Reduce PDF file size using Ghostscript with three compression levels — screen quality for email sharing, ebook quality for web viewing, and printer quality for high-quality print — without losing readability
Our free PDF compressor reduces the file size of any PDF in seconds, so you can email it, upload it, or store it without hitting size limits. Upload your file, pick how much to shrink it, and download a smaller PDF that still looks clean and stays readable. It runs on the professional Ghostscript engine with three compression levels, so you stay in control of the balance between file size and quality, and it is completely free, with no signup and no watermark.
Compressing a PDF with File Tools Online takes three quick steps, and you do not need Adobe Acrobat or any desktop software. Everything runs online in your browser.
Drag and drop your PDF into the box above, or click to browse and select the file from your device.
Pick Medium for everyday email, Maximum for the smallest possible file, or Low to keep print quality.
Compress and download the reduced-size PDF. Your file is processed securely and deleted within 30 minutes.
The compressed PDF opens in any PDF reader exactly like the original, the pages, text, and layout are unchanged, just lighter. That makes it easy to attach to an email, upload to a portal, or keep on file without eating up storage.
A lot of "compress PDF" tools either barely shrink the file or crush it until the text turns blurry. Ours uses Ghostscript, the same professional engine trusted for production printing, to reduce size intelligently while keeping your document readable.
Shrink bulky PDFs dramatically, often by half or more, and much more on image-heavy files, so they fit inside email and upload limits.
Powered by Ghostscript, which downsamples images and streamlines the file structure far more effectively than most browser tools.
Choose the exact trade-off you want between file size and quality, from maximum shrink to print-ready.
Compress PDF free online with no trial, no watermark added to your pages, and no email required to download.
Files are processed securely over an encrypted connection and automatically deleted within 30 minutes.
Runs online on Windows, Mac, Linux, Chromebook, Android, and iPhone. Nothing to download and nothing to install.
Different jobs need different balances of size and quality, so the tool gives you three clear options instead of a confusing slider. Pick the one that matches how you will use the file.
| Level | Best for | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Maximum | Email & quick sharing | Smallest possible file, screen-quality images |
| Medium (default) | Web & everyday use | Great balance of small size and clear quality |
| Low | Printing | Higher quality, larger file, print-ready detail |
If you are not sure which to use, start with Medium, it produces a noticeably smaller PDF that still looks sharp on screen. Switch to Maximum when you need to squeeze under a strict size limit, or Low when the PDF is headed for a printer.
Large PDFs cause friction everywhere, they bounce off email limits, stall on slow uploads, and pile up in storage. Compressing them solves all of that in one step.
File Tools Online offers more than 100 free tools to convert, edit, and manage your documents. These are the ones people use most alongside the PDF compressor.
The worry with any compressor is that the file will come out blurry or unreadable. The good news is that most of a PDF's size usually comes from images, not text. The Ghostscript engine focuses on those images, resizing and re-encoding them to sensible resolutions, while leaving your text crisp and fully selectable.
That means at the Medium and Low levels you can compress a PDF without any visible loss of quality for normal on-screen reading. Only the Maximum level pushes images down far enough that you might notice softening on close inspection, which is exactly the trade-off you want when the priority is the smallest possible file. Text stays sharp at every level, so your document remains easy to read.
Scanned documents are usually the biggest PDFs of all, because every page is stored as a full-resolution image. A five-page scan can easily be many megabytes. This is where compression makes the biggest difference, reducing those page images down to a practical size can shrink the file dramatically while keeping it perfectly legible.
If you also need the text in a scanned PDF to be selectable or searchable, run it through our free PDF OCR tool first, then compress the result. You will end up with a smaller, searchable document that is easy to share and store.
You do not need an Adobe Acrobat subscription just to make a PDF smaller. Acrobat's "Reduce File Size" and "Optimize PDF" features work well, but they require paid software installed on your computer. This tool gives you the same core result, a properly compressed PDF, for free, right in your browser, with no account and no download.
Because it runs the professional-grade Ghostscript engine on our servers, the quality of the compression is comparable to desktop applications, without the cost or the install. If you only need to compress a PDF now and then, there is no reason to pay for a subscription to do it.
Because this is an online PDF compressor, it works the same on every device. There is no program to install on Windows, no app to download on Mac, and nothing to add to your phone, you use the exact same page whether you are on a laptop, a Chromebook, an Android device, or an iPhone.
That makes it easy to compress a PDF on Mac, on a work computer where you cannot install software, or on your phone before sending an attachment. The compression runs on our servers, so even a large document is reduced quickly no matter how powerful your own device is. All you need is a browser and an internet connection.
Yes. The PDFs people compress are often contracts, scans, and reports that contain private information, so security is built in. Files are uploaded over an encrypted HTTPS connection, processed on a secure server, and automatically deleted within 30 minutes. We never share, sell, or reuse your documents, and you do not need to create an account or hand over an email address to compress a file.
Upload your PDF to the tool above, choose a compression level, and download the smaller file. The whole process takes about a minute and runs online in your browser, there is nothing to install.
The File Tools Online PDF compressor is free to use, with no watermark added to your pages. Just upload the PDF, pick a level, and download the reduced-size file, no signup required.
Reducing a PDF's file size is exactly what this tool does. It uses Ghostscript to downsample images and streamline the file, so the same document takes up far less space while staying readable.
Use Maximum for the smallest file when emailing or hitting a size limit, Medium (the default) for a great balance for everyday use and web, and Low when you need to keep high quality for printing.
Your text stays sharp and selectable at every level. At Medium and Low there is usually no visible quality loss on screen; only Maximum pushes images down far enough that you might notice softening, in exchange for the smallest possible file.
It depends on what is inside the file. Text-only PDFs are already compact, but image-heavy documents and scans often shrink by well over half, sometimes far more, at the higher compression levels.
Yes, and scanned PDFs benefit the most because they are made of large page images. If you also need the text to be searchable, run the file through our PDF OCR tool first, then compress it.
No. This is a free online alternative to Adobe Acrobat's compression feature. It runs the Ghostscript engine on our servers, so you get comparable results with no paid software and nothing to install.
Exactly the same way as on any other device: open this page in your browser on your Mac, upload the PDF, choose a level, and download the smaller file. There is no separate Mac app to install.
Everyday PDFs compress without any hassle. Very large files may take a little longer to process, but the tool is built to handle the documents most people need to shrink.
Yes. Files are transferred over an encrypted connection, processed securely, and automatically deleted within 30 minutes. We never share or sell your documents.
Compress your files one at a time for full control over each result. If you want a single smaller file from several documents, merge them first and then compress the combined PDF.
PDFs are everywhere because they look the same on every device, but that reliability comes at a cost: high-resolution images, embedded fonts, and scanned pages can make a file surprisingly large. A large PDF is awkward to email, slow to upload, and wasteful to store, which is why compressing a PDF is one of the most common things people need to do with a document.
A good PDF compressor reduces file size by optimising the heavy parts, mainly images, without touching the text or rearranging your pages. This free online tool does exactly that using the Ghostscript engine, giving you three simple levels so you can decide how far to shrink each file. There is no account, no watermark, and no software to install: upload your PDF, choose a level, and download a smaller version that is ready to send, upload, or store.