Compress PDF
Make a PDF smaller, with an honest choice about the trade-off.
Drop the PDF you want smaller
Compressed on your device · nothing is uploaded
No PDF yet
Add a PDF and choose how aggressively to shrink it.
Private by design. This tool runs entirely in your browser. Your file is processed on your own device and is not uploaded by DO101.
About the Compress PDF
Two strategies, both explained before you commit. The safe one rewrites the file structure and keeps text selectable, with modest savings. The aggressive one re-renders each page as an image, which shrinks scans dramatically but destroys the text layer. DO101 tells you which one you are choosing and what it costs.
How to use it
- 1Add the PDF you want smaller.
- 2Choose "keep text" for a safe pass, or "shrink hard" for scans.
- 3Compare the before and after sizes, then download.
What you get
- Two clearly explained strategies
- Before/after size and percentage saved
- Adjustable image quality and resolution
- Warns you when a file did not get smaller
- Compressed on your device — no upload
Frequently asked questions
Why did my PDF barely shrink?
The safe mode only rewrites the file structure. If the PDF was already well built — most PDFs exported from modern software are — there is very little slack to recover. Scanned documents full of large images are where the aggressive mode wins.
What exactly does "shrink hard" do to my file?
It renders every page to a JPEG and rebuilds the PDF around those images. The result looks the same but is a picture of your document: text can no longer be selected, searched or copied. Always keep your original.
Why do other sites compress more?
Server-based tools can re-encode the individual images inside a PDF while leaving the text alone. That needs a full PDF object rewriter, which is not something a browser can do reliably today — so DO101 offers the two approaches it can genuinely deliver, and says so.
Is my document uploaded?
No. Both strategies run on your device.
Keep going
People who use this tool usually reach for these next.
Break one PDF into separate files by page count or range.
Combine several PDFs into one, in the order you choose.
Turn every page of a PDF into a JPG image.
Shrink JPG, PNG or WebP files without leaving your browser.