Compress a PDF to under 5 MB
The size where compression is free: a long colour scan gets here without looking any different.
Drop files here
or click to choose from your deviceAccepted: PDF
One file per runUp to 20 MB per file5 runs per dayFree PDFs end with a small “Made with nouplo.com” lineRemove limits with Pro✓ Works offline
Your files stay on your device
This tool runs entirely in your browser. Nothing is uploaded, nothing is stored, and you can even turn off your internet connection before you start.
Example
Example: how a long colour scan is brought under 5 MB
A 60-page thesis scanned in colour at full resolution comes to about 18 MB, and the submission system takes 5 MB. Drop it on the page: there is nothing to set.
- The pictures in the file are re-encoded with the first setting; if the result is still over 5 MB, the next one is tried — each time from the original, never from an already compressed copy.
- It stops at the first try that fits, keeping as much quality as 5 MB allows. A Letter page scanned at 300 dpi is 2,550 × 3,300 pixels; the first try keeps 2,400 on the long side, about 218 dpi.
- Text, fonts and drawings are carried across as they are; only the pictures change.
| Try | JPEG quality | Longest side of each picture |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 85 % | 2,400 px |
| 2 | 70 % | 1,600 px |
| 3 | 50 % | 1,100 px |
| 4 | 40 % | 900 px |
| 5 | 30 % | 700 px |
The first version under 5 MB, ready to upload, with its text still selectable. If even the fifth try does not fit, you get the smallest file it made and the page shows the size it reached.
How it works
- Drop the PDF. It is read in the browser and never leaves your computer.
- Nothing to set: the target is 5 MB and the compression level follows from it.
- Press the button. Most documents arrive well under without a visible change — at this size the pictures still have plenty of room.
- If it is still over, the answers below cover the reasons, which at 5 MB are rarely about colour.
Frequently asked questions
- Which systems ask for 5 MB?
- University and journal submission systems, court e-filing, and internal portals that take a whole dossier as one file. They are more generous because what they receive is genuinely long: a thesis chapter, a case bundle, a hundred-page report.
- Does anything visible get lost at this size?
- Rarely. 5 MB is enough for a long colour scan at a quality nobody notices the difference from. If you can see the compression at this target, the original was probably photographs rather than a document, and those belong in an image tool.
- It is still over 5 MB. What is taking the space?
- At this size it is usually page count rather than colour — a two-hundred-page scan has nothing left to give once each page is already modest. The other common cause is a PDF built from photographs at full camera resolution, where the pictures are the document. Splitting it is the honest answer, and there is a page for that.
- Is the text still selectable afterwards?
- Yes. Only the images are re-encoded; a text layer is carried across untouched, so copying, searching and screen readers all still work — which matters more here than at other sizes, because the documents are long enough that people search them.
- Why did my PDF hardly get smaller?
- Photos, and screenshots or scans stored without loss, are re-encoded as JPEG, each only when that makes it smaller. Pictures with transparency, black-and-white scans stored at 1 bit a pixel, palette images, text, fonts and vector drawings are left as they are, so a PDF made mostly of those has little to give.
- What counts as 5 MB here?
- 5,000,000 bytes. That is the smaller way to count 5 MB, so the file also passes a form that counts a megabyte as 1,048,576 bytes (5,242,880 in all).
- Is my file uploaded?
- No. The PDF is opened, re-encoded and rebuilt inside the browser tab. A case bundle or an unpublished manuscript never leaves your device.
Made for a specific use
Related tools
⇲ Compress PDF Make a PDF smaller for email or upload limits without sending it to anyone. ⧉ Merge PDF Combine PDFs into one document, in the order you choose, without sending them anywhere. ⋈ Split PDF Cut one PDF into several files by page ranges, one file per page, or parts under a size limit. ▣ PDF to JPG Export each page as an image you can drop into a slide, a chat or a website.