Limits
My file is too large — what are my options?
The 100 MB ceiling, why compression sometimes hardly helps, and the split-then-compress route.
Updated
The ceiling is 100 MB per file
Every tool accepts files up to 100 MB. That limit is enforced before any work starts, so you get a clear rejection rather than a failure halfway through a job.
Why compression sometimes only saves a little
Compression removes redundancy. A PDF made of scanned photos is mostly redundancy-free image data, so it shrinks well. A text-heavy PDF exported from Word is already efficient — there is very little left to remove, and a 12 MB file may only drop to 10 MB.
If you are chasing a size cap, check which part of the document is heavy. Usually it is a handful of scanned attachments, not the text pages.
If compression is not enough
Split the document where the portal or email system expects it. Splitting by size gives you parts under a chosen ceiling instead of guessing page numbers.
- Compress first, then split — the parts will each be smaller.
- Keep the original: compression is not reversible.
- For email, check the real attachment cap of the recipient's system, not your own mailbox.
Tools mentioned
Still stuck?
Tell us the tool, the file size and the exact error text. That is usually enough to reproduce it.