How to Compress PDF for Email & Upload — Under 1MB, 2MB, 5MB

Why PDFs Are Too Large to Send

Scanned documents are the worst offenders — a 10-page scan can easily be 20-50MB because each page is stored as a high-resolution image. Even text PDFs with embedded fonts and graphics can hit 5-10MB. Email caps at 20-25MB. Government upload portals often limit to 2-5MB. Court filing systems may cap at 10MB. If your PDF exceeds the limit, you need to compress it.

How to Compress a PDF for Email

1. Open the Compress PDF tool
2. Upload your PDF
3. Choose compression level (medium for most cases, high for large scans)
4. Download the compressed file

Your PDF never leaves your browser. For confidential documents — legal filings, medical records, financial statements — this matters. No server ever sees your file.

Target Sizes for Common Situations

• Email attachment: Under 5MB (safe for all providers). Under 2MB if sending multiple files.
• Government websites: Often 2-5MB limit. Check the upload page for exact limits.
• Court e-filing: Varies by jurisdiction. Federal courts: 35MB. Many state courts: 10MB. Some: 5MB.
• Job applications: Most applicant tracking systems accept up to 5MB. Aim for under 2MB to be safe.
• Insurance claims: Usually 10MB per document. Compress scanned supporting docs.

If One Tool Isn't Enough — The Full Workflow

For very large PDFs (50MB+ scans), a single compression pass may not be enough. Use the full workflow:

1. Split first — use Split PDF to remove unnecessary pages. Every page removed saves 1-5MB on scans.
2. Compress — run Compress PDF on the trimmed file
3. Flatten — if the PDF has form fields or layers, Flatten PDF can reduce size further

This workflow can reduce a 50MB scanned document to under 5MB.

Scanned PDFs vs Text PDFs

Scanned PDFs are images wrapped in a PDF container — they are 10-50x larger than text PDFs. Compression works differently for each:

• Text PDFs: Compression optimizes fonts, metadata, and embedded objects. Typical reduction: 30-60%.
• Scanned PDFs: Compression reduces the image resolution of each page. Typical reduction: 50-80%. Quality may decrease — use medium compression to keep text readable.