Reduce PDF File Size
Got a hard size limit, like 2 MB for an email gateway or 0.5 MB for a form upload? Tell this tool the number and it works down through quality levels until your PDF fits. Free, private, and entirely in your browser.
Files processed in your browserSelect a PDF or drag & drop
One PDF, up to 100 MB
Your files never leave your device. Reduce PDF File Size runs entirely in your browser using JavaScript. Nothing is uploaded to a server. When you close this tab, your file is gone from memory.
How to reduce pdf file size
- Select your PDF. Choose or drag in the PDF you want to shrink.
- Set a target. Enter the maximum size you need, e.g. 2 MB for email or 0.5 MB for a web upload.
- Reduce. The tool works down through quality levels until the file fits your target.
- Download. Get the reduced PDF, or an honest report if the target wasn't reachable.
Want more detail? Read our full guide: How to reduce PDF file size to a target.
Why reduce a PDF to an exact size limit?
Almost every online form, email gateway and upload portal enforces a maximum file size, and the number is rarely negotiable. A court e-filing system caps attachments at 2 MB; a job application form rejects a CV over 1 MB; an email server silently bounces anything past its threshold. In those moments you don't want a file that is merely "a bit smaller"; you want one that lands under a specific number on the first try, without a dozen rounds of guesswork.
That is the gap this tool fills. Ordinary compressors ask you to pick a quality preset and then reveal the resulting size after the fact, which turns hitting a limit into trial and error. Here you type the ceiling you must meet, and the tool searches for the best quality that still fits: it renders the pages, checks the size, and steps the quality down only as far as it has to. The result is the sharpest version of your document that will actually pass the upload check.
It also refuses to lie to you. If your target is genuinely unreachable (say a 40-page scanned booklet squeezed toward 200 KB) it stops at the smallest sensible rendering and reports the real size it managed, rather than handing back an unreadable smear of pixels. That honest feedback tells you when the smarter move is to split the document, drop a few heavy pages, or start from a cleaner source.
Everything runs inside your own browser tab. The PDF is read, re-rendered and saved on your machine, so a confidential contract or a form full of personal details never travels to a server just to be made smaller, a real consideration when the documents that hit size limits are so often the sensitive ones.
Frequently asked questions
Are my files uploaded?
No. The whole process runs in your browser, so the file never leaves your device.
How is this different from Compress PDF?
Compress picks a quality level (light/medium/strong) and gives you whatever size results. Reduce works backwards from a number you set ('make this fit in 2 MB'), trying successively smaller renderings until it fits. Use Compress when you care about quality; use Reduce when you have a hard size limit.
What if it can't reach my target?
The tool stops at the lowest quality that's still reasonable and tells you the best size it achieved, rather than producing an unreadable file. If that's still too big, the document has more content than the target allows, so split it, or remove pages first.
Why does the text stop being selectable?
Reaching very small sizes works by re-rendering pages as optimized images, which trades away selectable text. If your document is mostly text and you need to keep it selectable, try Optimize PDF (lossless) first.