Compress a PDF to under 1 MB
The tightest ceiling in common use, and the one that usually means a phone photo. Drop the file in and it compresses until it fits.
How to get a PDF under 1 MB
- Choose the PDF the form rejected. It starts working immediately.
- It compresses, measures, and tries harder until the file is under 1 MB.
- Save the result and upload it. The final size is shown, so you can see it fits.
Why 1 MB is the hardest ceiling to hit
A 1 MB limit leaves very little room, and the documents that run into it are usually the worst case for it: a certificate or ID photographed with a phone, where a single page can arrive at 4 MB on its own. Recruitment portals and government application forms are where you meet it most.
Getting under 1 MB from there means the images have to come down a long way, and this page is honest about the trade. It works up the ladder rather than starting at the bottom, so a document that only needed a little gets a little — but a phone photo of a certificate will end up visibly softer than it started. Legible, which is the point, not pristine.
If it cannot reach 1 MB it says so and hands you the smallest version it managed, rather than pretending. In that situation the two things that genuinely help are photographing the document in better light with less background, and splitting a multi-page scan into separate uploads where the form allows it.
Questions about the 1 MB limit
What if it cannot get under 1 MB?
It tells you, and gives you the smallest version it managed. With several high-resolution scanned pages there is a floor below which the text stops being readable, and we would rather hand you a 1.4 MB file you can read than a 900 KB one you cannot.
Will my scan still be readable?
Usually yes, and it stops at the first setting that fits rather than going straight to the most aggressive one. But 1 MB is tight: expect a photographed document to look softer. Check it before you upload.
Does the text stay selectable?
Yes. Only the images are re-encoded; text, fonts and page structure are left exactly as they are. A searchable PDF stays searchable.
Is my document uploaded to be compressed?
No. It is compressed by your browser on your device. Job applications and ID documents are precisely the files that should not be making a round trip through someone else's server.