About PDF Shrink

Why this tool exists

Every PDF compressor on the web does the same thing: it compresses your file “as much as possible” and hands it back. But that’s not the problem people actually have. The real problem is a form that says “maximum file size: 1 MB”— and a scanned document that’s 4.7 MB.

PDF Shrink was built for that exact moment. You type the limit, and the tool finds the highest quality that fits under it. Not smaller than necessary, not still too big — exactly what the form will accept.

How it’s built

PDF Shrink runs on two open-source libraries: pdf.js (Mozilla’s PDF renderer, the same one built into Firefox) and jsPDF. Each page of your document is rendered once at 150 DPI, then a binary search across quality levels finds the highest setting that keeps the total file under your target.

Everything runs client-side in your browser. There is no upload endpoint, no processing queue, no server-side storage — which is why it’s free, fast, and private by design rather than by promise. Read more in our privacy policy.

Free, with no catch

No accounts, no email capture, no watermarks, no daily limits, no “premium” tier. Because files are processed on your device, serving another user costs almost nothing — so there’s no reason to charge or to nag.

Popular targets

Jump straight to a pre-configured size: compress PDF to 1 MB, compress PDF to 2 MB, or compress PDF to 500 KB— or use the main tool for any custom size.