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Compress PDF to 1 MB

Bring a PDF under 1 MB for forms, court and tax portals, keeping its text selectable where possible. Preset to 1 MB; it runs in your browser.

Private · on device. Runs in your browser: your file is not uploaded. No sign-up.

One PDF, any size

The most common upload limit

"Maximum file size 1 MB" appears on a great many government, university and tax portals. It is enough for almost any typed document and for a reasonable scan, as long as the scan was not made at photographic quality. The aim is a file just under the limit, so nothing is thrown away needlessly.

Scans: the settings that matter

  • Greyscale is roughly half to a third the size of colour, with no loss for printed text.
  • 150–200 DPI is readable and printable; 600 DPI scans are many times bigger for no visible gain.
  • A phone photo of a page should be cropped to the paper before it becomes a PDF.

When 1 MB is for email

If the limit is your email provider's rather than a form's, the PDF too big for email tool explains how much larger an attachment becomes once it is sent, and can split a document into parts that each go through.

Frequently asked questions

How much can fit in 1 MB?

A typed report of a hundred pages or more, a short scan of ten to twenty greyscale pages at 150 DPI, or four to eight colour pages. Large photo-heavy brochures and presentation PDFs usually need their images reduced, which is exactly what the compressor does first.

Why is my PDF so big when it only has a few pages?

Usually one of three reasons: it was scanned at a high resolution in colour, it contains photos at full camera size, or it was exported with every font embedded in full. The compressor looks at which of these applies and deals with that, instead of turning every page into a blurry picture.

Will my document lose quality?

Text documents keep their text exactly; only embedded pictures are re-encoded, and at 1 MB they can usually keep good quality. Scans are re-rendered at the highest resolution that fits, and the preview shows the result before you download.

Is 1 MB 1,000,000 bytes or 1,048,576?

It depends on the portal, so the tool aims for at most 1,000,000 bytes, which is under both. The result shows the exact number of bytes.

The file is still over 1 MB. What next?

Turn off "Keep my text selectable" for scanned or image-heavy documents and try greyscale. If the document is long, split it and upload the parts the form asks for; many portals accept several files of 1 MB each.

Requirements this tool handles