Compress a PDF to a target size
The form says “file must be under 200KB” and yours is 2MB — that exact moment is what compress cat is for. It shrinks your PDF to a size you pick (100KB, 200KB, 1MB, your call) right in the browser, built for the hard upload caps on exam sign-ups (often ≤200KB), visa portals (≤1MB) and government sites (≤500KB). It all runs locally, so your file never leaves your machine. One honest caveat: it compresses by rasterizing pages, so it’s brilliant on scans, ID photos and filled-in forms — but a text-only PDF turns into an image and you’ll lose selectable text, so reach for something else there.
The form says “file must be under 200KB” and yours is 2MB — that exact moment is what compress cat is for.
Common cases: exam sign-up ≤200KB, visa documents ≤1MB, government portals ≤500KB
How to compress
This tool usesrasterizationto compress, which is best forscanned / photo-based PDFs. A text-only PDF becomes an image after compression, so youcan no longer copy or search the text — if you need selectable text, don't use this tool on a pure-text document.
How to compress pdf
- 1Drag your PDF into the drop zone, or click to pick files (you can add several at once).
- 2Tick “Compress to a target size” and type a size, or hit a 100KB / 200KB / 500KB / 1MB preset.
- 3Click “Start” and compress cat binary-searches between quality and size to hit your target.
- 4Check the before/after for each file and click “Download” to save each result.
Why use compress cat's Compress PDF?
- You set 200KB, it aims for 200KB: a binary search trades quality against size until it lands on the number you typed — not a hopeful “compress and see,” but a tool built to clear a specific upload cap.
- Scans are where it shines: ID cards, visa pages, signed contracts, scanned forms — image-based PDFs compress hardest here, often dropping from several MB to a few hundred KB while staying legible.
- It tells you when it’s stuck: if a PDF is already a heavily compressed image or just packed with detail, there’s only so much to squeeze. It hands back the smallest size it could reach and flags it as best-effort instead of pretending.
Frequently asked questions
Yes. It binary-searches between quality and size to converge on your target (100KB, 200KB, 1MB). Scans and image-based PDFs usually settle comfortably under the line; if the content is genuinely too dense to fit, you get the smallest result it could reach rather than a smeared, unreadable one.
Because it rasterizes the pages — treats them as images — which is exactly why it’s so aggressive on scans. The trade-off: a text-only PDF becomes an image layer afterward, so the text is no longer selectable or searchable. For documents where you need the text to stay live, use a lossless tool instead.
Usually the PDF is already a heavily compressed image, or it simply carries a lot of information — there’s not much left to squeeze. In that case it returns the smallest size it can manage and says so plainly.
Turn it into an automated flow
Need to batch-process, or chain several steps? Use the workflow builder to combine compress, merge, rotate and watermark into a reusable pipeline.
Updated · compress cat team
Sources, review and limits
Last verified
2026-06-17
Author
PDFFlow editorial desk
Reviewer
PDF processing review
Primary sources
- PDF.js, pdf-lib style local PDF processing where used
- Browser file and download APIs
- User-provided PDF files processed locally unless a page explicitly states otherwise
PDF tools are productivity helpers, not legal, compliance or records-retention advice. Review exported documents before signing, filing or sharing.