Compress PDF

Reduce the file size of PDF documents while maintaining acceptable quality.

POSThttps://api.morphopdf.com/v1/pdf/compress

Authentication

AuthorizationBearer

Retrieve your API Key from Dashboard.

Request Body

One input source is required (file, fileBase64, or url).

fileFile

The PDF file to compress, uploaded via multipart/form-data.

fileBase64string

Base64-encoded PDF content as an alternative to file upload.

urlstring

Public URL of PDF file to fetch and compress.

Compression Options

qualitystringOptionalDefault: low

Compression quality level: 'low', 'medium', or 'high'. Lower quality = smaller file size.

Quality Levels

Level	Description	DPI	Best For
`low`	Maximum Compression	50	Archiving, email, smallest file
`medium`	Balanced	100	General use, screen reading
`high`	High Quality	150	Printing, presentations

Quality Naming

'low' quality results in the smallest file size (highest compression). The naming refers to output quality, not compression strength.

Query Parameters

formatstringOptionalDefault: json

Response format. Use 'binary' to receive the compressed PDF file directly, or 'json' (default) to receive metadata with a download URL.

Response

When using format=json (default):

successboolean

Indicates whether the operation completed successfully.

messagestring

Human-readable status message.

fileNamestring

Name of the compressed PDF file.

downloadUrlstring

Presigned URL to download the file. Valid for 1 hour.

originalSizenumber

Original file size in bytes.

compressedSizenumber

Compressed file size in bytes.

compressionRatiostring

Compression ratio as a percentage (e.g., '45.0%').

Error Responses

Status	Code	Description
400	`INVALID_PDF`	Invalid or missing PDF file
400	`INVALID_QUALITY`	Quality must be 'low', 'medium', or 'high'
413	`FILE_TOO_LARGE`	File exceeds maximum size (50MB)
500	`COMPRESSION_FAILED`	Internal processing error

POST/v1/pdf/compress

curl -X POST "https://api.morphopdf.com/v1/pdf/compress?format=binary" \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
  -F "file=@large.pdf" \
  -F "quality=medium" \
  --output compressed.pdf

200OK

{
  "success": true,
  "message": "File processed successfully",
  "fileName": "compressed.pdf",
  "downloadUrl": "https://files.morphopdf.com/sessions/abc123/output/compressed.pdf?X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Expires=3600&...",
  "originalSize": 2048576,
  "compressedSize": 1126400,
  "compressionRatio": "45.0%"
}