Compress PDF to a Target Size
Shrink a PDF down to the size an upload form demands — set a target in KB and download. Unlike a browser-only tool, this recompresses the PDF properly: text stays text, images get smaller, nothing is flattened into a picture.
- Deleted right after compressing
- No signup
- Free & unlimited
To compress a PDF online, drop it in, optionally set a target size in KB, and download. ResizeMate runs it through Ghostscript on our server — the same engine professional PDF tools use — and deletes the file immediately after.
How to compress a PDF to a target size
- Add your PDF. Drop in a PDF file, or click to browse.
- Set a target size (optional). Type a KB limit — e.g. 500 for a 500 KB cap — or pick a quality level instead and leave the target blank.
- Compress & download. Download the smaller PDF once it is ready — usually a few seconds.
Why this one tool isn't browser-only
Every other tool on this site runs entirely on your device — that's the whole point of ResizeMate. PDF compression is the one job a browser genuinely can't do well: without a full PDF-editing engine, the only browser-side option is to redraw every page as a flat image, which throws away selectable text and often looks worse than the original.
So this tool uploads your PDF to our server, where Ghostscript — the open-source engine behind most professional PDF compressors — recompresses the embedded images and downsamples resolution, while leaving fonts, text and vector graphics exactly as they were. The file is processed and deleted within seconds; nothing is stored, logged or kept.
What actually gets smaller
Ghostscript's compression works on the images inside a PDF, not the text. A document that is mostly scanned pages or embedded photos will shrink dramatically. A PDF that is already just a few paragraphs of text has very little to trim, because there is no image data to recompress.
| Content | Compresses well | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Scanned document (photographed or scanned pages) | Yes | The most common source of an oversized PDF |
| Photo-heavy report or brochure | Yes | Embedded images are recompressed directly |
| Plain text document (contract, letter) | A little | Little image data to trim — already fairly small |
Common PDF upload limits
- Government and exam portals often cap PDF uploads at 200 KB–1 MB per document.
- Email attachments are usually safest kept under a few MB in total across all files.
- Job application and visa portals frequently ask for "under 2 MB" per document.
Building a PDF from images instead? Use Image to PDF, which runs entirely in your browser.
Why use ResizeMate
Deleted instantly
Your PDF is compressed on our server and deleted the moment the response is sent — nothing is kept.
Real compression
Ghostscript recompresses embedded images and keeps text selectable — a browser alone can't do that.
Free
No signup, no watermark, no limits.
Frequently asked questions
- Will my PDF still have selectable text?
- Yes — that is the main advantage over a browser-only compressor. Ghostscript recompresses images and leaves text, fonts and vector graphics as real PDF content, so it stays selectable, searchable and copyable.
- What if the target size is impossible to hit?
- ResizeMate tries every quality level from best to smallest and returns the highest quality that fits. If none fit, it returns the smallest possible result and tells you so.
- Are my PDFs uploaded?
- Yes, briefly — this is the one tool on ResizeMate that isn't purely client-side, because real PDF compression needs a server-side engine. Your file is compressed and deleted within seconds of the request finishing; it is never stored or logged.
- Why is this different from the other tools here?
- Every other ResizeMate tool works entirely in your browser. A browser has no way to recompress a PDF's internals, so this is the one exception — and the upload is temporary by design, not a stored account or history.