Compress a PDF to under 10 MB
The email ceiling. A generous one, so most files need only a light touch — and one already under it is left alone.
How to get a PDF under 10 MB
- Choose the PDF that bounced. It starts working immediately.
- It compresses, measures, and tries again only if it has to.
- Save the result and attach it. The final size is shown, so you can see it fits.
Why 10 MB, and why it is the easy ceiling
10 MB is where corporate mail servers tend to draw the line, and it is the reason a message comes back hours later saying the attachment was rejected. Gmail allows 25 MB, but the recipient's server has the final say, and plenty of them still stop at 10.
This is the kindest of the ceilings. A 14 MB scan usually needs only the lightest pass to get under it, so the result is near enough indistinguishable from what you started with. That is the whole reason this page works from the top of the ladder down and stops at the first setting that fits: nothing is degraded for the sake of a number it had already cleared.
If the file is already under 10 MB it says so and offers nothing. Re-compressing an attachment that would have sent perfectly well is not a service, and a tool that always hands back a slightly worse file so it has something to show you is doing exactly that.
Questions about the 10 MB limit
It says my file is already under 10 MB.
Then it is, and there is nothing worth doing. Attach the original. If it still bounces, the limit at the other end is lower than 10 MB — try the 5 MB or 2 MB page.
Will the quality drop?
Barely, in most cases. It stops at the first setting that fits, and at this ceiling that is usually the lightest one. The final size is shown so you can judge the trade yourself.
Does the text stay selectable?
Yes. Only the images are re-encoded; text, fonts and page structure are untouched. A searchable PDF stays searchable.
Is my document uploaded to be compressed?
No. It is compressed by your browser on your device — which is worth something here, since the file you are about to email is usually one you were trusted with.