How to compress a PDF to 100KB

Government portals, job applications and visa systems often demand uploads under 100–200 KB. Whether a PDF can get that small depends on what's in it: a 2-page text document compresses far below 100 KB, while a 30-page photo scan physically can't without becoming unreadable.

Use “Strong” mode for maximum reduction. If you're still over the limit, split the document first and compress only the pages the portal actually needs. That combination solves most 100 KB requirements.

The two levers are page count and image content, and they matter in that order. A two-page text-only form (an application, a signed declaration) will often land under 100 KB even at “Recommended”, because there's almost nothing but text to encode. A scanned ID or a photographed page is the opposite case: it's one large image, and “Strong” has to push image quality down hard to get anywhere close, which is exactly why trimming to only the required pages first makes such a difference, you're compressing less content, not compressing it harder.

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