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FileCrisp

Compress PDF — free, in your browser

Get a PDF small enough to email, without uploading it to anyone. Choose whether text stays selectable.

To compress a PDF, drop it here and choose a mode. Scanned documents typically drop 60–80%. Text-only PDFs save far less, because there is little redundancy to remove. The modes that save most rasterise the pages, which makes text unselectable. Nothing is uploaded.

  • Nothing uploadedRuns on your device
  • No limitsNo account, no watermark
  • No upload waitStarts immediately
On this page

How it works

  1. 1

    Add your PDF

    Drop it in or click to browse. It's read from your own device — nothing is sent to a server, which matters for the contracts and scans people usually compress.

  2. 2

    Choose how hard to compress

    Keep text selectable is safe but saves less. Balanced and Smallest file turn each page into an image, which is what produces the large reductions on scanned documents.

  3. 3

    Compress and download

    You'll see the before and after size straight away. If compressing would have made the file bigger, you get your original back untouched instead.

What each setting does

Keep text selectable
Rewrites the file more efficiently — packing objects into compressed streams and stripping metadata — without touching the content. Completely safe, and completely modest: usually 5-20%, sometimes almost nothing on a file that is already lean.
Balanced
Renders each page at 150dpi and stores it as a JPEG. This is what actually shrinks a scan, typically by 60-80%. 150dpi is the point where printed output still looks clean and screen viewing is indistinguishable.
Smallest file
The same approach at 110dpi and lower JPEG quality. Use it when Balanced is not enough to meet a hard limit, and check the result before sending — this is where quality loss becomes visible.
What rasterising costs
The output contains pictures of words rather than words. Text can no longer be selected, searched or copied, and no tool can reverse it. On a scan that was already true. On a document exported from a word processor it is a real loss.

Results you can expect

Measured on real files by our own test suite, not estimated.

Measured on a 1.35 MB two-page scanned PDF
ModeOutputSavingText
Keep text selectable1.31 MB3%Preserved
Balanced171 KB87%Becomes an image
Smallest file96 KB93%Becomes an image
Measured on a 1.35 MB two-page scanned PDF

What people use this for

  • Email attachments

    Gmail and Outlook cap at 25 MB and many corporate servers at 10. A scan that will not send is the single most common reason people compress a PDF.

    Read the guide

  • When it is urgent

    Thirty seconds, no software, and no uploading a confidential document to a stranger's server.

    Read the guide

  • Keeping text searchable

    Two methods with very different costs. Which one you want depends entirely on whether anyone needs to search the document afterwards.

    Read the guide

  • On Mac, Windows or a phone

    Every platform has its own approach and most of them upload your document to do it.

    Read the guide

How this compares

FileCrisp compared with the common alternatives
FileCrispiLovePDF / SmallpdfMac Preview
Uploads your documentNoYesNo
Free limitNoneTask capsNone
Compression on scansComparableComparableWeaker
Compression on text PDFsWeakerStrongerWeaker
Keeps text selectableOptional modeUsuallyNo control
FileCrisp compared with the common alternatives

Questions

How much smaller will my PDF get?

It depends almost entirely on what's inside. Scanned documents and photo-heavy PDFs typically drop 60–80% in Balanced mode, because the images dominate the file size. A text-only PDF exported from a word processor is already compact and may only shrink a few percent — there simply isn't much redundancy to remove.

Why does compressing make my text unselectable?

The modes that produce large savings work by rendering each page to an image and rebuilding the document from those images. That's what makes scans shrink so dramatically, but the result contains pictures of words rather than words, so text can no longer be selected, searched or copied. Choose Keep text selectable if that matters, and always keep your original.

Is my PDF uploaded to compress it?

No. Everything happens in your browser. Your document is read from disk into memory on your own device and never transmitted. This is worth knowing for the kinds of files people compress to email — contracts, invoices, medical records and signed forms.

Why is your compression weaker than some other tools?

Tools that recompress the images already embedded in a PDF, in place and without rasterising, are almost all built on Ghostscript or MuPDF. Both are licensed in a way we can't use here, so we don't. Our honest answer is: for scans and image-heavy PDFs you'll get comparable savings, and for text-only PDFs you'll get less. We'd rather say that than overstate it.

What if the compressed file comes out bigger?

You get your original back instead. Already-optimised PDFs sometimes grow when rewritten, and a tool called Compress that hands you a larger file is worse than one that does nothing.

How small does my PDF need to be for email?

Gmail and Outlook both cap attachments at 25 MB, and many corporate mail servers are stricter at 10 MB. Aim below 10 MB if you don't know what the recipient uses. If Balanced isn't enough, try Smallest file, or split the document and send it in parts.

Can I compress a password-protected PDF?

Not without removing the password first. An encrypted PDF can't be opened for processing, so you'll get a clear message saying so rather than a broken file.

How small does a PDF need to be for email?

Under 10 MB is safe almost everywhere. Gmail and Outlook allow 25 MB, but many corporate servers stop at 10 and some at 5, and encoding inflates the message by roughly a third.

Does compressing affect the page count or size?

No. Pages stay in order and keep their physical dimensions. Only how each page is stored changes.

Will my links and form fields survive?

In Keep text selectable mode, yes. The rasterising modes turn each page into an image, so interactive elements and links do not survive.

Why does 150dpi look fine when my scanner used 300?

300dpi is right for capture, where you want more detail than you will display. 150dpi is right for delivery: it prints cleanly and is indistinguishable on screen, at a quarter of the data.

Is my document uploaded?

No. The whole operation runs in your browser. That matters more here than for most tools, because the PDFs people compress are contracts, invoices, medical records and signed forms.

If something looks wrong

It barely got smaller
Your PDF is probably text rather than scanned. A document exported from a word processor stores letters and positions, not pixels, and there is very little redundancy to remove. That is an honest limit rather than a failure — if it must be smaller, split it and send in parts.
The text is no longer selectable
You used Balanced or Smallest file, which render each page to an image. That is what produces the large savings, and it is stated before you run it. Use Keep text selectable, and accept a smaller saving, when searchability matters.
You got the original back
Compressing would have made it larger, which happens with already-optimised PDFs. Returning your file untouched is better than handing you something bigger from a tool called Compress.
Our compression is weaker than another tool's
On text-only PDFs, probably yes. Tools that recompress embedded images in place without rasterising are almost all built on Ghostscript or MuPDF, which are licensed in a way we cannot use. On scans and photo-heavy documents you should see comparable results.

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