"File must not exceed 200 KB." If you've applied for a government job, a visa, a university place, or uploaded documents to almost any official portal, you've met this message. Job platforms like Workday and Greenhouse typically cap uploads at 1–5 MB; government and exam portals are often far stricter — 200 KB, sometimes 100 KB. A phone scan of a single page can be 2 MB on its own. Here's how to hit an exact size target, free, in your browser.
Step-by-step: compress to a target size
- Open the free PDF compressor and drop in your PDF.
- Start with Balanced. The result shows the exact before → after size immediately — no need to download to find out.
- Over the limit? Click Strong. The same file re-compresses instantly at the smaller setting.
- Under the limit? If Balanced got you comfortably below the cap, consider stepping back to Light for better quality — you want the best-looking file that fits.
- Download and upload to the portal.
Ready to try it? It's free — no sign-up, no credit card, no watermark, and your file never leaves your device.
Compress your PDF now →Rules of thumb for common limits
- Under 1 MB — Balanced handles nearly any normal document: multi-page scans, resumes with photos, certificates.
- Under 500 KB — Balanced for documents of a few pages; Strong for longer scans.
- Under 200 KB— Strong, and keep the page count down. A 1–3 page scan lands under 200 KB comfortably; a 20-page scan won't at readable quality.
Still too big? Reduce the page count
Size caps usually apply per document, and portals rarely need every page. Use the free PDF splitter to extract only the required pages before compressing — a 40-page document that needs to fit in 200 KB is really a "which 2 pages do they actually want?" problem. Blank and duplicate scan pages can go too, via the Organize tool.
Uploading a photo instead of a PDF?
Many portals also demand photos or signature images under a limit like 50 KB or 100 KB. For JPG/PNG files, use the free image compressor — set a maximum dimension and lower the quality slider until the size fits.
Frequently asked
Will the document still be readable?
At Balanced, yes — comfortably. At Strong, text remains readable at normal size; fine print suffers first. Since you see the size result instantly, always pick the gentlest level that fits the cap.
Is there a limit on how big the input file can be?
No — compression runs on your device, so even large scans work, and nothing is uploaded to any server.
Why is my scanned PDF so huge in the first place?
Scanner apps often save at 300+ DPI in full color, which is far more resolution than a portal reviewer needs. Compression re-encodes those images at sensible sizes — that's where the 60–90% savings come from.