Compress PDF · iPhone and iPad
Make any PDF smaller. Nothing leaves your phone.
Shrink scans and documents on your iPhone or iPad, keep every line of text searchable, and resize pages to A4 or Letter. No upload, no account.
A 10-page office scan on the Balanced preset. Same pages, 70% smaller.
Free to download · No account · Works offline
Built by Essex Software, a US developer with 22 years in business and an A+ BBB rating.
Stop renting a PDF compressor.
Some compressor apps are free and show ads. The well-known ones let you compress a few files, then charge every year for unlimited use. Here is what five years of that costs.
US App Store listings read on 25 October 2026; the lowest yearly price each listing shows, times five. Prices change and can differ by country.
What you get back, measured.
Compressors love big percentages. These are the numbers from real files on the same build you would download, with what happened to the text in each one.
| File | Before → after | Preset | Text |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10-page office scan, 300 dpi | 18.2 → 5.4 MB | Balanced | no text layer; pages re-rendered at 150 dpi |
| Same scan | 18.2 → 1.1 MB | Smallest file | 72 dpi; small print goes soft |
| 16-page paper with 7 photos | 3.6 → 1.4 MB | Balanced | all text kept |
| Same paper | 3.6 MB → 633 KB | Smallest file | all text kept |
| 18-page report with 3 photos | 785 KB → kept | any | photos already compact; file left as it was |
| Text-only document | 51 KB → kept | any | already as small as it gets |
Measured on 25 October 2026 with the engine of the App Store version (2.3.3), in the iPhone simulator. Compressing never makes a file bigger: if nothing can be gained you keep the original, and that file doesn’t count against the free allowance.
Scans shrink the most, text stays text. $6.99, once.
Three taps, no account.
Choose a PDF
From Files or iCloud Drive, several at once — or share a PDF to Shrinkiva straight from Mail, Safari or the Files app.
Pick a preset
Smallest file for email and uploads, Balanced for reading on any screen, Best quality to stay close to the original. Optionally resize every page to A4, Letter, Legal, A3, Tabloid or a custom size.
Share the copy
See the before and after size for every file. The compressed copy lands in Files › Shrinkiva, ready to send; your original is untouched.
Built for the PDFs people actually have.
Search, select, copy — still works.
Pages with real text are never turned into pictures. Only scanned pages, which already are pictures, get re-rendered at the quality you chose. The result sheet tells you which happened.
Where the big savings are.
A copier or scanner app writes 300-dpi pages nobody will ever print. Balanced redraws them at 150 dpi, which reads the same on a screen: a 10-page scan went from 18.2 MB to 5.4 MB. Smallest file goes to 72 dpi and 1.1 MB, still readable, soft on small print.
A4 to Letter and back.
Resize pages for a portal that insists on one size, with Fit, Fill or Stretch. Landscape pages get a landscape page. Custom sizes in millimetres or inches.
No upload. No server. No analytics.
The app works offline and its App Store privacy label is Data Not Collected. Contracts, medical records and scans of your passport never leave the device — there is nowhere for them to go.
Pricing you can understand.
Every feature works in the free version. The one limit is three files a month; one $6.99 payment lifts it for good.
Free
- 3 files every month, fresh each month
- Only files that got smaller count
- All three presets and page resizing
- Password-protected PDFs
- No ads, no watermark
Unlimited
- Unlimited files, every month
- Whole batches at once
- Everything in Free
- iPhone and iPad on the same Apple ID
- Restore any time from Settings
Questions, answered.
Does Shrinkiva upload my PDF anywhere?
No. The file is read, compressed and saved on your iPhone or iPad. The app has no server, no account and no analytics, and it works offline. Its App Store privacy label is Data Not Collected.
Will the text still be selectable afterwards?
Yes. Pages that contain real text keep that text. Only scanned pages, which are pictures of a page, are re-rendered at the quality you choose.
How much smaller will my PDF get?
It depends on what is in it: see the measured table above. Scans shrink the most; documents with photos shrink some; a file that is already as small as it gets is kept as it is, and the app never makes a file bigger.
Can I resize pages to A4 or Letter?
Yes — A4, Letter, Legal, A3, Tabloid or a custom size in mm or inches, with Fit, Fill or Stretch. Landscape pages get a landscape page.
What about password-protected PDFs?
Shrinkiva asks for the password once, on your device, and saves the compressed copy without it. The original is never modified.
Where do the compressed files go?
To Files › On My iPhone › Shrinkiva, and to the Recent list in the app, where a tap previews the file and Share sends it anywhere.
Is there a subscription?
No. Three files a month are free. The Lifetime Unlock is a single $6.99 purchase that unlocks unlimited files on the iPhones and iPads signed in to your Apple ID. Nothing renews.
Does it work on iPad?
Yes. It is one app for iPhone and iPad and needs iOS 16.4 or later.
Smaller PDFs. No subscription.
Free to try with three files a month, $6.99 to keep it forever. Every preset, page resizing and locked PDFs, all on your device.
More from Essex Software.
Scanning paper in the first place? Scaniva turns documents into PDFs on your iPhone, pay once as well. On a Mac or PC with hundreds of files, the desktop apps do the batch work.