Which Indian government portals require PDFs under 1MB?
The 1MB limit is the single most common document size restriction across Indian central and state government job application portals. The following portals explicitly require documents under 1MB: UPSC DAF (Detailed Application Form) — supporting certificates under 1MB each. SSC CGL, CHSL, MTS and CPO — uploaded certificates under 1MB. NHM (National Health Mission) — all uploaded documents. State PSC portals (MPSC, RPSC, UPPSC, BPSC and others). Railway recruitment portals (RRB NTPC, RRB Group D). Banking recruitment portals (IBPS PO, SBI PO, IBPS Clerk).
Step-by-step: compress PDF to under 1MB
- Open PDFWix Compress PDF — free, no account required.
- Upload your document. Aadhaar card, marksheets and certificates compress very effectively.
- Choose High compression for documents that need to reach under 1MB.
- Check the output size shown before downloading. If it shows under 1MB, download and upload to your portal.
- If the PDF is still over 1MB (rare, usually for 50+ page documents), try splitting it using PDFWix Split PDF.
How much does a typical certificate compress?
Based on internal benchmarks: a scanned 10th marksheet at 300 DPI is typically 3–8MB and compresses to under 500KB on High compression. An Aadhaar card PDF downloaded from UIDAI is typically 200–400KB and usually already under 1MB (note: Aadhaar PDFs are password-protected — see our Aadhaar PDF compression guide for the correct workflow). A scanned graduation certificate is typically 2–5MB and compresses to 300–700KB.
Portal-specific tips
UPSC DAF: Requires photo under 1MB, signature under 100KB, and all supporting documents under 1MB each. Use Recommended compression for photos and High for certificates. SSC portals: Photo must be 20KB–50KB, signature 10KB–20KB, and documents under 1MB. For very small photo size requirements, export as JPEG at reduced quality instead of PDF. NHM portals: Often have a 1MB limit per file with a maximum of 5 files. Compress each document individually before uploading. See our dedicated guides: UPSC compression guide and SSC compression guide.