Compress Word Files Online

Why Compress Word Documents?

Word documents can get surprisingly hefty, especially when packed with high-resolution images, embedded fonts, or complex formatting. Here's why file size matters:

• Email attachment limits: Gmail caps attachments at 25MB, while Outlook defaults to 20MB.
• Upload speed: Large files crawl through slow internet connections.
• Storage costs: Every MB counts when you're hitting SharePoint or OneDrive quotas.
• Sharing friction: Nobody wants to wait 10 minutes for a document to download.

A 10-page report with uncompressed images can easily balloon to 50MB or more. That's bigger than most email systems will handle! Luckily, Smallpdf isn't just for PDFs. Our online compressor helps you reduce Word file size for free, without downloads or sign-ups.

Whether you're emailing reports, collaborating with colleagues, or archiving documents, keeping files lean makes everything faster.

How to Compress Word Documents Online for Free

Want to shrink a Word document in seconds? Just follow these steps:

1. Drag and drop your Word file into the compressor.
2. Choose “Basic compression” and continue.
3. Click on “Export As” and choose the option “Word.”
4. Done—Your compact Word doc is ready for download!

No registration needed—compress up to 2 files per day completely free!

What Makes Word Files Large and How Smallpdf Compression Works

You might wonder: ‘How can a PDF compressor also work on Microsoft Word files?’ Great question! Here's what typically bloats Word documents and how our compression tackles each issue:

• Uncompressed images: Large images (often 300 DPI or higher) are automatically resized and recompressed to lighter JPEGs.
• Embedded fonts: The tool optimizes and trims unnecessary font data during conversion.
• Hidden revision data: Extra metadata and document history are cleaned out during compression.
• Embedded objects or charts: Complex elements are optimized so your PDF stays sharp but smaller.

Here's our process: first, our compressor uses Smallpdf's conversion technology to turn your document into a PDF document. During this conversion, we apply lossless compression to images and text. You can then export your newly compressed file back to Word, Excel, PDF, or PPT format.

If you're sharing a document that doesn't need editing, you can skip the export step and keep it as a compressed PDF. Just hit the download button instead of “Export As.”

File Security and Privacy

For security reasons, we'll remove your file from our servers an hour after compression. Want to keep it longer? Use our file storage feature or generate a shareable URL.

Reduce Word File Size in Microsoft Word (Manual Methods)

Prefer to compress Word documents without leaving Microsoft Word? Here are the built-in methods that can help shrink your DOCX files:

Compress Pictures in Word

Images are usually the biggest file size culprits. Here's how to compress them:

1. Select any image in your document.
2. Go to the “Picture Format” tab in the ribbon.
3. Click “Compress Pictures.”
4. Choose your compression level (Email, Web, or Print quality).
5. Check “Delete cropped areas of pictures” for extra savings.

Save Images at a Lower Resolution

Change Word's default image handling for future documents:

1. Go to “File,” then “Options,” then “Advanced.”
2. Scroll to “Image Size and Quality.”
3. Set default resolution to 150 PPI or lower.
4. Check “Do not compress images in file” if you want manual control.

Avoid or Subset Embedded Fonts

Custom fonts can add serious bulk to your files:

1. Go to “File,” “Options,” then “Save.”
2. Uncheck “Embed fonts in the file” (or choose “Embed only characters used”).
3. Stick to system fonts like Calibri, Arial, or Times New Roman when possible.

Compress or Replace Embedded Charts and Objects

Charts and embedded objects can be surprisingly heavy. Here’s how to fix it:

1. Right-click on charts or objects.
2. Choose “Save as Picture” to convert to a compressed image.
3. Delete the original object and insert the compressed image.
4. Use the “Selection Pane” to find hidden objects.

Find What's Making Your DOCX Big (ZIP/7-Zip Methods)

It’s not obvious, but DOCX files are actually ZIP archives. Rename your file from .docx to .zip and extract it to see what's taking up space. Look in the “word/media” folder for oversized images.

Compress Multiple Word Documents (Batch) and Large Files

Smallpdf's Word document compressor workflow is simple enough—assuming you only need to reduce Word file size for a single document, anyway. On the other hand, repeating this process for multiple files could feel like a hassle.

Fortunately, Smallpdf Pro users can process multiple documents at once. Once you have an active Smallpdf Pro subscription, open the PDF compressor and upload as many Word files as you want. This batch mode acts as a powerful DOCX size optimizer, and when you're done, you can download a ZIP file containing all your compressed Word documents.

Having a Pro account will also allow you to use Strong compression on your files. This option is perfect if you have a large file that's too large for our Basic compression to shrink Word documents effectively.

Not a Smallpdf Pro user? Don't worry—you can take advantage of our 7-day free trial to test these compression options and other Pro-exclusive features.

Do More With Smallpdf (PDF Editor, Merge, AI)

Though our PDF compressor is certainly powerful, we've only scratched the surface of what Smallpdf can do for you. Below are some other tools that might come in handy.

Compress Pictures and More

Our compressor works with PowerPoint presentations, Excel spreadsheets, and JPG images too. Upload any Microsoft 365 file and export it back in its original format—compressed and ready to share.

Edit Your PDF Documents

Need to make quick edits? Our PDF Editor lets you add images, highlights, shapes, and annotations. Pro users can even edit existing text directly in the PDF.

Merge Your PDFs

Combine multiple PDFs into one neat package with our Merge PDF tool. Just drag, drop, and download—no more juggling separate attachments.

Explore The Possibilities of AI

Our AI-powered tools can save you even more time:

• Chat with PDF. Ask your documents questions and get immediate answers.
• AI PDF Summarizer. Our AI PDF Summarizer creates “at-a-glance” overviews of PDFs and other files.
• Translate PDF. With Smallpdf's PDF Translator, you can easily translate summaries of your documents into other languages.

Ready to explore everything Smallpdf has to offer? Start your free trial to access all our tools and premium features!