Remove pages you don't need
Fewer pages means every remaining page keeps more of the size budget — split the document first if the portal only wants one section.
Compress a PDF to 1 MB
1 MB is the common attachment ceiling for tenders, tax filings and internal document systems. The target below is already set to 1 MB, and the whole job runs inside this browser tab — no account, no upload, no watermark.
Compress a PDF
Shrink heavy, image-rich or scanned PDFs so they fit inside upload and email limits.
Drop a PDF here
Works best on scans and image-heavy documents
Getting a PDF under 1 MB without wrecking it
Scans compress hardest
A photographed or scanned page is an image, so it costs far more than typed text. Scanning in grayscale at 200–300 DPI helps a lot.
Check the real final size
The tool reports the exact bytes it produced, so you can confirm it is truly under 1 MB before uploading anywhere.
Who asks for 1 MB PDFs?
1 MB is the standard attachment ceiling for tenders, tax filings, legal submissions and most corporate mail systems.
What fits inside 1 MB
At 1 MB you can keep colour scans at good resolution across twenty or more pages. Start here before trying tighter targets — going smaller than the portal requires only costs you clarity.
The usual reason it fails
Compressing repeatedly. Each pass re-renders the pages, so a file that has already been squeezed twice degrades quickly. Always start again from the original.
Questions about 1 MB PDFs
- How many pages fit in 1 MB?
- Roughly twenty scanned pages in grayscale, or forty pages of typed text. Colour photographs reduce that substantially.
- Can I sign the PDF after compressing?
- Yes — use the signature tool afterwards. Signing adds only a few kilobytes, so a file at 1 MB stays within the limit.