What to do when your PDF is too large as an email attachment

1 min read·24 July 2026

You click send and get an error: attachment too large. Both Outlook and Gmail have limits. Here are the fastest solutions to get your PDF sent.

What are the limits?

Gmail allows attachments up to 25 MB. Outlook.com up to 20 MB. Corporate Outlook via Exchange may have a lower limit (5-10 MB, set by the IT department). The recipient can also have a limit — even if it fits at the sender, the receiving mail server may reject it.

Solution 1: compress the PDF

Use PDFrust's Compress tool to make the PDF smaller. For PDFs with images or scans a 50-70% reduction is realistic. A 20 MB scan can go down to 5 MB, fitting within most email limits.

Compress PDF

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Solution 2: use cloud storage

Upload the PDF to Google Drive, Dropbox or OneDrive and share the link instead of the attachment. Gmail has a built-in "Attach from Drive" button. Outlook has OneDrive integration. The recipient does not need an account to open a shared link.

Solution 3: split the PDF

Split the PDF into two or more smaller files and send each as a separate attachment. Use PDFrust's Split tool to extract specific page ranges. You can also use the Split-to-ZIP tool to download all pages as separate files in one click.