Size-specific
Compress PDF to 1MB
Many web portals, email gateways, and government e-filing sites enforce a strict 1MB upload limit. A scanned contract or a design-heavy PDF can easily be 10-50x over that ceiling, and most desktop PDF apps don't tell you how close to 1MB you'll get until you save.
PennyPDF's compressor runs three passes — lossless cleanup first, then image resampling, then font subsetting — and prints the estimated output size before you download. If the result is still over 1MB, bump the preset one notch harder without re-uploading. One coin (~4¢) per compression, and your file is deleted from our servers within two hours.
If your PDF is mostly text, the lowest preset usually gets under 1MB with zero visible quality loss. Photo-heavy PDFs need the medium or strong preset — expect some image softening, but text stays crisp.
How it works
- 1Drop your PDF into the compressor (up to 100MB for logged-in users).
- 2Pick a preset — start with Low and move to Strong only if needed.
- 3Watch the estimated output size update. Under 1MB? Great.
- 4Click Compress. Download the result — the original stays on your device.
Frequently asked
What's the smallest I can shrink a PDF to?+
Text-heavy PDFs can often go under 200KB with the Strong preset. Photo-heavy documents bottom out around 300-800KB per page before visible quality loss. The tool shows the estimated output size before you commit.
Will text stay readable after compression?+
Yes. All three presets preserve the text layer intact — only images and font data get shrunk. You can still select, copy, and search the text.
Does compressing affect OCR?+
No. If your PDF already has a text layer from OCR, that layer survives compression unchanged. You can OCR first and compress after in either order.
Is my file uploaded?+
Yes for compression — it's one of the few tools that has to run on our server because Ghostscript-level size reduction doesn't have a good WASM equivalent yet. The file is encrypted in transit, stored in a short-TTL bucket, and deleted within two hours.
What does it cost?+
One coin per compression, which works out to about 4 cents at the Starter pack price. No subscription, no auto-renew.
Why PennyPDF
- No subscription. Ever.
- Coins never expire — use them in 5 years.
- Client-side processing for 14 of 22 tools.
- No watermarks at any tier.
- Per-operation pricing, shown before you click.
- Same coins for web + public API.