Reduce a PDF to under 2 MB
Coursework, contracts and receipt bundles under 2 MB, compressed only as much as needed.
- Nothing is uploaded
- Works offline after first visit
- Open source
- No watermark · limit is your device’s memory; phones hold less
Fit coursework, receipts, contracts or scanned bundles under a 2 MB limit, keeping text selectable where possible. It is free, needs no account and adds no watermark, and your files are not uploaded: everything runs in your browser on your device. The size limit is your device’s memory, and phones hold less; give the page a short while after one visit to save itself for offline use, and then it works offline.
Done
Open the network tab. Your files never appear in it.
Add files and run the tool to see every request this tab makes.
Your files are processed on this device and never sent to a server. Reload the page to clear everything from memory.
Two megabytes is the limit on many coursework submission systems, e-filing and claims portals, and the sensible size for a PDF you email to a landlord, accountant or solicitor. Bundles of scanned receipts, a signed contract photographed page by page, or lecture notes with pasted photos easily run to 10 or 20 MB.
Most of that fits at 2 MB without flattening anything: recompressing the photos inside the PDF at moderate quality usually cuts a scan bundle by 80 to 90 percent while leaving any typed text selectable. The page tries that before resorting to turning pages into pictures, and reports the step it used.
For a document you will sign or submit officially, open the result and read a page or two before sending; small print on dark receipts is the first thing to suffer.
Email is the other place 2 MB matters. Mail servers cap attachments at 20 or 25 MB, but a message with a 15 MB PDF is slow to send, fills up the recipient’s inbox and is often blocked by company mail filters. A PDF under 2 MB goes through everywhere, opens instantly on a phone, and can be forwarded without anyone hitting a limit further down the line.
How it works
- Drop the PDF or several.
- Keep 2 MB or type another limit.
- Press Compress to 2 MB.
In your browser, not on a server
Lossless cleanup rewrites the PDF with pdf-lib using compressed object streams. Image recompression uses pdf.js to find embedded images, re-encodes each one at a lower quality on a canvas, and pdf-lib swaps the new streams in. Flatten renders every page to an image at the resolution you pick. Each mode runs entirely in your browser.
Compared with upload-based tools: PDF compressors online are the most upload-hungry tools there are, because the whole document has to go up before anything happens. Here a 50 MB scan is processed without a single byte leaving your machine.
Verify it yourself. Give the page a short while after one visit to save itself for offline use, then turn off Wi-Fi or switch to airplane mode and run the tool again. Or open your browser's developer tools (F12, or Cmd-Option-I on a Mac), pick the Network tab, and watch it while you convert. The panel above does the same count for you.
Questions
My bundle is made of photos. Should I compress before or after making the PDF?
Either works. Compressing the photos first with the image compressor gives you more control per photo; compressing the finished PDF here is quicker and fits the whole bundle to the limit in one go.
Why is a lossless rewrite sometimes enough?
Many PDFs, especially from older software and scanners, store data inefficiently or carry unused objects and duplicate fonts. Rewriting them with compressed object streams can halve them with no change to what you see.
What if even flattening does not reach 2 MB?
The result card shows the smallest size reached. Split the document into parts and send them separately, or remove pages the recipient does not need with the delete pages tool.
Is the file uploaded anywhere?
No. There is no server in this process. The page is a static file and the work is done by code running inside your browser tab. Give the page a short while after one visit to save itself for offline use; then you can turn off Wi-Fi and it still works.
More PDF tools
Compress PDF
Shrink a PDF for email or an upload limit. Pick a level, or type the size you need, like 1 MB, and the page tries the gentlest setting that fits. Processed on your device.
Open ZIP, RAR and 7z
The files inside an archive, unpacked on your own device, without installing WinRAR or 7-Zip.
Create ZIP
Files and folders packed into one ZIP on your own device, locked with a password when they are private.
Watermark PDF
Mark every page as a draft, confidential or a copy for one person, without sending the document anywhere.
Other conversions
Guides
- How to compress a PDF without losing qualityWhere the size comes from, which reductions are free, and where the quality trade-off actually starts.
- Is Smallpdf safe?Smallpdf is a reputable Swiss company with published retention rules. What changes the answer for you is which of its storage rules applies to your file.
- Is iLovePDF safe?iLovePDF is an established European service with good published practices. For confidential PDFs, the safer question is whether they need to be uploaded at all.
- Is PDF24 safe?PDF24 is a long-standing German project, and it tells you itself that its offline app is the more private option. Here is how to choose between the two, and a third way.
- A free Smallpdf alternative with no daily limitSmallpdf's free plan has daily limits. Here is what that means, and a way around it where your files are never uploaded.