How to Compress a PDF and Reduce File Size (Free, on Your Phone)

You try to email a PDF or upload it to a form, and it says "File too large". This happens a lot with scanned documents and files with photos, because every page can be a big image.

The fix is to compress the PDF so the file becomes smaller and easy to send.

When do you need to compress a PDF?

• An email will not send because the attachment is too big
• A job, college or exam form has a file size limit
• A scanned file with many pages is taking too much storage
• You want to share a file on WhatsApp or upload it faster on a slow connection

How to compress a PDF step by step

1. Open the Compress PDF tool. Use the button at the top of this page to open Pdfyra Workspace.
2. Add your PDF. Choose the file from your phone or computer.
3. Compress the file. Pdfyra reduces the size and creates a new PDF.
4. Check the result. Open the file, scroll through the pages and make sure the text and images are clear.
5. Save or share. Download the smaller file and send or upload it.

Tips

Keep your original. Compressing creates a new file, so keep the original until you have checked the result.

Need an exact size? If a form says "under 200 KB", try Compress to Size. Here is our guide on how to compress a PDF to an exact size.

Still too big? Remove pages you do not need first. See how to delete pages from a PDF or how to split a PDF.

Joining many files? Merge first, then compress the final file. Here is how to merge PDF files on your phone.

Photos of documents? Turn them into one PDF with Images to PDF, then compress.

Compress PDF on phone or computer

Pdfyra Workspace works in any modern browser on a phone or a computer, so you can start on your phone and finish on a laptop without installing anything.

Ready to try it?

Open the tool, add your PDF and get a smaller file in a few taps.