How to compress a PDF so it's small enough to email
Reduce PDF file size for free to fit email attachment limits — without uploading your document. Keep the quality, lose the megabytes.
Email providers cap attachment sizes (Gmail and Outlook at around 20–25 MB), and scanned PDFs blow past that fast. Here's how to shrink a PDF for free without uploading it to a stranger's server.
Why PDFs get huge
Scanned documents store each page as a high-resolution image, and embedded photos or fonts add weight. Compression re-encodes those images and strips redundant data to cut the size — often dramatically — while keeping the document readable.
How to compress a PDF, step by step
- Open the Compress PDF tool.
- Drop in your PDF.
- Choose a compression level (higher compression = smaller file).
- Download the smaller PDF — the original never leaves your device.
Still too big?
- Split a long document and send it in parts with Split PDF.
- If you only need a few pages, Extract pages first, then compress.
- Combining several files? Merge them first with Merge PDF, then compress once.
Free, private, no sign-up
Compression runs in your browser, so there's no upload and no file-size cap beyond your device's memory.
Tools used in this guide