Compress a PDF without uploading it
Shrink a PDF that is too large to email or submit. The whole file is processed on your own device, which matters when the document is a contract, a bank statement or a passport scan.
Compress a PDF nowWhy PDFs end up too big
Almost every oversized PDF has the same cause: images. A document produced from a scanner or a phone camera stores a full-resolution photograph of each page, so a ten page scan can easily run past 30 MB while a text-only report of the same length sits under 200 KB.
That matters because many systems refuse large files. Email attachments are commonly capped around 20 to 25 MB, and government or university upload forms are often far stricter, sometimes as low as 2 MB per document.
docu4all offers two ways to get under the limit, and the right one depends entirely on what is inside your file. Knowing the difference saves you from either a disappointing result or an unnecessarily damaged document.
How to do it, step by step
Open the compressor
Drag your PDF in or choose the file. Nothing is uploaded, so there is no size cap and no queue.
Pick a level
Light, Balanced or Strong sets the quality and resolution together. Balanced is a sensible starting point for most documents.
Choose how to compress
Keep text preserves selectable text and searchability. Rasterize converts pages to images and shrinks scans dramatically.
Download the smaller file
The before and after sizes are shown side by side, so you can see exactly how much you saved before saving it.
Keep text or rasterize: which to choose
Keep text mode rebuilds the file losslessly and strips metadata. Your text stays selectable and searchable, and nothing is degraded. The honest limitation is that savings are modest, and a PDF that was already exported efficiently may barely shrink at all. That is not a fault in the tool; there is simply nothing left to remove.
Rasterize mode renders each page to an image at a resolution you control. For scanned documents and image-heavy files this is where the large reductions come from. The trade-off is real: the text becomes part of a picture, so it can no longer be selected, copied or found with a search, and it will not be readable by screen readers. Use it for scans you simply need to send, not for documents somebody will need to search.
Try it now — it is free
No account, no watermarks, and your file never leaves your device.
Compress a PDF nowFrequently asked questions
Is there a file size limit?
No. Because compression runs on your own device rather than a server, the only practical limit is your computer's memory.
Will compressing reduce the quality?
In keep-text mode nothing is degraded. In rasterize mode quality depends on the level you choose, and the preview shows the resulting size before you save.
Is my PDF uploaded to a server?
No. The file never leaves your device, which is why there is no upload wait and no retention policy to read.
Why did my PDF barely get smaller?
It was probably already optimised, or it is mostly text rather than images. Text compresses very well to begin with, so there is little left to squeeze.