Send a large PDF: compress it, split it, or share a link

Pick your route

Your file after compressing	Not confidential	Confidential
Under the email cap	attach it	attach it
Up to about 3 times the cap	split into 2 or 3 parts, or a link	split into parts
Far over the cap (hundreds of MB)	a link	split, or deliver it on a USB stick or a shared drive you control

Route 1: compress it

Most very large PDFs are pictures: scans at 300 dpi, phone photos, print artwork. Pictures are what compression shrinks, so this route works more often than people expect, and it costs nothing in privacy because the file never leaves your device.

1. Drop the PDF on the compressor above.
2. Pick the Email preset (pictures at 110 dpi). It suits anything read on a screen.
3. Press Compress, then read the result: size before and after, and the pages that changed most.
4. Open the result and zoom into 1 of those pages. If it reads well, send it.

Measured on our test files on 11 October 2026:

Test file	Before	Email preset	Web preset
10-page colour scan, 300 dpi	17.6 MB	1.7 MB	3.2 MB
100-page colour scan, 300 dpi	203 MB	12.3 MB	19.5 MB
5 phone photos, 1 per page	14.7 MB	395 KB	1.1 MB

If you need a specific number, type it in Size target instead: the compressor searches all its settings, keeps the best quality that fits, and tells you the setting it took. A file that is mostly typed text, fonts or embedded media will barely shrink, and the tool says so; why a PDF will not compress explains the cases. For files in the hundreds of MB, compressing a large PDF covers time and memory.

Route 2: split it into parts

When the compressed file is still over the cap, or you cannot lower the quality, send it in parts. Each part is a complete PDF, and the pages inside are copied untouched.

1. Work out pages per part. Divide the file size by the page count. Our 100-page scan after the Web preset is 19.5 MB, about 200 KB a page. Under an 18 MB Gmail budget, 50 pages a part is about 10 MB, with room to spare.
2. Open Split PDF, drop the file, choose Every N pages and type the number in Pages per file. Or type ranges at chapter breaks (1-48, 49-100) so each part stands alone.
3. Download the parts. They are numbered by page so they sort in order: report-001-050.pdf, report-051-100.pdf.
4. Send 1 part per email, and say in the first message how many are coming and in what order. A line like “Part 1 of 2, pages 1 to 50; part 2 follows” saves the receiver guessing.

Split PDF does not cut by file size, only by pages, so check the parts’ sizes on the result before you send them. The receiver can join the parts with Merge PDF if they want 1 file again.

Split PDFBy ranges, every N pages, by bookmarks or size. Free, runs on your device.Open

Route 3: share a link

A cloud link carries any size. Gmail does this for you: Google’s Gmail Help says that when attachments exceed 25 MB, Gmail removes them and adds a Google Drive link instead (checked on 11 October 2026). Outlook.com offers OneDrive in the same way, and services such as Dropbox and WeTransfer work by link too.

What changes when you send a link instead of a file:

• The file is uploaded. A copy now lives on the provider’s servers, under their terms, until you or the link expiry deletes it.
• Access follows the link, not the email. Depending on the settings, anyone who gets the link, including through a forward, may be able to open it. Restrict it to named people when the service allows.
• Links expire or break. Free transfer services often delete files after some days; a Drive or OneDrive link lasts until you remove the file. Neither is a record the receiver keeps unless they download it.

What the receiver experiences

The route you pick decides what lands in someone else’s inbox, and that matters more than what was easiest for you.

• 1 compressed attachment is the best experience: it opens on a phone, it is in their mail archive, nothing to download separately.
• Parts are fine for 2 or 3 files with clear names and a note. At 6 parts the receiver starts to lose track.
• A link depends on their setup: a work account may block outside sharing services, a phone may need an app, and the link may expire before they get to it.

If you are unsure, compress first and attach. It is the route the receiver never has to think about.

The honest part

Compression is not free of cost: pictures are re-encoded at a lower resolution, and the detail that goes does not come back. Keep the original, and send the travel copy. A file that is big for reasons other than pictures (fonts, embedded video, attachments inside the PDF) does not compress much here, and splitting or a link is then the only answer.

A link is the right tool for very large, non-confidential files, but it means uploading. For a contract, a medical record or someone else’s personal data, keep it on your device: compress and split here, where nothing is uploaded, or hand it over on a drive you control. PDF privacy and protection covers passwords and the rest, and PDF too big to email has the attachment caps by provider.