For Freelancers
Compress a PDF to 5MB
5MB is a generous limit — common on client intake forms, grant portals, and content-management uploads. Most PDFs that exceed it are carrying a handful of high-resolution images or scanned pages, and the Low preset (300 DPI, 0.92 JPEG quality) or Medium (200 DPI, 0.82) usually brings them under 5MB with quality loss you would struggle to see on screen.
A file that will not drop below 5MB even on Medium is almost always dominated by scanned imagery — a long scanned contract, a photographed report, a design PDF full of full-bleed pages. Those respond to High or Maximum, but a document that is already mostly text and still over 5MB is unusual; if that happens, something specific is inflating it, such as embedded fonts duplicated across the file or an unusually large attachment, and rebuilding the PDF can help more than compression.
If the file is a set of images you assembled — screenshots, photos, scans stitched into one PDF — you often get a smaller result by rebuilding it from the source images with Image to PDF at a sensible quality, rather than compressing a PDF that was exported at full resolution in the first place.
How to handle this workflow
Launch the PDF Compressor and load your document. No account creation or software installation is required.
Select your preferred settings. Core processing runs on your device, keeping your documents confidential and private.
Inspect the output to confirm page quality and formatting, then save your updated PDF directly to your device.
Why is my PDF still over 5MB after compression?
Usually because it is dominated by scanned or high-resolution images, which have a legibility floor. Try the High or Maximum preset and check readability. If the file is mostly text and still large, the cause is likely something specific — duplicated embedded fonts or a big attachment — and rebuilding the PDF, or reassembling it from source images, helps more than compressing again.