How to Compress PDF on Windows Free 2026

Tool	Best For	Max File Size	Batch Mode	Offline	Price
ILovePDF Desktop	Quick one-click compression	No limit (desktop)	Yes	Yes	Free (limited) / $48/yr
Adobe Acrobat Reader	Built-in integration	No limit	No	Yes	Free viewer / $12.99/mo Pro
Smallpdf Desktop	Drag-and-drop simplicity	No limit (desktop)	Yes	Yes	Free (2/day) / $9/mo
Windows Print to PDF	No install needed	No limit	No	Yes	Free (built-in)
PDF24 Creator	Full-featured free option	No limit	Yes	Yes	100% free
LibreOffice Draw	Open-source editing + compression	No limit	No	Yes	100% free
Free PDF Compressor	Lightweight portable tool	No limit	No	Yes	100% free
Ghostscript (CLI)	Automation and scripting	No limit	Yes (scripts)	Yes	100% free
NitroPDF Reader	Print-to-PDF compression	No limit	No	Yes	Free reader / $179.99 Pro

Got a 47MB PDF sitting in your Downloads folder, and email won’t take it? Windows has more options for compressing PDFs than most people realize. Some are already on your machine right now.

I spent two weeks testing every free method I could find on Windows 10 and 11. Desktop apps, built-in tools, command-line utilities, the whole range. Here’s what actually worked, what just wasted my time, and the exact steps for each method. If you’re looking for a broader overview of PDF editing tools, check out our guide to the best free PDF editors first.

Method 1: PDF24 Creator (Best Overall Free Option)

PDF24 Creator is the tool I keep coming back to. Fully free, no watermarks, no trial limits. The developer makes money from the online version’s ads, so the desktop app stays genuinely free.

How to compress with PDF24:

1. Download PDF24 Creator from pdf24.org (about 45MB installer)
2. Open it and click “Compress PDF Files” from the toolbox
3. Drag your PDF in or click “Choose files”
4. Pick a compression level – there are presets from “Best quality” down to “Maximum compression”
5. Hit “Compress” and save the result

In my testing, a 38MB scan-heavy document dropped to 6.2MB on the medium preset. Quality stayed readable. On maximum compression, it went to 2.1MB but images got noticeably blurry. The medium setting hits the sweet spot for most files.

PDF24 also has batch mode. Select multiple files, compress them all at once, save individually or merge into one. No daily limits, no account required.

Method 2: Windows Print to PDF (Zero Install)

This one’s already on every Windows 10 and 11 machine. No download needed.

Steps:

1. Open your PDF in any viewer (Edge, Chrome, Adobe Reader)
2. Press Ctrl+P to open the print dialog
3. Select “Microsoft Print to PDF” as the printer
4. Click Print and choose where to save

Here’s the thing – this method re-renders the PDF, which strips out duplicate fonts, embedded thumbnails, and metadata bloat. A 22MB PDF I tested dropped to 14MB without visible quality loss. Not dramatic, but it’s instant and free.

The downside? You lose bookmarks, form fields, and hyperlinks. The output is basically a flat document. For simple reports and invoices, that’s fine. For interactive PDFs, use something else.

Method 3: ILovePDF Desktop App

ILovePDF’s online tool is popular, but the desktop app handles larger files without upload limits. The free tier gives you limited tasks per day (varies, usually around 2-3 compressions).

How it works:

1. Install from ilovepdf.com/desktop
2. Open the app, select “Compress PDF”
3. Add your file
4. Choose compression level: Recommended, Extreme, or Low
5. Process and save

On the “Extreme” setting, my 38MB test file shrank to 4.8MB. “Recommended” brought it to 9.1MB with cleaner images. The app processes files locally, so your documents don’t leave your PC on the desktop version.

The daily limit is the main catch. If you need to compress more than a handful of files, you’ll want the $48/year subscription or a different tool.

Method 4: LibreOffice Draw

Not obvious, but LibreOffice Draw can open PDFs, and when you export them back out, you get compression controls.

Steps:

1. Right-click your PDF, choose Open With > LibreOffice Draw
2. Go to File > Export as PDF
3. In the General tab, set JPEG quality to 75% (or lower for smaller files)
4. Under “Images,” check “Reduce image resolution” and set to 150 DPI for screen viewing, or 300 DPI for print
5. Click Export

This gave me solid results: 38MB down to 7.4MB at 150 DPI with 75% JPEG quality. The text stayed sharp because LibreOffice re-renders vector text at full resolution regardless of image compression settings.

Fair warning: complex PDFs with unusual fonts or layered graphics might look slightly different after the round-trip through Draw. Always compare before and after for anything you plan to distribute.

Method 5: Ghostscript (Command Line)

For anyone comfortable with the command line, Ghostscript is hard to beat. It’s the engine behind half the PDF tools out there, and it’s completely free and open-source.

Setup and usage:

1. Download Ghostscript from ghostscript.com (get the 64-bit AGPL release)
2. Install with default settings
3. Open Command Prompt or PowerShell
4. Run this command:

gswin64c -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -dCompatibilityLevel=1.4 -dPDFSETTINGS=/ebook -dNOPAUSE -dBATCH -sOutputFile=compressed.pdf input.pdf

The -dPDFSETTINGS flag controls quality:

• /screen – 72 DPI, smallest files (good for email)
• /ebook – 150 DPI, balanced (my go-to)
• /printer – 300 DPI, minimal compression
• /prepress – highest quality, barely compresses

My 38MB test file at /ebook: 5.9MB. At /screen: 1.8MB. If you need to compress hundreds of PDFs, wrap this in a batch script and let it run. Nothing else on this list handles bulk compression as efficiently.

Method 6: Smallpdf Desktop

Smallpdf’s desktop app works offline and avoids the 5MB file limit of the free web version. The free tier allows 2 tasks per day.

Quick steps:

1. Download from smallpdf.com/desktop
2. Open the app and drag your PDF onto the “Compress” tool
3. Choose “Basic Compression” (free) or “Strong Compression” (Pro only)
4. Download the result

Basic compression took my test file from 38MB to 12.4MB. Decent but not spectacular. The Pro strong compression (which I tested on a trial) got it to 5.1MB. The interface is clean and works well, but the free tier is restrictive. Two files per day is not enough for most workflows.

Method 7: Free PDF Compressor

This lightweight tool has been around for years. It’s a single-purpose app that does one thing: shrinks PDFs. No installer needed if you grab the portable version.

How to use it:

1. Download from freepdfcompressor.com
2. Open the app
3. Browse for your PDF
4. Select a compression setting (Screen, eBook, Printer, Prepress, Default)
5. Click Compress

Under the hood, it uses Ghostscript, so results are similar. The eBook preset dropped my file to 6.1MB. The advantage here is the simple GUI – no command line, no account, no limits. The disadvantage is that it only handles one file at a time and hasn’t been updated in a while. Still works on Windows 11 though.

Method 8: Adobe Acrobat Reader + Print Trick

Adobe Acrobat Reader (the free one) doesn’t have a compress button. That’s locked behind the $12.99/month Pro subscription. But there’s a workaround that gets partial results.

The approach:

1. Open your PDF in Acrobat Reader
2. File > Print > select “Microsoft Print to PDF”
3. In Print settings, click Advanced
4. Change “Print As Image” resolution to 150 DPI
5. Print to a new file

This converts everything to rasterized images at your chosen DPI, then wraps them back into a PDF. A 38MB file became 8.7MB at 150 DPI. Text won’t be selectable or searchable in the output, which is a real limitation. Use this only when file size matters more than text accessibility.

Method 9: NitroPDF Reader

Nitro’s free PDF reader includes a “Print to PDF” virtual printer that produces smaller files than Microsoft’s built-in option.

Steps:

1. Install Nitro PDF Reader from gonitro.com
2. Open your PDF
3. Print using the “Nitro PDF Creator” printer
4. Adjust quality settings in printer preferences
5. Save the output

Results were decent: 38MB to 11.2MB with standard settings. Nitro’s printer driver does a better job preserving fonts than the Windows default, so text stays crisper. But Nitro pushes the Pro upgrade constantly, and the reader hasn’t seen a major update in a while.

Which Method Should You Actually Use?

After testing everything, here’s my honest take:

For most people: PDF24 Creator. Zero cost, no limits, good compression ratios. Install it and forget about everything else.

For one-off quick compression: Windows Print to PDF. Already there, no install. Good enough for simple documents.

For developers and power users: Ghostscript. Scriptable, handles bulk jobs, gives you the most control over output quality.

For the best quality-to-size ratio: ILovePDF or Smallpdf desktop apps. Both produce excellent results, but the free tier limits make them impractical for regular use.

If you’re working with PDFs on other platforms too, we’ve covered compressing PDFs on Mac, iPhone, and Android separately. And for more advanced PDF operations like merging, splitting, or converting, our roundup of free PDF editors covers those workflows.

Tips for Better Compression Results

A few things I learned while testing that made a real difference:

Check what’s making the file big. Scanned pages create huge files because they’re basically full-page images. A 10-page scan can easily hit 50MB. Compression tools work best on these. Text-heavy PDFs with minimal graphics are already small, so don’t expect miracles.

Remove embedded fonts you don’t need. Some PDFs embed complete font families even if only a few characters are used. PDF24 and Ghostscript both have options to subset fonts, which can cut several megabytes.

Flatten form fields before compressing. Interactive forms carry extra data. If nobody needs to fill them out again, flatten first (PDF24 has a “Flatten” tool), then compress.

Don’t compress a PDF more than once. Running the same file through compression repeatedly degrades quality without much size benefit after the first pass. JPEG artifacts stack and text rendering gets worse.

For broader PDF manipulation – editing text, converting formats, adding signatures – check out our guide to editing PDFs on Windows.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I compress a PDF on Windows without installing anything?

Yes. Windows 10 and 11 have “Microsoft Print to PDF” built in. Open your PDF in any viewer, print it to this virtual printer, and the output is typically 20-40% smaller. You lose bookmarks and form fields, but for basic documents it works well.

What’s the best completely free PDF compressor for Windows?

PDF24 Creator. No daily limits, no watermarks, no trial period. It handles single files and batch compression equally well, and the quality presets cover everything from maximum compression to near-lossless output.

Does compressing a PDF reduce its quality?

It depends on the method. Most tools compress images inside the PDF using JPEG compression, which reduces image sharpness at aggressive settings. Text, vector graphics, and line art stay crisp regardless. At moderate settings (150 DPI, 75% JPEG quality), the quality loss is barely noticeable on screen.

How much can I reduce a PDF file size on Windows?

Scan-heavy PDFs often shrink by 70-90%. A 38MB scanned document typically compresses to 4-8MB depending on quality settings. Text-heavy PDFs with few images might only drop by 20-30% since there’s less to compress.

Is it safe to use online PDF compressors?

For non-sensitive documents, reputable services like ILovePDF and Smallpdf are fine – they delete files after processing. For confidential, legal, or financial documents, stick with desktop tools like PDF24 Creator or Ghostscript that process everything locally on your PC.

Can I compress multiple PDFs at once on Windows?

PDF24 Creator supports batch compression in its free version. Ghostscript can do it through a simple batch script. ILovePDF Desktop also handles multiple files but limits daily tasks on the free tier.