Compress PDF to 500 KB

Bring a PDF under 500 KB for an upload form or an email. Free on WholeFiles, with no sign-up, no watermark and no daily limit.

Runs on your device. Nothing is uploaded.Last reviewed 22 September 2026

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Nothing is uploaded. Everything happens on this device.

Before you start. Text in the result is part of the page images, so it is not selectable or searchable. Below about 100 dpi small print gets hard to read, so a file with many pages may need a larger size, or splitting first. Keep files under about 60 MB on a computer.

Step by step

Drop your PDF onto the page, or press Choose a file.
Check that Target size says 500, or type another size in KB.
Press Compress file and save the result.

How it works

Each page is drawn as an image and saved at the highest quality that keeps the whole file at 500 KB or less. The room is shared between the pages by how much detail each one holds, so a page of photographs gets more than a page of plain text. If even a low quality is too large, the pages are drawn with fewer pixels. A file already under 500 KB is returned unchanged.

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Questions

Will the file be exactly 500 KB?

It will be 500 KB or a little less. 500 KB is taken as 500,000 bytes, so the file passes a form that counts a kilobyte as 1,000 bytes and one that counts 1,024.

Will the text still be selectable?

No. Each page becomes an image, which is what lets a scan or a photographed page shrink this far.

What if it cannot reach 500 KB?

The result says the smallest size it reached and the resolution of its pages. Choose a larger size, or split the file with Split PDF and compress each part.

Is my file uploaded?

No. Everything happens in your browser, on your own device.

Compress PDF to 500 KB

Questions

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