$5/month
- Adds the 1 MB and 500 KB targets
- PDFs up to 200 MB
- Batch: compress up to 10 PDFs at once
- One subscription unlocks Pro in every Little Toolworks tool
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Questions
Is my PDF really not uploaded?
Correct. Open developer tools, go to the Network tab, and compress a file. You will see the page, the script bundle and a few tiny counter pings — no request carrying your document.
Will the text still be selectable and searchable?
Yes. Text, fonts and vector drawing commands are never rewritten or rendered to images. Only embedded photographs and scans are re-encoded, and only when that makes them smaller.
Why did my PDF shrink by only a few kilobytes?
Because it is mostly text. Text and fonts are already compressed efficiently; the only removable weight is in images, and there may be none. The status line tells you what share of the file is images before you wait, and the smallest size the file can honestly reach.
Is this the same as "Print to PDF" or "Reduce file size"?
No. Printing to a PDF or rasterising it replaces every page with a picture: the file often gets bigger and the text stops being selectable. This tool works the other way round — it keeps the document and only re-encodes the images inside it.
My PDF is password protected.
Encrypted PDFs cannot be read here. Remove the password in the app that made the file, then compress the copy.
What reads the PDF?
The open-source pdf-lib library (MIT licensed) plus the browser's own canvas encoder, running in your browser.
Do you store anything about me?
We count anonymous events — page opened, compression finished, upgrade clicked — with no advertising cookies, persistent analytics identifiers or document data. A strictly necessary signed cookie is used only after purchase so Pro access survives a refresh.