How do I reduce the size of a PDF for an upload?
Open the PDF here and press Compress PDF. The tool rebuilds the file to strip redundant data and pack its structure, then shows you the new size against the original. It runs in your browser, so it works on a phone and the file is never uploaded. If the result is still over the portal’s limit and your PDF is a scan, see the question below on scanned PDFs.
How much smaller will my PDF get?
It depends entirely on what is inside. Text and vector PDFs — notices, results, anything exported from Word — often shed a useful chunk, because those are the files that accumulate redundant structure; a document edited and re-saved several times has come back more than half its original size. Scanned and photo-heavy PDFs barely move, since almost all of their weight is already-compressed image data. The tool shows you the before and after, so you never have to guess.
Does compressing reduce the quality?
No, and that is the point of this one. Nothing is re-rendered, re-sampled or re-encoded — every image, glyph and vector comes through identical, and the text stays selectable. The saving comes from rebuilding the file’s internal structure: dropping objects nothing references any more and packing the cross-reference tables. Your document’s dates and any form fields are left untouched too.
Why did my scanned PDF barely shrink?
Because its weight is embedded JPEG data, and shrinking that means re-encoding it at a lower quality — visibly degrading your document. This tool will not quietly hand you a blurrier file than the one you started with. To make a scan dramatically smaller, put the pages through PDF to image, then Compress image to hit the size you need, then rebuild the file with Image to PDF.
Is my PDF uploaded to compress it?
No. The whole tool runs in your browser, so the file never leaves your device. There is no server to receive it, nothing is stored, and closing the page is enough to be rid of it. That matters with these files — mark sheets, certificates and signatures — more than with most.
Will it work on a password-protected PDF?
A PDF that only restricts printing will open and compress normally. One that needs a password to read cannot be opened without it — remove the password in the app you normally read it with, then try again.
Can I compress a digitally signed PDF?
The tool detects a digital signature and hands the file back unchanged rather than compressing it. Rebuilding the PDF would break the signature, and a signed document that fails verification is worse than one that is a few KB too large.