How to Reduce PDF File Size for Online Applications

2026-11-02 · PDF Simpel team

Many application portals limit file size: often 200 KB, 500 KB, 1 MB or 2 MB per document. A PDF scanned with a phone can be 5–20 MB, so it has to be reduced before uploading.

Why are some PDFs so large?

• Scans or photos: each page is a high-resolution image. This is the most common cause.
• Photos inside the document: reports with many phone camera photos.
• Embedded fonts: usually small and rarely the main problem.

A text-only PDF exported from Word is usually small already. The PDFs that need compressing are almost always image-heavy.

How to shrink a PDF in your browser

1. Open the Compress PDF tool below.
2. Choose your PDF file.
3. Pick a compression level. Start with medium and lower the quality if the result is still too big.
4. Download the result and check its size.

The file is processed in your browser, so ID cards, certificates and other private documents are not sent to a server.

What to expect

These figures are only a guide; real results depend on resolution and page content.

Keeping the text readable

• Do not jump straight to the lowest quality. Zoom into the result and check that numbers and small print are still clear.
• When photographing documents, use bright light and shoot straight from above. Clean photos compress better.
• If the limit is per page, split the PDF first with the Split PDF tool.
• If it is still too large, drop pages that are not required.