Compress a PDF on Windows without Adobe

The steps in Edge or Chrome

1. Open the compressor above, or getpdfs.app/compress-pdf. Edge, Chrome and Firefox all work. The first time you drop a file, the page fetches its engine (4.6 MB, once) and keeps it.
2. Drop the PDF onto the page from File Explorer, or click Choose files. Several files at once are fine.
3. Pick a preset or a target. Email (pictures at 110 dpi) is the default and suits attachments and uploads. Web (150 dpi) keeps more detail for zooming; Print (300 dpi) is for paper. If a portal names a number, type it in KB or MB, or use a ready-made page: 1 MB, 500 KB, 200 KB, 100 KB.
4. Click Compress and read the result: the size before and after, how many pictures were re-encoded and to what dpi, and the 5 pages that changed most.
5. Click Download PDF. In Edge and Chrome a Save dialog opens, so you choose the folder; in Firefox the file goes to Downloads. The copy is named after your file with -compressed on the end, and your original stays as it was.
6. Check it before you send it. In File Explorer, the Size column (Details view) or right-click, then Properties shows the new size. Open the file once and zoom to 200 percent on the smallest text.

On our 10-page test scan (17.6 MB, an invented lease at 300 dpi), the Email preset gives 1.7 MB, and a 1 MB target gives 637 KB (at 72 dpi). A PDF built from 5 phone photos (14.7 MB) comes out at 395 KB on Email. Both measured on 11 October 2026.

The Windows dead ends, named

If you looked for a compressor in Windows itself, you did not miss it; there is none.

• Microsoft Print to PDF is a printer, not a compressor. It has no setting for picture resolution or quality. Win2PDF’s documentation describes its files as not optimally compressed with no way to change graphics resolution, and users on Microsoft Q&A report printed copies coming out larger than the PDF they started from (both checked on 11 October 2026). Printing a PDF to PDF also tends to cost you things: links, bookmarks and form fields do not survive a print.
• Edge’s PDF viewer reads, marks up and fills PDFs. It has no compress option.
• “Save as PDF” in Word or PowerPoint is the fix at the source, not for a PDF you already have. If you own the source document, exporting with smaller pictures beats compressing afterwards.

Adobe’s online compressor, compared

Adobe’s Compress PDF page (checked on 11 October 2026) offers High, Medium and Low compression, takes files up to 2 GB, and is “available for free with limited use”; unlimited use, batches and advanced settings need a paid plan. The file is processed on Adobe’s servers and deleted afterwards unless you sign in to save it.

That is a reasonable service, and Adobe says so openly. The difference here is where the work happens: the compressor on this page runs in your browser, so the file is never sent anywhere, there is no use limit and no plan, and you can type an exact size target instead of choosing between 3 levels.

Adobe and PDF24 details from their own pages, checked on 11 October 2026.

When an installed app earns its place

The browser is the quickest route for most people, and it works offline once you have compressed 1 file with a connection. An installed app makes sense in 2 cases:

• A machine that is never online, or one where websites are blocked by policy.
• Scheduled or scripted batch jobs, where a folder of PDFs should be compressed without anyone clicking.

For those, PDF24 Creator is the honest free pick on Windows. Its site describes it as free for private and commercial use, Windows only, and working offline with files kept on your PC (checked on 11 October 2026). Note that PDF24 also runs an online compressor on its website, which does upload files; the installed Creator is the offline one. The offline compression guide compares the options in more depth.

Many PDFs at once

Choose several files in step 2 and each is compressed on its own with the same preset or target. When they are done, Download all saves a zip; in Edge and Chrome, Save to a folder writes each file straight into a folder you pick, with no zip to unpack. The guide to compressing multiple PDFs covers large batches.

The honest part

Compression cannot shrink text. A PDF that is mostly typed text is already small. The tool says so and gives you the original back rather than a file that is no smaller.

Pictures are re-encoded, and that is lossy. Keep the original; send the copy. If small print or a signature matters, check it at 200 percent.

Some files will not reach a hard cap at readable quality. A 10-page colour scan will not fit in 100 KB (our test scan stops at 198 KB, and the tool says so). Send fewer pages, or split the file when the portal accepts several uploads. If the problem is an email bounce, PDF too big to email has the provider limits.

A privacy check you can run on a work laptop

Compress one file with the network on, so the engine is kept in the browser. Then turn Wi-Fi off (or pull the cable), reload the page and compress another. It still works, because the PDF is processed in the browser on your PC and there is nowhere for it to go. That matters for the files people most often need to shrink: contracts, payslips, scans of IDs. Your company’s rules on which websites you may use still apply, and this test gives your IT team something concrete to look at. On a Mac, the same job and Preview’s built-in filter are compared in Compress a PDF on Mac.