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- Shrink a PDF until it fits in email.
Shrink a PDF until it fits in email.
Pick a level, see the resulting size, then save. Nothing is uploaded.
Your mail client rejected the attachment, and the same document now needs to be smaller. That is a size problem with a size answer, and it does not require uploading the document to find out whether it worked.
What the limits actually are
Gmail caps attachments at 25 MB. Outlook is commonly 20 MB, and plenty of corporate mail servers are configured lower — 10 MB is normal. The limit that bites is usually the recipient's rather than yours, which is why a message can appear to send and then bounce hours later.
Aim below 10 MB when you do not know where it is going. That clears almost every gateway without a second attempt.
Why the file is large in the first place
Almost always because it contains photographs of paper. A scanner producing 300 DPI colour images of twenty pages makes a 40 MB file out of a document that is, in information terms, a few kilobytes of text. The size is in the images, which is where compression works.
A PDF that is large because it holds a lot of genuine text and vector content is already efficient and will not shrink usefully. Compress PDF tells you when that is the case rather than letting you save a worse file.
The honest trade
Compression here re-renders each page as an image at a lower resolution. That is what makes the file small, and it costs you the text layer — selectable text stops being selectable, because it stops being text. For a scanned document going out as an attachment that is usually the right trade. For a report someone needs to search, it is not.
If the text must survive, do not compress. Split PDF reduces size losslessly by giving you fewer pages, and sending a document in two parts is often the better answer.
If it still will not fit
- Send fewer pages. Split PDF pulls out the range that is actually needed.
- Compress the images before building the PDF, if you made it from photographs — Compress Image can target a file size directly.
- Reconsider the format. If the recipient only needs one page, PDF to JPG produces a far smaller image instead.
Watch nothing leave
Open DevTools → Network → run a conversion. There is no upload endpoint to receive a file.
Common questions
What is the maximum attachment size for email?
Gmail allows 25 MB and Outlook commonly 20 MB, but many corporate mail servers are set lower. Aim under 10 MB when you do not know the recipient limit.
Will compressing make my PDF unreadable?
No, but it does turn pages into images, so text stops being selectable and searchable. Use the lightest level that meets your limit.
Why did my PDF barely get smaller?
It is mostly text and vectors rather than scanned images, and those are already compact. There is little left to squeeze out.
How do I keep the text searchable?
Do not compress. Split the document and send it in parts instead, which reduces size without touching the pages.
Is my document uploaded to compress it?
No. Rendering and rebuilding both happen in this browser tab. You can confirm it in the Network panel.
Tools on this page
- Compress PDF — Shrink a PDF for email without sending it anywhere.
- Split PDF — One file per page, or pick a range.
- Merge PDF — Combine PDFs in any order, in this tab.
- Compress Image — Hit a size limit without guessing.