Compress PDF to 200 KB

Visa and ID forms often want a scanned passport page or ID card as a small PDF. This tool is set to 200 KB. It looks for the sharpest version of your scan that still fits, and it tells you plainly if it can’t get there.

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PDF · 30 MB per file · 100 MB total

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Good to know before you begin

Reaching a small size usually means saving pages as pictures, which removes searchable text, links and form fields. The tool aims at or under the target, counting 1 KB as 1,000 bytes. If it can’t get there, you get the smallest version with a note saying so.

How to compress a PDF to 200 KB

Select Choose a PDF and pick the scan of your passport or ID page.
Leave Target size on 200 KB, or choose Custom and type the exact limit your form gives.
Select Compress PDF → and wait for the size check to finish.
Read the result line. It shows the new size, whether it beat the target and the resolution used.
Select Download result ↓ and zoom in on the photo, the name and the passport number before you upload.

Check the exact limit first

Don’t compress harder than the form needs. India’s e-Visa form, for example, asks for the passport bio page as a PDF between 10 KB and 300 KB (e-Visa instructions, checked Oct 30, 2026). For a limit like that, choose Custom and type 300 instead of using 200 KB. With our one-page sample scan, a sheet we made and scanned at 300 DPI in color, 200 KB gave a 136.5 KB file at about 125 DPI. Custom 300 gave 286.6 KB at about 150 DPI, which is sharper and still inside the limit.

The same site says an application can be rejected if the uploaded documents aren’t clear, so legibility matters more than shaving off the last few kilobytes. For India’s regular visa application, the document upload page allows PDFs from 10 KB to 500 KB (document upload rules, checked Oct 30, 2026), and our 500 KB page fits that better.

Scan it so it compresses well

Scan only the page the form asks for. A passport bio page alone is far easier to fit than the whole booklet.
Lay the document flat in even light. Shadows and glare become extra detail that costs bytes and makes the text harder to read.
Crop to the edge of the page or card. Background around the document is wasted space.
If you photographed the page instead of scanning it, turn the photo into a PDF with Images to PDF first, then compress it here.

What happened in our tests

Besides the one-page results above, a three-page sample scan of 5.87 MB came to 188.3 KB at about 80 DPI with the 200 KB target. That’s readable, but if your form takes each page separately, compress them one at a time and each page will come out sharper. When a file is already under 200 KB, the tool hands back your original unchanged, so it never makes a small file worse.

If it doesn’t work

Still over the target: the tool gives you the smallest version it made and says so. Remove extra pages with Split PDF, or rescan just the bio page.
The result looks blurry: check whether the form allows a larger file, then use Custom with that number.
“Password-protected” message: some banks and government sites lock their PDFs. Download a copy without a password, or scan the printed page.
The form says the file type is wrong: make sure the download ends in .pdf. Some phones rename files when sharing them.

What changes in the file

To fit 200 KB, pages are usually saved as JPEG pictures, so text in the scan can’t be selected or searched afterwards. For a passport or ID scan that rarely matters, because the scan was already a picture.

On a computer or phone

On Windows and Mac, the result goes wherever your browser saves downloads. The tool also works in mobile browsers, but large scans take longer on a phone than on a laptop, and very long files can run out of memory. On iPhone, Safari saves the result to the Downloads folder in the Files app (Apple’s instructions). On Android, Chrome saves it to Downloads (Google’s instructions). If you scanned with your phone, you can compress the file right there without moving it to a computer.

Questions

Is my passport scan sent anywhere?

No. The PDF is processed in your browser and isn’t uploaded to PDFReadyGo. Ads on the page are loaded by Google, as described in our privacy page, but your file is not part of that.

Will the embassy accept a compressed scan?

We can’t speak for any office. What the forms we read ask for is a clear, legible document within the size range, so open the result and check it before you submit.

Having trouble? Read the FAQ or visit help and contact.