Compress PDF — Reduce File Size to Any Target
Shrink your PDF to a specific size like 100KB or 1MB, or pick a quick preset. Pro Mode adds custom DPI/quality control, grayscale mode and batch compression for multiple files.
in your browser only. Nothing is ever uploaded.
Processed entirely in your browser — never uploaded to any server
Scanned assignments and lecture slide exports are usually the biggest offenders — a 20-page scanned PDF at full resolution can easily exceed 30 MB. The Recommended preset typically brings that down by 70–90% while staying readable.
Compress PDF to Any Size — 100KB, 300KB, 1MB or Custom
When a job application form or a university portal says "maximum 300KB" or "maximum 1MB," a generic compress PDF button that just makes the file "smaller" isn't much help — you need to know it actually landed under the number. This tool is built around that exact problem: rather than guessing at a compression level and hoping, you can tell it directly to compress PDF to 100KB, compress PDF to 300 KB, 500 KB or 1 MB, and it iteratively tests image resolution and quality combinations in your browser until it lands at or under your target — or reports the closest size it could achieve if your original file simply has too much content to fit without becoming unreadable.
Behind the scenes, this works by rendering each page as an optimized image and rebuilding the PDF around those images at a resolution and quality level tuned to your target. For a heavily scanned document, this can mean an aggressive size cut; for a short text-only file, hitting something like 100KB is usually reached comfortably. If a search for a way to hyper compress a PDF brought you here because a standard compressor wasn't shrinking things enough, target-size mode is the more direct route — you're setting the outcome you need rather than picking a vague "high compression" setting and re-uploading repeatedly to check if it worked.
Honest trade-off: hitting a small target size like 100KB is achieved by converting pages into compressed images, which means the text in your compressed PDF will no longer be selectable or searchable. If keeping selectable text matters more than hitting an exact size, use "Keep Text Selectable" mode instead — it won't get you to 100KB, but it preserves your document's structure completely.
How to Compress a PDF to a Target Size — Step by Step
Compress a PDF on Mac, Windows, Linux or Chromebook
A lot of the friction in searches like compress PDF Mac, how to compress a PDF file on Mac or how to compress PDF on MacBook comes down to macOS's Preview app not making file-size compression obvious or reliable — exporting through Preview's Quartz filters can shrink a file, but it isn't built for hitting a specific target size, and results vary a lot by document. Because this tool runs as a browser-based application rather than relying on any operating system's built-in export options, the exact same interface and target-size controls work whether you're compressing a PDF on a MacBook, a Windows laptop, an Ubuntu machine or a Chromebook — there's no separate "Mac version" or "Windows version" to find.
If you're comfortable on the command line, tools like Ghostscript remain a genuinely solid option for Linux PDF compression — piping a file through Ghostscript's -dPDFSETTINGS flags gives you fine-grained control and is a common answer to searches for compress PDF command line on Linux and Ubuntu. This tool isn't trying to replace that workflow for developers who already have it scripted. What it's built for is the much more common case: someone who needs to shrink one PDF right now, doesn't want to install PDF compress software or memorize command-line flags, and just needs a working result in their browser in under a minute.
How This Compares to Adobe Acrobat, iLovePDF and Soda PDF
Adobe's name shows up constantly in compression searches — adobe compress pdf, adobe acrobat compress pdf, how to compress a pdf in acrobat — because Acrobat is the tool most people already associate with PDFs generally. Acrobat's compression is genuinely capable, with options like font subsetting and fine-grained image downsampling, but the full desktop application sits behind a paid subscription, and Adobe's free web-based compressor typically asks for an account and applies daily usage limits. Other established compressors like iLovePDF and Soda PDF follow a similar pattern to each other: you upload your file to their servers for processing, which usually comes with its own free-tier caps before a paid plan is suggested.
This tool takes a different approach on purpose: no account, no daily cap, and no server upload at all — your PDF is rendered and rebuilt entirely inside your own browser tab using PDF.js and pdf-lib, so the file never leaves your device. The trade-off is that it's a browser tool rather than a full desktop application, so it doesn't attempt to match every advanced feature of a paid Acrobat license. For the specific, common task of getting a PDF under a target file size quickly and privately, that's a reasonable trade to make.
- 100% free, no account required
- No daily compression limit
- Files processed locally — never uploaded
- Target-size compression (100KB, 300KB, 1MB+)
- Works identically on Mac, Windows, Linux
- No font subsetting or advanced PDF-internal optimization
- Advanced PDF-specific optimization (fonts, objects)
- Deep integration with other Acrobat tools
- Full desktop app requires a paid subscription
- Free web compressor typically needs an Adobe account
- Free web tier commonly applies daily usage limits
- Familiar, established compression tools
- Handle a wide range of PDF tasks beyond compression
- File is uploaded to their servers for processing
- Free tier commonly capped with daily task limits
- No dedicated "compress to exact target size" mode
You can target 100KB directly using the quick-select chip, and the tool iteratively optimizes toward it — the exact result depends on your original content.
Not entirely — Acrobat offers deeper PDF-specific optimization, but this tool is free, requires no account, and never uploads your file to a server.
Yes, identically free on every platform — it runs in your browser, so there's nothing to install or configure per operating system.
Only in Maximum Compression mode, which converts pages to images. Choose "Keep Text Selectable" to preserve fully editable, searchable text.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about compressing PDFs to a target size, across platforms and compared to other tools
Upload your PDF, switch to the target size chips and choose 100 KB, 300 KB, 500 KB or 1 MB, then click Compress All. The tool renders each page as an optimized image and tests DPI and quality combinations until it finds the smallest file meeting your target, or the closest achievable size. Pro Mode lets you enter any custom target instead of the preset chips.
Yes. This tool runs entirely in your web browser, so it works the same way on a MacBook as on Windows or Linux — no need for Preview's limited export compression or an Adobe Acrobat install. Open it in Safari or Chrome, upload your PDF, and compress directly.
Yes. Because compression happens through client-side JavaScript rather than a desktop application, it works identically on Windows, Linux, Ubuntu, Chromebook and Mac. Nothing to install — though Ghostscript remains a solid option if you're already compressing PDFs via the Linux command line.
Adobe Acrobat's compression is typically part of a paid subscription, or a limited free web tool needing an account. This tool is free with no account, no daily limit and no file upload — compression happens locally in your browser. Acrobat may offer more granular optimization like font subsetting; this tool's strength is fast, private, target-size-driven compression.
No, they're separate tools. iLovePDF and Soda PDF typically process your file after uploading it to their servers and may apply daily free-use limits. This tool processes your PDF locally in your browser instead, so the file never leaves your device and there's no daily cap.
It depends on the method. Maximum Compression converts each page into an optimized image for the biggest size cut, so text is no longer selectable or searchable. If you need selectable text preserved, choose Keep Text Selectable mode — it saves 5-20% while keeping everything fully searchable and copyable.
No. All rendering and compression happens locally in your browser using PDF.js and pdf-lib. Your file is never transmitted to a server or stored anywhere — the compressed PDF is generated and downloaded directly from your own device.
Pro Mode adds manual DPI and JPEG quality control, a grayscale conversion toggle for text-heavy scans, custom target sizes beyond the quick chips, a before/after page preview, a compression report showing exact settings used, and batch compression of multiple PDFs downloaded together as one ZIP.