Utilitly's Compress PDF tool reduces the file size of a PDF so it's easier to email, upload, or store. Your file is handed to a professional compression engine over an encrypted connection, optimized, and sent straight back to you — it's used for compression only, and never stored, retained, or reused afterward.
Compression works mainly by re-encoding the images inside the PDF at a lower quality and resolution, and dropping non-essential data. Depending on the document, you can often cut a file by 30–70% with little visible change at normal viewing size — especially PDFs that are heavy with high-resolution images or scans. Text and vector graphics are not re-rendered, so they stay sharp.
Your PDF is transmitted over an encrypted connection, compressed, and returned — nothing is kept on our side once the job finishes, and the file you download is clean, with no Utilitly branding or watermark. Confidential material — contracts, financial statements, scanned IDs — is processed for one purpose only and then discarded.
Utilitly gives you two levels, and both of them re-encode images — the difference is how far they go. Recommended applies moderate compression, which is usually hard to distinguish from the original on everyday documents — the right choice when the PDF still needs to look good. Extreme compresses much harder and downsamples images to 72 DPI for the smallest possible file — ideal when you just need to get under an upload or email limit and screen-quality images are good enough. Preview the result before you download, so you're always in control of the quality-versus-size trade-off.
It depends on what's inside. Image-heavy PDFs (scans, brochures, portfolios) compress the most — often well over half. Text-only documents are already efficient, so they shrink less. Utilitly shows you the before-and-after size in the preview, so you can decide whether the reduction is enough or whether to switch to a more aggressive setting.
Your PDF is compressed by a professional compression engine, not in the browser, so the file is transferred off your device over an encrypted HTTPS connection and the compressed result is sent straight back to you. If a document is sensitive enough that it must never leave your machine, use one of Utilitly's browser-only tools instead.
Not completely. Both levels re-encode the images inside the PDF, so image detail is reduced; text and vector graphics stay sharp. Recommended applies moderate compression and is usually hard to tell apart from the original on everyday documents. Extreme downsamples images to 72 DPI. Preview the result before downloading to confirm it still looks right.
Not with this tool — compression runs on a professional compression engine, so the file is uploaded over an encrypted connection and returned. Plenty of other Utilitly tools do run entirely in your browser with no upload at all, including merge, split, rotate, reorder pages, delete pages and watermark.
There is no exact target-size setting. Pick the Extreme level for the most aggressive compression and check the size shown in the preview — a text-heavy document will often land near 100 KB, while a high-resolution scan may not get there at all. For more on working toward a small target, see our compress PDF to 100 KB guide.
It varies by content. Image-heavy PDFs often drop by 50–70%; text-only files shrink less because they're already compact. The preview shows your exact before-and-after size.
No. Your compressed file comes out clean, with no Utilitly watermark or branding.
Utilitly works in any browser on macOS with no extra software. See our reduce PDF size on Mac guide for Mac-specific tips.
Yes — 100 MB per PDF. Anything larger is rejected in the browser before it is sent for compression. Because the file is transferred to a compression service, very large PDFs also take longer on a slow connection.
Yes. Compression runs on a secure processing service, so you need to be signed in to a free Utilitly account to use it. Compressing itself is free and is not counted against any monthly limit.