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Compress PDF to 500 KB

Make a PDF smaller than 500 KB for online forms, insurance claims and customer-service uploads. The size is already set: drop your file and press Compress PDF.

Free · no sign-up · no watermark · files deleted right after

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or click to choose · up to 50 MB (100 MB on this device)

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Compress PDF to 500 KB

Many upload forms reject PDFs above a fixed limit, and 500 KB is a common one: online forms, insurance claims and customer-service uploads. This page is set up for exactly that. The tool first tries light compression and only moves to stronger levels if the file is still over 500 KB, so you get the best quality that fits.

At 500 KB there is room for about ten scanned pages or a short report with photos at good on-screen quality, so most documents stay at the Less or Recommended level.

How to compress a PDF

  1. Drop your PDF onto the box, or click to choose it.
  2. Pick a level, or choose Target size and type the size you need.
  3. Press Compress PDF. The result shows the size before and after.
  4. Download the smaller PDF.

Compress a PDF to a specific size

Frequently asked questions

How do I get a PDF under 500 KB?

Drop the PDF on this page and press Compress PDF. The target is already 500 KB; you can change the number in Maximum size if your form asks for something else. The result shows the new size, and a note if it could not get under the limit.

What if the PDF is still bigger than 500 KB?

If Extreme is not enough, Best compression goes further, down to 50 dpi images, and asks you to check that small text is still readable. Very long documents or many full-page photos can still stay above 500 KB. Remove pages you do not need with Delete PDF Pages, or split the document into parts with Split PDF, then compress each part.

Will the text still be selectable?

Yes with Best compression: text, links and fonts stay real text, only images are re-encoded. On this device, Recommended and Extreme turn pages into images for a bigger reduction, so text is no longer selectable there.

Is my PDF safe? Is it stored?

With Best compression, your PDF travels over an encrypted HTTPS connection to our server in the EU, is compressed by Ghostscript, sent straight back and deleted at once. It is not stored, copied, logged or looked at. If you prefer that the file never leaves your computer, choose On this device.

Related tools

Best compression uses Ghostscript (AGPL-3.0, unmodified) and qpdf (Apache-2.0). On this device uses pdf.js and pdf-lib.