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Compress PDF Online for Free

Make a PDF smaller by rebuilding its pages with your chosen image quality. This works best for scanned or image-heavy documents and clearly shows the quality trade-off.

or drop the file here

Up to 50 MiB per PDF

Up to 100 pages

Files remain in your browser No file upload No account required

How to Compress PDF

  1. Choose one readable PDF.
  2. Review the available settings and start local processing.
  3. Review the result and download the .pdf file.

Browser processing questions

Is my file uploaded?

No. Input files and generated results remain in this browser.

Do I need to install software?

No. The tool runs from the deployed website in a modern browser.

Will every document convert perfectly?

Compression rebuilds pages as images. Searchable text, links, forms, and signatures are not retained.

Need another document task? Browse all working tools.

About this tool

Reduce PDF size with a clear quality trade-off

Compress PDF renders each page and rebuilds the document using the quality setting you choose. This can significantly reduce scanned or image-heavy PDFs.

Useful for

  • Shrink scanned notes or photo-based documents.
  • Prepare a PDF for an upload-size restriction.
  • Compare quality levels before sharing the result.

Good to know

  • Pages are rebuilt as images.
  • Selectable text, links, forms, and digital signatures are not retained.
  • Text-only PDFs may not become smaller.
Practical guidance

Reduce PDF file size with a visible quality trade-off

Searches for compressing a PDF to 100KB, 200KB, 500KB, or 1MB usually come from an upload limit. PDFKaka can make scanned and image-heavy PDFs smaller with adjustable quality, but it does not falsely promise an exact final size. The result depends on page count, dimensions, colours, and source content.

Compress scanned and image-heavy PDF files

The tool renders each page and rebuilds the PDF with compressed page images. That can substantially reduce scans, photographed notes, image portfolios, and similar documents.

Choose readable quality before the smallest size

Lower quality can produce a smaller file, but fine print, signatures, diagrams, and identification details may become harder to read. Compare the result with the original before using it.

Understand what compression changes

Because pages are rebuilt as images, selectable text, links, interactive fields, and digital signatures are not retained. Keep the original PDF whenever those features matter.

Questions people ask about this task

Can this compress a PDF to exactly 200KB or 500KB?

Not exactly. Choose a quality level, check the resulting size, and try a lower setting if necessary. Some PDFs cannot reach a very small limit while remaining readable.

Why did my text-only PDF not become much smaller?

Digitally created text PDFs can already be compact. This method is most effective for scanned or image-heavy pages.

Are compressed PDF pages uploaded?

No. Rendering, image compression, document rebuilding, and download happen in this browser.