How to Compress a PDF to 100KB, 200KB or 500KB
Portal says your PDF is too big? How to get a scanned PDF under 100KB, 200KB, 500KB or 1MB for free, and the tricks that keep the text readable.
Exam registrations, visa portals and job sites often accept PDFs only "up to 100KB" or "maximum 500KB". A phone scan of two pages can easily be 3MB, so it has to shrink a lot. Here's the fast way, and what to do when the limit is really tight.
The quick way
- Open the compressor for your limit: 100KB, 200KB, 500KB, 1MB or any size you type.
- Choose your PDF. FileStripe tries high resolutions first and steps down until the whole file fits.
- Check the result and download it. The note shows the resolution it settled on.
Nothing is uploaded, which matters for ID cards, certificates and bank statements.
How much fits in 100KB?
| Pages | 100KB | 200KB | 500KB |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1-2 | Sharp (100-150 DPI) | Very sharp | Near original |
| 3-5 | Readable (72-100 DPI) | Sharp | Very sharp |
| 10 | Soft; try grayscale | Readable | Sharp |
| 20+ | Split the file | Soft; try grayscale | Readable |
These are typical figures for scanned text pages. Photos and coloured backgrounds take more space.
Tricks for very tight limits
- Grayscale: tick "Convert to grayscale". Colour is rarely needed for text documents and it saves 20-40%.
- Remove pages you don't need: blank backs of pages and cover sheets waste space. Use Remove blank pages or Delete pages first.
- Crop the margins: phone scans often include the table around the paper. Crop the PDF so only the document remains.
- Split it: if the form allows several uploads, split the PDF and compress each part.
Why the text is no longer selectable
To hit an exact size, pages are re-saved as compressed images, the same way scanners create PDFs. That's fine for uploads, but keep your original if you need to copy text from it later.