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Smaller PDF · Last updated 14 August 2026
Smaller makes PDFs small enough to send. Everything below is how it works and what to do when it does something you did not expect.
Compressing a PDF
Open Smaller, tap Select PDF, pick a file, choose how small you want it, and tap Make it smaller. The finished file is saved automatically before you are offered anything else.
Using it from Mail or Files
You do not have to open the app. In Mail, press and hold a PDF attachment and tap Share. In Files, press and hold a PDF and tap Share. Then choose Smaller.
iOS hides newly installed share extensions the first time. If you do not see Smaller in the row of app icons, scroll that row to the end and tap More — it will be in the list. To stop hunting for it every time, tap Edit in that list, then the green + next to Smaller, and drag it to the top. It will be in the main row from then on.
The extension offers itself for one PDF at a time. If you select two files, or a photo, it will not appear.
Where your files go
Every compressed file is saved to Files → On My iPhone → Smaller. It stays there until you delete it. You do not have to tap anything to save it — that happens before the buttons appear, so a file is never lost just because you closed the sheet.
One thing that surprises people. A file compressed from the share sheet shows up in Files → Smaller only after you next open the Smaller app. This is an iOS rule, not a choice: a share extension runs in its own sandbox and is not permitted to write into the app's Files folder. The extension saves your file straight away and the app files it the next time it runs. Nothing is lost in between — opening the app once is all it takes.
What the options mean
- Keep every pixel — removes content the PDF stores more than once and rewrites the file efficiently. No image is re-encoded, so the result is pixel-for-pixel identical to what you started with. This one only appears when the document actually has enough duplication to be worth it (about a quarter of the file or more), which is common in slide decks that reuse a logo or background on every page.
- Send it — the best balance, and the right default. Sized for email.
- Make it small — more compression, good for upload forms with a size limit.
- Make it tiny — maximum compression. Text stays sharp; photographs will show it.
- Need it under a limit? — type a number in megabytes and Smaller aims for it, making several passes to land as close under it as it can.
"Closest we could get"
If you ask for a target size and the file will not go that small, Smaller does not pretend. It gives you the smallest version it managed and says Closest we could get, with the size it reached and the size you asked for. The file is real and you can still use it — it just is not under the number you typed.
Why some PDFs barely shrink
Most of a large PDF is usually images, and shrinking images is most of what Smaller does. Two kinds of file have little to give:
- Already-optimised images. If a PDF was exported by something that already compressed its images hard, there is not much left to remove. Compressing an already-compressed JPEG mostly just costs quality.
- Text and vector documents. A contract, an invoice, or a report drawn as text and shapes has almost no image data in it. Those files are already about as small as they get, and Smaller will tell you so rather than producing a worse copy of the same size.
When there is nothing worth doing, Smaller says This one's already small and leaves your file alone.
Password-protected PDFs
Many business PDFs are technically encrypted but have no password to type — exported that way by CRM and e-signature tools. Smaller opens those normally.
A PDF that genuinely needs a password to open cannot be compressed. Smaller will say This PDF is password-protected. Remove the password first and then compress it.
Free compressions and Smaller Pro
The first ten compressions are free. After that, Smaller Pro is $12.99, paid once. There is no subscription and no renewal.
A refusal never costs you one — if Smaller declines a file or fails to compress it, that does not count against your ten.
Restoring your purchase on a new device
Sign in to the same Apple Account you bought it with, open Smaller, and when the paywall appears tap Restore Purchases. The purchase is attached to your Apple Account, so it comes back on any device you own. You do not pay again.
Still stuck
Email leejiles@gmail.com. Telling us the size and page count of the file, and what Smaller said, makes it much faster to work out what happened.