Compress PDF Without Adobe — Free Alternatives

Adobe Acrobat Pro costs $20/month. Here are free alternatives for compression.

Option 1: Browser-Based (Recommended)

• No installation — works in any browser
• 100% free — no limits or watermarks
• Private — files stay in your browser
• All devices — desktop, mobile, tablet

Option 2: Preview on Mac

1. Open PDF in Preview
2. File → Export
3. Set Quartz Filter to "Reduce File Size"
4. Save

Note: Preview's compression can be aggressive.

Option 3: LibreOffice

Free office suite that can export optimized PDFs, but more complex for simple compression.

Why Browser-Based Is Best

For occasional compression, a browser tool is fastest. No downloads, no accounts, instant results.

Open Source Options

For developers and power users, Ghostscript and PDFtk offer command-line compression with full control over settings.