Compress Excel
Make Excel files smaller without changing the data — pictures shrunk, unused formatting and extra parts removed, maximum compression.
- Files never leave your device
- 100% free
- No sign-up
- No watermark
- Works offline after first load
or drag & drop the workbooks to make smaller
How to compress an Excel file
- Select or drop one or more Excel workbooks (.xlsx, .xlsm, or old .xls / .ods files).
- Choose how much to shrink pictures and which clean-ups to do — removing formatting from empty rows, the thumbnail and calculation chain, and pivot caches.
- Click Compress and download the smaller files. The size before and after is shown for each.
About Compress Excel
Make large Excel workbooks smaller so they can be emailed and uploaded. Pictures pasted at full size are shrunk and re-saved — big PNG screenshots of photos become JPEGs — while your data, formulas and charts stay untouched.
Formatting left on thousands of empty rows is removed, the thumbnail, calculation chain and printer settings are dropped, pivot caches can be removed, and everything is repacked at the strongest compression. Old .xls files become .xlsx, sizes are shown before and after, and nothing is uploaded.
Good for
- Getting workbooks under email attachment limits
- Shrinking reports full of pasted screenshots
- Cleaning up old, bloated spreadsheets
Tip: If a file is still large, look for pictures — they are usually the biggest part.
Frequently asked questions
Will my data or formulas change?
No. Values, formulas, formatting of your data, charts and sheets stay as they are. Only pictures are re-saved smaller, and parts Excel recreates by itself are removed.
Why is my Excel file so large?
Usually because of big pictures (photos pasted at full resolution), formatting applied to whole columns or thousands of empty rows, or pivot table caches. Each of these is handled.
What does removing formatting from empty rows do?
Old workbooks often have formatting on rows and cells far below the data. It is removed beyond the last cell that holds a value, which can shrink a file dramatically without changing anything you see in the data.
Is it safe to drop pivot caches?
Yes — the pivot tables stay, and Excel rebuilds their caches from the data when the file is opened. It is off by default.
Can it compress .xls files?
Yes. Old .xls, .xlsb and .ods files are saved as .xlsx, which is usually much smaller.
Will the file ever get bigger?
No. If a workbook can’t be made smaller, you get it back as it was.
Are my files uploaded?
No. Compression happens entirely in your browser — your workbooks never leave your device.