Fit any PDF under 200 KB for US DS-160 attachments, Indian Passport Seva uploads, PAN applications, and university forms. We iterate from the highest quality tier down and keep the best version that fits. Everything happens in your browser — no upload, no account.
For most portals that enforce a size cap, 200 KB is where compromise sits comfortably between file size and readability.
The US DS-160 non-immigrant visa application asks for a JPEG photo under 240 KB at 600×600 pixels. Many Indian portals — Passport Seva supporting documents, PAN card applications, and state public service commission forms — cap attachments at 200 KB. At this size, the tool can usually land on tier 1 (scale 1.5, JPEG quality 0.6), which is sharp on a standard screen and prints acceptably for ID purposes.
Below 200 KB you start to see block artifacts on images. Above 200 KB you get into territory where the portals reject the upload. 200 KB is the equilibrium.
No uploads. pdf.js and pdf-lib do the work locally. Verify with the network tab — zero requests while compressing.
We try tier 0 first and drop down only as needed. Text PDFs often fit at tier 1 or 2 — you don't get tier-4 quality when a gentler pass would have worked.
Clean output. No email wall on downloads.
If 200 KB is impossible, we report the smallest achievable size rather than silently truncating or splitting pages.
Rough expected output per tier. Photo-heavy PDFs compress less efficiently.
| High (tier 0) | 2.0 × 0.8 — ~900 KB. Above 200 KB. |
|---|---|
| Medium (tier 1) | 1.5 × 0.6 — ~420 KB. |
| Low (tier 2) | 1.0 × 0.4 — ~180 KB. Typical 200 KB hit. |
| Very low (tier 3) | 0.75 × 0.3 — ~95 KB. |
| Extreme (tier 4) | 0.5 × 0.25 — ~55 KB. |
| Last-resort (tier 5) | 0.4 × 0.18 — ~35 KB. |
The tool is already set to target 200 KB. Drop your PDF in.
Compress to 200 KB
Zero upload — file never leaves your device.
The US DS-160 non-immigrant visa application caps the applicant photo at 240 KB. Several Indian government portals — including Passport Seva supporting documents and state public service commission applications — cap at 200 KB. Indian bank KYC uploads, PAN card applications, and a number of university admissions portals also use 200 KB as the cap. Always verify on the portal's own help page.
Yes, for most documents. At tier 2 (scale 1.0, JPEG quality 0.4) a text-heavy PDF renders cleanly on screen and is zoom-safe up to about 150%. The tool picks the best tier that fits, so a smaller source PDF may come out at tier 1 (clearer) while a larger one comes out at tier 2 or 3.
Almost always per file. If you are uploading multiple supporting documents, compress each one to under 200 KB separately rather than packing them into one PDF. Splitting a large PDF first can help — use the Split PDF tool.
Yes. The output is a standard PDF with JPEG-encoded pages. Every PDF reader on macOS, Windows, iOS, and Android opens it normally.
Yes. Target-size compression re-renders each page as a JPEG, which is inherently lossy. The tool picks the highest tier that fits, so you get the best possible quality under the 200 KB cap. For lossless compression, target 1 MB or keep the original PDF.
Compress to 50 KB
Most aggressive preset
Compress to 100 KB
Common e-form cap
Compress to 300 KB
Passport Seva & exam portals
Compress to 1 MB
Email attachment friendly
Compress PDF on Mac
Preview vs browser tool
Compress PDF on iPhone
Safari · no App Store
Compress PDF on Windows
No Acrobat needed
← Back to Compress PDF
Main tool page