Compress a PDF without uploading it

Compress a PDF in your browser: it is read and rebuilt on your own device and never sent to a server. How to check that yourself, and the limits. Free.

Before you start

Many PDF websites upload your file to their computer, make it smaller there and send it back. This page does not. When you open it, your browser downloads the page and its code from saferesize.com, including pdf.js, an open-source PDF reader. Your PDF is then read, made smaller and saved again by your own phone or computer. No copy of it is sent to SafeResize or to anyone else.

That matters for bank statements, ID copies, medical letters and contracts. The tool below is the same one as on Resize a PDF or document, with no size filled in: pick Small, Medium or Large, or type the size you need.

Tips

Check it yourself on a computer: press F12 to open the browser's developer tools and choose the Network tab, then make your PDF smaller. You see the page's own files load from saferesize.com, and nothing that carries your PDF.

Or try it with no internet: open this page, press "No PDF handy? Try a big scanned sample", then the Medium size. Now turn on flight mode, press "Start again" and add your own PDF. It still works, because nothing has to go anywhere.

Keep your original. Each page becomes a picture, so text can no longer be selected, and form fields, links, bookmarks and digital signatures are not kept.

What your browser downloads, and what it sends

Everything the tool needs comes from saferesize.com when the page opens. Your PDF is only ever read from your own device:

Downloaded: the page, its code, and pdf.js, the open-source PDF reader that reads your pages (about 1.7 MB).

Read on your device: your PDF, page by page.

Made on your device: the smaller PDF, with every page saved again as a picture.

Sent to SafeResize: nothing about your file. As the Privacy Policy says, Cloudflare, which hosts the site, handles technical data such as your IP address, and counts visits without cookies.

Kept: nothing. There is no account and no storage of your file, and when you close the page, the PDF is gone from it.

Questions and answers

Is it safe to compress a bank statement here?

The PDF never leaves your device, so no server can see it, keep it or leak it. The usual care still applies: use your own device, and save the result where you trust it. There is no account, so there is no history of your files either.

Does it work offline?

Not as an app. The page needs the internet to load, and again if you reload it or open it later. Once it has loaded and made one PDF smaller, it can make more with no connection. There is nothing to install.

What will be different in the new PDF?

Each page becomes a picture saved with less detail. Text can no longer be selected or searched, and form fields, links, bookmarks and digital signatures are not kept. The pages, their order and their paper size stay the same.