How to reduce a PDF to under 1 MB
Open Compress, choose To a size and pick 1 MB. It shrinks the photos inside as gently as it can and stops as soon as the file is under 1 MB.
CompressFree. Nothing is uploaded.
How to do it
- Open Compress and add your PDF.
- Choose To a size.
- Pick 1 MB.
- Press Compress it.
- Save the new file, which is named with the size it is under.
Where a 1 MB limit comes from
Many government, university and job portals allow 1 MB or 2 MB per document. A scanned file of ten pages from a phone can easily be 10 MB or more, because each page is a full-size photo. Shrinking the photos is usually enough to reach 1 MB without the pages looking any different on screen.
If the limit is 2 MB or more
Choose Other and type the size in KB: 2000 for 2 MB, 5000 for 5 MB. We count 1 MB as 1,000 KB, so a file made under 2000 KB is under 2 MB however the portal counts.
When one file will never fit
A long scanned book may not fit in 1 MB and stay readable. If the portal takes several uploads, Split by size cuts it into parts that each fit. If it only needs some pages, Extract pages keeps just those.
Several documents, each with its own limit
Many portals have one upload box per document, each with its own limit: 1 MB for a degree certificate, 200 KB for a photo, 50 KB for a signature. You can add many PDFs to Compress at once, but To a size applies one limit to every file in that run. For different limits, run the tool once for each limit, adding only the files that share it.
A worked example
A university application wants a 12-page scanned document under 1 MB, and the scan is 14 MB. Open Compress, add it, choose To a size and 1 MB, and press Compress it. The tool tries photo settings from gentle to strong and keeps the gentlest that fits; on a scan this size, the result line may say the photos are a little softer.
Zoom in on a page of small print to check it still reads. If even the strongest photo setting cannot reach 1 MB, the result says so, and ticking Let pages become pictures goes further.
Why phone scans make big PDFs
Phone cameras take photos of many megapixels and save each one as a few MB. A PDF made from those photos keeps every pixel, far more than a page needs on screen or even on paper. Shrinking the photos to the size the page actually shows them at is where nearly all of the saving comes from, and at normal zoom the difference is hard to see.
Questions people ask
How long does it take?
Seconds for a few pages; longer for a big scan on an older phone, because your own device does the work. A progress line shows what it is doing.
Can I compress a password-protected PDF?
Yes. Type its password when asked. The smaller file keeps the same password.
Is it really free?
Yes. No payment, no sign-up and no limit on how many files you compress.
Is 1 MB the same as 1024 KB here?
No. Here 1 MB is 1,000 KB and 1 KB is 1,000 bytes, slightly smaller than counting in 1,024s. So a file made under 1 MB here is under 1 MB on any portal, however it counts.
Can I compress a PDF made from Word to 1 MB?
Usually it is already well under, because typed text takes little space. If it is not, its pictures are the reason, and Compress shrinks those.
Your file stays on your device. Foolscap does the work inside your browser, so nothing is uploaded and there is nothing for anyone to keep. How you can check