Reduce your PDF file size without losing important quality or content.
Trusted by 10,000+ users · 2M+files processed · SOC 2 compliant
Compress PDF files online with PDFPilot4U — reduce PDF size by up to 90% while keeping text crisp and images readable, in seconds. The compress PDF tool uses smart image downsampling (300 DPI to 150/100/72 DPI based on compression level), font subsetting, and metadata cleanup to shrink files dramatically without re-rendering. Choose compression level (Low: visually identical, Medium: 50-70% smaller, High: 70-90% smaller, Extreme: max shrink for screen-only viewing). Perfect for emailing large PDF attachments that exceed Gmail/Outlook limits, uploading to file-size-restricted portals, archiving long reports to save storage, or speeding up web downloads. The compress PDF process runs entirely in the cloud — no install — and shows before/after file sizes with a preview before download. Files encrypted in transit with TLS 1.3, auto-deleted in 24 hours, free for 30 compressions per day with no watermark.
Drop the PDF file. The compress PDF tool supports up to 500 MB on Business plans.
Pick Low (visually identical), Medium (50-70% smaller), High (70-90% smaller), or Extreme (max shrink). Preview before downloading.
The compressed PDF downloads instantly. Before/after file size and quality preview shown.
Sales teams compress proposal PDFs from 25 MB to under 10 MB to fit Gmail and Outlook attachment limits.
Job seekers compress resume PDFs to fit application portal upload limits (usually 5 MB).
Compliance teams compress years of archived PDFs to cut cloud storage costs by 50-80%.
How Compress PDF Online Free on PDFPilot4U compares to the most common alternatives.
| Feature | PDFPilot4U | iLovePDF | Smallpdf |
|---|---|---|---|
| Compression levels | 4 levels (Low/Medium/High/Extreme) | 3 levels | 2 levels free |
| Before/after size preview | Yes | Yes | Premium |
| Max compression ratio | Up to 95% | Up to 90% | Up to 80% free |
| Free daily limit | 30 operations/day (guest), unlimited on Business | ~3 tasks/hour for free, premium starts $7/mo | 2 documents/day free, premium $9/mo |
| Max file size (free) | 5 MB free, 100 MB Pro, 500 MB Business | ~10 MB free | ~5 MB free |
| AI features included | 12 AI tools (Ask PDF, Summarize, Translate, etc.) | Limited — AI add-on only on premium | AI features locked behind premium tier |
| Privacy / data handling | TLS 1.3 + AES-256, auto-delete in 24h, no model training | Files deleted in 2h, standard SSL | Files deleted in 1h, ISO 27001 |
| No watermark on output | Always — free + paid | Free tier may add watermark | Free tier may add watermark |
Typical reduction: Low (10-30% smaller), Medium (50-70%), High (70-90%), Extreme (80-95%). Text-only PDFs compress less; image-heavy PDFs compress more.
No. Text remains vector-based and crisp at any compression level. Only embedded images are downsampled (DPI reduction). Text stays sharp.
At Low compression, images stay identical. Medium downsamples to 150 DPI (still print-quality). High and Extreme go to 100/72 DPI (screen-quality only).
Medium for general sharing (good balance). High for email attachments. Extreme for screen-only viewing where size matters most. Low for archival.
Unlock first with our Unlock PDF tool. Encrypted PDFs cannot be compressed directly for security reasons.
Yes — 30 compressions per day for guests, more on free accounts. No watermark on output.
No. Text searchability is preserved at all compression levels. The compress PDF tool retains text as vector data, only modifying embedded images.
2-10 seconds for most files. Larger PDFs (200+ pages with many images) may take 30-60 seconds.
