Compress a PDF to under 500 KB
Multi-page scans and statements under 500 KB, with text kept where it can be.
- Nothing is uploaded
- Works offline after first visit
- Open source
- No watermark · limit is your device’s memory; phones hold less
Bring a multi-page scan or statement under 500 KB for a visa, immigration or bank upload. 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.
Visa and immigration portals, bank and brokerage account opening, and rental reference checks often limit each upload to 500 KB, while the documents they ask for are several pages long: bank statements, payslips, tenancy agreements, a passport’s photo page and its stamps.
At 500 KB a downloaded bank statement or payslip usually fits after the lossless rewrite, keeping it searchable, which some reviewers use to check figures. A five- to ten-page scan fits once its images are recompressed at moderate quality. The page only flattens pages when the lighter steps cannot get there, and names the step it used on the result card.
These are financial and identity documents, so it matters that nothing is uploaded: the file is read and rewritten in this tab and nowhere else.
Passport and visa scans deserve a check after compression: the machine-readable lines at the bottom of the photo page and any entry stamps should still be crisp, because an officer or an automated check reads them. Recompressing the scan image at moderate quality keeps them sharp; if the page had to be flattened at very low resolution, try splitting the document so each part gets a larger share of the budget.
How it works
- Drop the statement or scan.
- Keep 500 KB or type the portal’s limit.
- Press Compress to 500 KB.
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
Will a compressed bank statement still be accepted?
Reviewers look for legible figures and an intact document. The lossless and image steps change nothing in the text, and a statement downloaded from online banking rarely needs more. Keep the original too, in case they ask for it.
I have 20 pages and it will not fit.
Twenty scanned pages in 500 KB is about 25 KB a page, which means low-resolution grayscale. If the portal allows several files, split the document into parts with the split tool and compress each.
Does compressing break a digital signature?
Yes, any rewrite of a signed PDF invalidates its digital signature, even a lossless one. If the signature must stay valid, send the original or ask the recipient for a higher limit.
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.
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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.
- A free iLovePDF alternative with no task limits or adsiLovePDF's free plan works, but with limits on documents, batches and file size. Here is what changes with a tool that never uploads the file at all.
- A PDF24 alternative that works in your browser without uploadingPDF24 itself points to its desktop app for keeping files on your PC, but that app is Windows only. Here is an alternative that skips the upload, in any modern browser.
- How to resize a PDFTwo different jobs share this name: changing the paper size, and making the file smaller. Here is which is which, and how to do each.