PDF target
Compress PDF to 1MB
You can get a PDF under 1MB without uploading it anywhere. The first attempt is lossless -- the file is rewritten with object streams and duplicate resources dropped -- and if that measures under 1MB you keep selectable text, working search and crisp glyphs at any zoom. Only if lossless is not enough do the pages get rasterised, and you are told before that happens rather than after.
2Add your file
Video, images and PDFs, all compressed on your own machine. No upload, no account, no watermark, no limit on how many files.
The same tool takes video, images and PDFs, at this size or any other.
Mechanism
How this works
Four steps. The byte count is measured at every one of them.
- 01
The document is opened locally
Page count and size are read in your browser. A PDF is often the most sensitive thing anyone compresses, and this one does not leave the machine it is on.
- 02
Lossless is tried first, and measured
The file is rewritten with object streams and duplicated resources dropped. If that alone measures under 1MB, it is what you get -- text still selectable, search still working, glyphs still sharp.
- 03
Only then are the pages rasterised
If lossless was not enough, each page is rendered to an image. That reaches any target, but it is permanent: Ctrl+F finds nothing afterwards. You are told before it happens, not after.
- 04
Render scale is bisected, not guessed
Scale is searched before JPEG quality, because too few pixels reads as a small scan while heavy JPEG on text edges reads as something being broken. The best result measured under 1MB ships.
Questions
Compressing PDF to 1MB
- How do I compress a PDF to 1MB?
- Drop the file into the tool on this page -- the target is already set to 1MB. The work happens in your browser on your own machine, so there is no upload, no queue and no account. The output is measured before you are given it, so it is genuinely under 1MB.
- Is that exactly 1MB, or approximately 1MB?
- Under it, and verified. The byte count of the finished file is measured and compared against the limit before anything is handed back, and if it came in over, it is done again. 1MB here means 1 decimal megabytes -- 1,000,000 bytes -- which is the smaller of the two readings a platform might intend, so it clears either.
- Will the text still be selectable after compressing to 1MB?
- If the lossless pass reaches 1MB, yes -- the text, the search index and the accessibility tree are all untouched. If it does not, reaching 1MB requires rendering the pages to images, which ends selectable text permanently. You are told which of the two happened, and warned before anything is rasterised rather than after.
- Is it safe to compress a confidential document here?
- The file is never uploaded. There is no server to send it to -- the whole pipeline is JavaScript running in your own browser tab, which is why there is no queue and no account. Nothing about the document reaches us, including its name.
Nearby
Other sizes
Landed on the wrong number? The right one is one click away.
Other files
Not what you were holding?
Each family reaches your number a different way, because each has a different dial to turn.
Background
Worth reading first
The arithmetic behind the number, and what to do when it will not fit.
- Compressing a scanned PDFA scan has no text to protect, so the usual lossless pass saves almost nothing. What is left is a resolution decision — and there is a right way to make it.
- Compressing a PDF without AcrobatAcrobat's "Reduce File Size" is three presets with no target field. Here is what those presets do, and how to get the same result without a subscription.
- Notion's 5MB upload limitNotion's free plan rejects any file over 5MB, and its own help page gives three different numbers for paid plans. Here is what actually applies.