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Reduce PDF file sizes through our compression API. Compress large documents by up to 95% while keeping them readable and usable. Choose from four compression levels to balance file size against quality, from light compression that keeps near-original quality to extreme compression for maximum size reduction.
The API compresses images, removes redundant data, optimizes fonts, and cleans up PDF structure without changing your content or layout. Handle files up to 1GB and pick the compression level that fits your needs. Use it to cut storage costs, meet email attachment limits, speed up downloads, or archive documents more efficiently.
Built for document management systems, email platforms, cloud storage services, mobile apps, and archival workflows. Automate compression in your pipelines with asynchronous processing and webhook notifications.
Select from low, balanced, high, or extreme compression modes. Extreme mode achieves up to 95% file size reduction by aggressively optimizing all compressible elements, perfect for archival storage and bandwidth-constrained environments.
Automatically compresses images, strips redundant data, optimizes embedded fonts, and streamlines PDF structure while preserving document layout, text clarity, and essential metadata.
Applies different compression techniques based on content type. Images use format-appropriate algorithms, vector graphics remain lossless, and text stays crisp across all compression levels.
Reduce infrastructure costs by integrating our compression API into your document pipeline. Lower S3, Azure Blob, or cloud storage usage and bandwidth costs by up to 90% for image-heavy documents, delivering immediate ROI on storage expenses.
If you don't want to poll for task status, you can simply provide the webhook data in your request. Instead of manually checking status, we will automatically notify your endpoint the moment the task processing is completed.
destroy parameter, your files are permanently wiped from our servers immediately after processing finishes, ensuring complete data security. If destroy is not set, files are retained up to 30 days based on user's plan.Handle heavy documents and high-resolution assets with ease. Our API supports a massive 1GB payload size per request, allowing you to process even the largest PDF files without worrying about size restrictions.
$ pip install requests
File uploads must use multipart/form-data format. PDF API accepts a single file upload.
| Parameter | Required | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| file | No | multipart/form-data | - | The PDF file to process. Only used if you're uploading a file instead of using file_id. |
Input Priority Rule:
If both file and file_id are provided, the multipart file upload takes priority and file_id is ignored.
All parameters must be included as query parameters. Any parameters sent in the form data will be ignored.
| Parameter | Required | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| compression_level | Yes | String | - | Controls compression intensity. Available options: • low (preserves maximum quality) • balanced (optimal quality-to-size ratio) • high (significant size reduction) • extreme (maximum compression). |
| destroy | No | Boolean | false | If true, we delete the input file immediately after generating the output. |
| file_id | No | String | - | The unique ID of a PDF file already present on our server. Use this instead of uploading the file again. Either file or file_id must be provided. |
| output | No | String | compressed_pdf | Name of the output PDF (without extension). |
Note: Compression results depend on document content. Image-heavy files typically see significantly higher reduction rates than text-based files. Refer to the Compression Optimization Guide below to select the right level for your needs.
| Parameter | Required | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| webhook_url | No | String | - | The URL where we'll send the webhook notification after the task completes. Authentication parameters in the URL (e.g., ?auth=token123) are passed as-is. |
| webhook_failure_notification | No | Boolean | false | If true, we'll send an email notification if the webhook request fails after 3 retries. The email goes to the requesting user or their org admin if user is part of an organization. |
| Header | Required | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| X-Webhook-Authorization | No | String | - | Custom authorization header sent with the webhook request. Format: Key:Value (e.g., Authorization:Bearer token123). |
Explore detailed response fields including field names, data types, requirements, and descriptions in the interactive Response Table below. For complete response documentation click here.
Use these endpoints to manage files and check task status.
task_id. The response includes creation and expiry timestamps to help you track result availability, along with specific error details if a task fails. Results are retained for up to 7 days, depending on the operation.file_id. Returns details including file name, size, type, and creation/deletion timestamps. Generated or uploaded files are retained up to 30 days based on user's plan, unless destroy is enabled to delete them immediately. You can use this endpoint to check if the file has expired using its file_id.multipart/form-data request. Each file receives a unique file_id that can be used with the PDF APIs.file_id for uses with the PDF APIs.| HTTP Status | Reasons |
|---|---|
| 400 | Invalid PDF File: Please provide a valid PDF file. We don't support other types. |
| 400 | Missing File or ID: You must provide either a file or a file ID. |
| 400 | Invalid Parameter: The value for 'param_name' is invalid. |
| 404 | File ID Not Found: Please provide a valid file ID. |
| 500 | File Saving Exception: An unknown error occurred while saving. Try again later. |
| 500 | Internal Server Error: Internal Server Error Occurred. |
| 400 | Invalid Compression Level: Please provide a valid compression level. Allowed values are: low, balanced, high, extreme. |
These errors might appear in the task-status response if the background job fails.
| Error | Description |
|---|---|
Invalid PDF File | The provided file is not a valid PDF file. |
File Saving Exception | An unknown error occurred while saving the file. Try again later. |
PDF Generation Exception | An unknown error occurred while generating the PDF. Try again later. |
Internal Server Error | Internal Server Error Occurred. |
Encrypted PDF Provided | The provided PDF file is encrypted. Please decrypt it first to perform operations. |
Invalid Compression Level | Please provide a valid compression level. Allowed values are: low, balanced, high, extreme. |
Use this quick reference to choose the right compression_level for your needs.
low (High Quality):
balanced (Recommended):
high (Web Ready):
extreme (Max Storage Savings):
Reduce your PDF file size by specifying your desired compression level. This example uses balanced mode, which provides the best trade-off between file size and visual quality for standard business documents.
# Standard Response { "taskId": "04a06cd5-158d-4191-a45b-6f58249c599d", "inputIds": [ "7a9e4b12-f3c8-4d56-b7e1-8c2f9d0a3e6f" ] } # Response with destroy=true (No File IDs as they are deleted right away) { "taskId": "04a06cd5-158d-4191-a45b-6f58249c599d" }curl -X 'POST' \ 'https://api.apifreaks.com/v1.0/pdf/compress?compression_level=balanced&output=optimized_doc' \ -H 'X-apiKey: YOUR_API_KEY' \ -F 'file=@/path/to/file.pdf'
After submitting a compression task, check its progress using the Task Status API with your taskId. The task goes through these statuses: queued, processing, completed, and failed.
# Response (completed) { "taskId": "a1b2c3d4-e5f6-7890-a1b2-c3d4e5f67890", "status": "completed", "outputFileId": "9b2e7f3a-5c8d-4e1b-a6f9-0d3c8e7b2a5f", "outputFileName": "processed_document.pdf", "createdAt": "2025-01-26 10:30:00", "expiresAt": "2025-01-27 10:30:00" } # Response (failed) { "taskId": "a1b2c3d4-e5f6-7890-a1b2-c3d4e5f67890", "status": "failed", "error": "Invalid PDF File", "message": "The provided file is not a valid PDF file.", "createdAt": "2025-01-26 10:30:00" }curl -X GET "https://api.apifreaks.com/v1.0/pdf/task-status?taskId=a1b2c3d4-e5f6-7890-a1b2-c3d4e5f67890" \ -H "X-apikey: YOUR_API_KEY"
Once the task status shows “completed”, download your compressed PDF using the File Download API with the outputFileId from the task status response.
curl -X GET "https://api.apifreaks.com/v1.0/pdf/download?fileId=a7b8c9d0-e1f2-3456-a7b8-c9d0e1f23456" \ -H "X-apikey: YOUR_API_KEY" \ --output output.pdf
Get automatic notifications when your task completes instead of polling the task status endpoint. Good for event-driven applications and real-time document processing.
Add webhook_url to your request. We'll send a POST request to this URL when the task finishes (either completed or failed).
Example Request:
# Response { "taskId": "04a06cd5-158d-4191-a45b-6f58249c599d", "inputIds": [ "566dc743-d8fe-4943-8cef-61e5d3d6096c" ] }curl -X 'POST' \ 'https://api.apifreaks.com/v1.0/pdf/compress?webhook_url=https://yourdomain.com/webhook/pdf-compress&webhook_failure_notification=true&compression_level=balanced&output=optimized_doc' \ -H 'X-apiKey: YOUR_API_KEY' \ -F 'file=@/path/to/document.pdf'
Webhook delivery will be attempted up to 3 times. If all retries fail and webhook_failure_notification is enabled, we'll send an email notification to the requesting user or their organization admin.
Use X-Webhook-Authorization to add a custom header to webhook requests for endpoint security.
Format: Key:Value
Example: If you send Authorization:Bearer token123, the webhook request will include: Authorization: Bearer token123
Example with custom authorization:
curl -X 'POST' \ 'https://api.apifreaks.com/v1.0/pdf/compress?webhook_url=https://yourdomain.com/webhook/pdf-compress&webhook_failure_notification=true' \ -H 'X-apiKey: YOUR_API_KEY' \ -H 'X-Webhook-Authorization: Authorization:Bearer token123' \ -F 'file=@/path/to/document.pdf'
When your task completes, we send a POST request to your webhook_url with these headers:
| Header | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
Content-Type | Always application/json | application/json |
X-Signature | HMAC-SHA256 signature of the request body using your API key. Use this to verify the payload is authentic. | 4a7d1ed414474e4033ac29ccb8653d9b |
| Custom Header | (If provided) Your custom header from X-Webhook-Authorization | Authorization: Bearer token123 |
The webhook payload contains the same response structure as the Task Status API endpoint when checked for the task ID. For a comprehensive view of the webhook response structure and detailed field descriptions, explore the interactive Response Table.
Use the X-Signature header to verify webhook requests actually came from API Freaks and weren't tampered with.
How the signature works:
X-Signature header valueTo verify the webhook:
X-Signature header valueImportant: Don't transform or process the raw request body before verification. Adding whitespace or other formatting creates a different signature and verification will fail.
To use the PDF Compress API, API credits are required. Charges apply only for successful queries, defined by a 2xx status code. If a request results in a 4xx or 5xx status code, no credits will be deducted, and any credits already charged will be refunded.
For each successful request, 200 credit will be charged. 1 extra credit will be charged per MB beyond 50 MB.
Utilize the Credits Usage API to efficiently monitor your recent consumption of both one-off and subscription credits. This API provides a streamlined way to track and manage your credit usage, ensuring you stay informed about your remaining balance and can optimize your resource allocation effectively.