Compress PDF
Reduce file size with quality presets.
Free · No sign-up · Files deleted in 1 hour
How to Compress PDF
- Upload your PDFDrag it in or import from Drive / OneDrive.
- Choose a compression levelRecommended suits most files. Pick Less compression to keep the most quality, or Maximum compression for the smallest file.
- DownloadCompress and save — files are processed securely and deleted automatically.
Compress PDF Online — Reduce File Size Free
Reduce PDF file size using Ghostscript compression presets — Low for the best visual quality, Medium for everyday sharing, or High when you need the smallest possible file, roughly 25%, 50% and 75% smaller respectively.
Compression re-encodes embedded images and cleans up redundant data; it doesn't touch your text or vector art, so documents stay sharp and searchable even at the High preset. Files up to 50 MB are accepted, and everything — upload and result — is deleted automatically after an hour.
There's no fixed "compress to exactly 1 MB" mode, but Medium and High often shrink image-heavy PDFs enough for email attachments and portal uploads — pick a preset, check the result, and re-run with a stronger setting if you need it smaller still. Compression is free and runs in your browser session — no desktop software, no account.
- Three presets: Low, Medium, High (~25/50/75% smaller)
- Text and vector art stay sharp — only images are re-encoded
- Powered by Ghostscript, an industry-standard compressor
- Takes files up to 50 MB; results cleared after an hour
- No account, and nothing stamped on the compressed file
Frequently asked questions
Is it safe to compress a PDF online?
Yes — Dudle processes your file over an encrypted connection and deletes both the upload and the compressed result automatically after an hour, with no sign-up needed.
Does compressing a PDF reduce quality?
It can reduce image quality slightly at the Medium and High presets, since those re-encode embedded images more aggressively; text and vector graphics are never degraded at any preset.
How do I compress a PDF to a specific size, like 1 MB?
Start with Recommended and move to Maximum compression if the file is still too big — how much you save depends on the file, so check the result and step up if you need to. Image-heavy and scanned PDFs shrink the most; a text-only PDF may barely change.
What actually happens when you compress a PDF file?
Ghostscript re-encodes and downsamples embedded images and strips redundant internal data, shrinking the file while leaving text and vector content untouched.
Why is my PDF file so big in the first place?
High-resolution scanned pages or uncompressed embedded images are almost always the cause — text-only PDFs are naturally small and compress comparatively little.