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Compress a PDF to 200 KB

Get a PDF under 200 KB for an upload form. Text is kept when possible; pages become images only if they must.

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Hitting a size limit

The text is kept first, with stronger image compression at each step. Only if the file still does not fit are the pages turned into images, and the result tells you when that happened.

Drop a PDF here or click to choose onePDF files up to 100.0 MB each.

Processed on this device with your browser. Nothing is uploaded.

How it works

200 KB is a typical per-document limit on application portals: scanned mark sheets and degree certificates for university admissions, experience letters for job applications, supporting documents for visa and residency forms. Choose the PDF and it is rebuilt at the best quality that stays under 200 KB.

How it works, honestly: the text is kept first. The photos and scanned pages inside the PDF are resampled to the resolution the page really needs and re-saved as JPEG, duplicate and unused data is removed, and the file is recompressed, so text stays selectable and searchable and links and form fields keep working. Only when that still cannot reach the size you need are the pages turned into images as a last resort; then the text can no longer be selected, searched or copied, and the result tells you so. Keep your original.

The fewer pages share the 200 KB, the sharper each one can be, and black and white stretches the budget further than colour. Stamps and signatures in colour are kept if you leave black and white off. If the portal asks for each certificate separately, split the PDF first so every upload gets the full 200 KB.

What the 200 KB compressor did to real files

Measured on 2026-09-22 with this page's own compressor in Chrome. The test files were a 3-page scanned document (each page a 300 dpi image of printed text, 4.8 MB) and a 6-page report exported from a word processor (selectable 10.5-point text and one photo, 253 KB).

Both files fitted without turning any page into a picture. The scan needed the strongest keep-text step, which resamples the page scans to 72 dpi: fine for reading on screen, soft if printed. The text report only needed its photo re-encoded and came out at 69 KB with every word still selectable and searchable.

Test fileResultLowest image resolutionWhat the tool did
3-page scan, 4.8 MB106 KBabout 72 dpiText kept; images at 72 dpi
6-page text report, 253 KB69 KBnot lowered (its one photo was only re-encoded)Text kept (Recommended level)

Getting a document under 200 KB without losing the text

  • Upload only the pages the form asks for: removing a cover sheet or terms pages often saves more than compression.
  • For a scanned document, switch on grayscale before compressing; colour costs space that black text does not need.
  • If the portal accepts images, one page as a JPG compressed to 200 KB keeps more detail than a multi-page PDF at the same size.
  • Check the result at 100% zoom: account numbers and small print are what reviewers need to read.

How to use it

  1. Choose the PDF; the target is already 200 KB.
  2. Turn on black and white if colour is not needed.
  3. Click Compress PDF and check the reported size and resolution.
  4. Zoom in on the result to confirm names, numbers and stamps are legible, then upload.

Frequently asked questions

Are my files uploaded?

No. The file is read and processed by your browser on your device; nothing is sent to a server. The PDF engine is downloaded from this site the first time you use a tool and then runs on your device.

Will the text still be selectable?

In most cases, yes: the tool shrinks the images inside the PDF and cleans up the file, and leaves text, fonts, links and form fields as they are. Only if the size you need cannot be reached that way are the pages turned into pictures, and the result says so clearly. For a scan this changes little, because its pages were pictures already (any OCR text layer is kept in keep-text mode).

What if the PDF hardly gets smaller?

Text-only PDFs made by Word or a web browser are often already compact: text takes very little space and there are no big images to shrink. The tool tells you when nothing could be saved and keeps your original. Turning such pages into images would usually make them bigger, not smaller.

My certificate has a coloured seal. Will it survive?

Yes, if you leave black and white off. Colour costs more bytes, so the tool may use a slightly lower resolution to fit 200 KB.

The portal says "max 200 KB" but rejects the file.

Some portals count 1 KB as 1,000 bytes. Use the main PDF compressor with a target of 190 KB to leave a margin.

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