Compress a PDF to fit an email or upload size limit
"Attachment too large" or "file exceeds the maximum size" usually means photos or scans. Here is how to get under the limit without uploading the file to a compression website.
Why PDFs get big
Almost always because of pictures. Phone cameras and scanners make images far sharper than a screen needs, so a few pages can reach tens of MB. A PDF with only text is usually small.
Email services cap attachments (Gmail at 25 MB in total), and many work systems and filing portals set lower limits.
The three levels
- Balanced (recommended): brings large photos down to a quality that still prints well. Text and lines stay as they are.
- Lossless (no quality change): removes waste inside the file without touching image quality. Saves less.
- Strong (smallest, Pro): lowers photo quality further for the smallest file. Best for email and on-screen reading.
Steps
- Open Compress PDF and drop one PDF.
- Keep Balanced (recommended) and press Run.
- The sizes before and after are shown. Check that the file is under your limit.
- Still too big? Try Strong. It is a Pro level, and you can try it once for free.
- Open the downloaded file to check it looks right before you send it.
If it still does not fit
- Text-only and already-compressed PDFs barely shrink. kami never returns a bigger file: if it cannot help, you get the original back.
- Delete pages you do not need with Delete pages.
- Split the file with Split PDF and send the parts separately.
- One file can be up to 500 MB.
Questions and answers
Is it free?
Balanced and Lossless are free with no limit on use. Strong is part of Pro, with one free try.
Will the text get blurry?
No. Only photos and scanned images are changed; text and lines stay sharp. Choose Lossless if you want no change at all.
Is my PDF uploaded?
No. Compression happens in your browser.
Last updated: 2026-09-14