How small can I get a PDF without it looking terrible?

On the Recommended preset most PDFs drop 40-70% with no visible quality change. Strong typically reaches 60-85% reduction with mild image softening — fine for email. Extreme can hit 90%+ but is best reserved for archival or text-heavy PDFs where image quality doesn't matter.

Is there a paid Windows alternative worth the cost?

Adobe Acrobat Pro ($19.99/month as of May 2026) gives a similar quality slider plus PDF/A archival presets. Foxit PDF Editor (~$129 one-time) and Nitro Pro (~$179 one-time) also work. For occasional compression, PDFWix's free Compress PDF covers the same use cases.

How to Compress a PDF on Windows

A simple step-by-step guide to compress a pdf on Windows using PDFWix's free online tools.

How it works

Open PDFWix in your browser — Open Edge or Chrome on Windows and navigate to pdfwix.com/compress-pdf.
Add your PDF — Drag the PDF from File Explorer onto the dropzone, or click Select file.
Pick a quality preset — Choose Recommended, Strong, or Extreme depending on how aggressive the compression should be.
Click Compress PDF — Press the Compress PDF button. Processing happens entirely in your browser.
Download the result — Review the before/after size and click Download to save the smaller PDF.

Frequently asked questions

Does Windows 11 have a built-in PDF compressor?

No. Neither Windows 10 nor Windows 11 includes any PDF compression. Right-click > Send to > Compressed folder creates a .zip but doesn't shrink the PDF itself — PDFs are already internally compressed, so zipping saves only 2-5%. Use PDFWix or Microsoft 365's Word for actual PDF compression.

Will 7-Zip or WinRAR compress my PDF?

Not meaningfully. 7-Zip and WinRAR compress the file container, but PDF internal streams (Flate, JPEG) are already compressed, so the savings are typically 2-5%. To actually reduce a PDF you need a tool that re-encodes images and removes redundant objects, like PDFWix.

Are my files uploaded when I compress with PDFWix on Windows?

No. The compression runs entirely in your browser using JavaScript and WebAssembly — your PDF never leaves your PC. You can verify in Edge's DevTools (F12) > Network tab: no upload requests during compression.