What fits in 200 KB
A scanned A4 page at the Smaller level lands at roughly 30 to 90 KB depending on how much ink is on it, so 200 KB covers two pages of dense text or four of a form: a two-page phone scan of an expense form we measured went from 885 KB to 51 KB, a dense 300 dpi page of contract text from 1.2 MB to 90 KB. A photographed bank passbook page is one image and fits with room to spare. A ten-page scanned bundle does not, whatever the tool.
Documents that were exported from a word processor are already small. Their size comes from fonts and a logo, not from page count, and compression changes little.
Where the 200 KB limit shows up
- National Scholarship Portal (India): income certificate, Aadhaar, marksheet, fee receipt and bank passbook go up as "PDF or JPEG format only. The size of each document should not exceed 200kb".
- State scholarship and admission portals that run on the same stack tend to reuse the number. The limit is printed next to the upload field; take that one over any guide, including this page.
Steps
- Drop the PDF into the tool above, or click Try it now and pick it.
- The size next to the file name updates when compression finishes. Under 200 KB: download.
- Over: go through the list below, then drop the file again.
If it is still over 200 KB
- Split the bundle. Portals with a 200 KB limit expect one document per field. If you merged three certificates into one PDF, upload them separately.
- Scan text pages in black and white. A colour scan of a black-and-white document is the most common reason a two-page PDF stays over the limit. Rescan in black and white at 150 dpi; the page will be a fraction of the size and easier to read than a soft colour image.
- Photograph in good light and crop. A phone scan in dim light is noisy, and noise does not compress. Daylight, page flat, crop to the paper.
- Use the original file when there is one. A certificate downloaded as a PDF from the issuer is usually under 100 KB already.
Frequently asked
Why does the tool open on "Smaller"?
Because 200 KB is a strict budget and the Smaller level (images at 72 dpi) is the one that meets it for scans. If you had picked a level before, that choice is kept. Balanced (150 dpi) gives a crisper scan at about three times the size: the same two-page form came to 153 KB, the dense page to 246 KB. Worth trying for a light one- or two-page document, over the limit for dense text.
Is 72 dpi readable?
For a typed document, yes. Handwriting and small print get softer. The portal wants to read names, numbers and stamps; open the result and check those before uploading.
The portal says JPEG or PDF. Which is better?
A one-page scan is smaller as a JPEG than as a PDF containing the same JPEG, by a few kilobytes. A multi-page document has to be a PDF. Either way, the image resolution is what decides the size.
Where does the file go?
Nowhere. The compression engine runs inside your browser, the document is not uploaded, and nothing is kept once you close the page.
Nearby limits: 100 KB, 300 KB. All sizes: compress a PDF to a target size.
Ready? Drop your PDF into the tool at the top of this page.
Compressed on your device, never uploaded. No sign-up.
Size limits on this page were checked on .