Free online PDF tool
Compress and clean up a PDF
It is worth being straight about what this tool does, because most "compress PDF" pages are not. It rebuilds your document using compact object streams and removes leftover metadata, editing history, and producer tags. For PDFs that have been through several editors, that alone can cut a noticeable amount of weight.
What it does not do is re-encode your images at lower quality. That means text stays perfectly sharp and nothing is degraded — but it also means a PDF that is mostly high-resolution scans will not shrink much, because the images are already compressed. The tool reports the before and after size so you can see exactly what changed.
Open Compress PDFRuns in your browser — your files are never uploaded.
How to Compress PDF
- Select the PDF you want to optimize.
- Press "Optimize PDF".
- Check the reported before and after size. If the saving is small, your PDF was already efficiently packed.
Frequently asked questions
Why did my file barely get smaller?
Because its size is dominated by already-compressed images rather than document structure. This tool optimizes structure and metadata, not image quality, so scan-heavy PDFs see little change.
Could the file get bigger?
Occasionally, yes, and the tool will tell you when that happens. Some PDFs use a layout that is already more compact than a standard rebuild. In that case just keep your original.
Does it remove anything I might want?
It clears title, author, subject, and keyword metadata. If you need those, set them again afterwards with the metadata editor.
Will text stay selectable?
Yes. Nothing is rasterized, so text remains selectable and searchable exactly as before.