No gates
Compress PDF without signup
Compression is genuinely a server-side operation — the algorithms (Ghostscript-level image resampling, font subsetting, xref deduplication) don't have a good WebAssembly equivalent yet. That's why every online PDF compressor uploads your file. The question becomes: what does each service make you do before you can upload it?
Smallpdf: 2 free compressions per day, then subscription up-sell. iLovePDF: 1-2 free per day with watermark in some output modes. PennyPDF: 3 free compressions per day for unauthenticated sessions (rate-limited by IP), or 10 free per month if you sign in with a one-click Google/Microsoft SSO. Sign-in is optional, not required.
No email verification. No credit card. No pricing surprise. If you go over the free daily cap, the tool tells you, and you can buy 10 coins for $0.99 to cover the next 10 compressions. That's the entire monetization path.
How it works
- 1Open /compress. No signup prompt.
- 2Drag-drop your PDF. Up to 25MB per file for unauthenticated; 100MB if signed in.
- 3Pick a preset. Review the estimated output size before clicking.
- 4Compress — the file uploads, processes, and downloads back within a few seconds.
- 5Original file on our server is deleted within 2 hours automatically.
Frequently asked
Why do I get 3 free compressions and not unlimited?+
Compression uses real server CPU. Without a rate limit, the tool would be abused by bots running bulk compressions. 3/day per IP is enough for any genuine personal use; the cap lifts once you sign in (10/month free) or buy coins.
Is the uploaded file actually deleted?+
Within 2 hours, automatic. Our storage is a short-TTL bucket with a lifecycle policy enforced by the cloud provider, not by our application code. We couldn't keep files longer even if we wanted to.
Watermarks?+
Never. No watermark at any tier, including unauthenticated free use. Competitors apply watermarks to free output as a brand-imprint tactic; we don't.
Does the compression preserve OCR text?+
Yes. All three presets preserve the text layer. If your PDF was searchable before compression, it stays searchable after.
Is there a batch upload for compressing many PDFs at once?+
In the web UI, one at a time. For batch operations, the API (/docs/api) supports array uploads at 1 coin per compression. API also has no daily cap — just coin cost.
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.