Email attachment too large? How to get a PDF under 25 MB in a minute
2026-09-22
Gmail stops at 25 MB, Outlook.com at 20 MB, and most corporate mail servers somewhere between 10 and 20 MB. A scanned contract or a proposal full of photos blows past that easily. Here is how to shrink it in the browser, with nothing to install.
Use the tool
Attachment limits by provider
- Gmail: 25 MB (larger files switch to a Google Drive link automatically)
- Outlook.com / Hotmail: 20 MB
- Yahoo Mail: 25 MB
- Corporate Exchange: usually 10–20 MB, set by the admin
Shrink it in one pass
Open Compress PDF, drop the file in and choose Balanced. Scanned documents typically lose 60–85 % of their size. The before-and-after size is shown, so you can confirm you are under the limit before downloading.
The file never leaves your browser, so contracts and ID scans are safe to compress here.
How much quality can you give up?
- Read on screen only: Strong (72 dpi). Text stays perfectly legible.
- Might be printed: Light (150 dpi). Fine on any office printer.
- Text must stay searchable and copyable: Optimise structure only — smaller savings, but the text layer survives.
Still too big?
A 100-page scan may not fit even after compression. Use Split PDF to send it as two halves, or Extract pages to send only the pages that actually matter — the recipient will thank you.