About Compress PDF to 1 MB
1 MB limits are common on HR portals, school systems, and support forms. Most text PDFs fit easily; scans and photo-heavy files may need rasterizing.
The tool above is set to Target size at 1000 KB. Step one rebuilds the PDF (strips metadata, enables object streams) and keeps selectable text; if that already fits, you are done. Otherwise pages are rendered as JPEG images at decreasing scale and quality until the whole file is under 1,000,000 bytes.
Rasterized pages look the same but their text is no longer selectable or searchable. If even the smallest version is too big, you get that file plus a clear message — try splitting the PDF or removing pages.
Rule of thumb: rasterized A4 pages that fit in 1 MB
| Render scale | ≈ KB per page | ≈ Pages that fit |
|---|---|---|
| 125% | 94 KB | 10 |
| 100% | 60 KB | 16 |
| 80% | 38 KB | 25 |
| 65% | 25 KB | 39 |
| 50% | 15 KB | 66 |
Assumes a typical text page as JPEG at medium quality (~0.12 bytes per pixel). Photo-heavy pages need more; mostly blank pages need less. The tool measures the real PDF size.
How to do it
- 1
Drop a PDF.
- 2
Keep Target size at 1000 KB (or type another limit) and tap the run button.
- 3
Read the result line — it says whether text stayed selectable or the target could not be reached — then download.