How to Compress a PDF for Email
Attachment limits explained, and how to get your PDF under them.
Email attachment limits
| Service | Attachment limit |
|---|---|
| Gmail | 25 MB |
| Outlook / Microsoft 365 | 20 MB (often 10–25 MB set by the company) |
| Many company mail servers | 10 MB |
Email encoding adds roughly a third to the size, so a 20 MB file can fail a 25 MB limit. Aim for well under the limit.
Compress the PDF in three steps
- Open the PDF compressor and drop your file in.
- Open Compression settings and tap Email 10 MB (or keep Recommended).
- Download and attach the smaller PDF.
Sending several PDFs? Add them all and download one ZIP.
Still too big?
- Pick Extreme (96 DPI). It is still readable on screen.
- Turn on grayscale for black-and-white documents.
- Split a very long PDF into two emails.
- For huge files, share a cloud link instead of attaching.
Why compress locally?
Emailing a contract or payslip is already sharing it. Uploading it to a third-party compressor first adds another copy on someone else’s server. Our tool compresses on your device, so the only place the file goes is your email.
Frequently asked questions
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