Compress a PDF to under 5 MB

How it works

1. Drop the PDF. It is read in the browser and never leaves your computer.
2. Nothing to set: the target is 5 MB and the compression level follows from it.
3. Press the button. Most documents arrive well under without a visible change — at this size the pictures still have plenty of room.
4. 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.

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 A case bundle or an unpublished manuscript never leaves your device.