The Grants.gov file size limit is not one number. Grants.gov suggests 200 MB for the whole package, attachments included, and tells you to read the funding agency’s instructions for the real limit. So: find your agency’s figure, compress every PDF, and check the output sizes before you upload.
| What you are sending | The limit you hit | The Smol setting |
|---|---|---|
| Narrative and budget justification PDFs from your word processor | Package near 200 MB suggested by Grants.gov; the agency sets its own limits | PDF preset Large or Medium; text PDFs may shrink little, so check |
| Scanned letters of support, board lists, audits | Same package cap, and the pages must stay readable | PDF preset Medium; read one page at full size afterward |
| Foundation portal upload (Submittable, Fluxx or similar) | Set by each foundation or portal; check its guidelines | Small, then read the size; use the portal’s own number |
| Email to a program officer | 25 MB for a personal Gmail account, and email encoding adds about 37% | PDF preset Small; aim near 7 MB if the limit is unknown |
What is the Grants.gov file size limit?
Grants.gov publishes a suggestion, not a hard cap. Its applicant FAQ says Grants.gov “suggests limiting the file size of the entire grant application package including all the attachments to 200MB”, and says to read the federal award-making agency’s application instructions for the file size limit.
| Item | What the page says | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Whole package, attachments included | 200 MB suggested; the agency sets the actual limit for each opportunity | Applicant FAQs |
| Attachment file names | Limited character set (letters, digits, underscore, hyphen, space and some punctuation); 50 or fewer characters | Error messages |
| Duplicate file names | Two attachments with one name cannot be processed without manual intervention | Applicant FAQs |
| How to attach | Use only the Add Attachments buttons in the form | Applicant FAQs |
| Email attachments to a program officer | 25 MB for personal Gmail; above that Gmail adds a Drive link | Gmail Help |
Treat the 200 MB as a suggested ceiling for the full package, and treat anything the funding notice says about a single file as the rule that wins.
What are the Grants.gov attachment requirements?
Beyond size, Grants.gov’s own help pages cover file names and the way you attach. Each agency adds its own rules on attachment types, so the funding notice is the final word.
- Use only the characters Grants.gov lists (letters, digits, underscore, hyphen, space and some punctuation) and keep the name to 50 characters or fewer. Names longer than about 50 can cause problems processing packages.
- Give every attachment a different name. Duplicates cannot be processed without manual intervention.
- Attach only with the Add Attachments buttons. Other attach functions cause errors, and the attachments do not transmit, according to the FAQ.
- Read the agency’s instructions for accepted types and the size limit for that opportunity. Grants.gov says each agency has its own restrictions.
Which settings fit a grant application PDF size?
Pick the preset for the kind of PDF, run it, then read the output size. Smol’s PDF presets are long-edge pixel caps of 600, 900, 1200, 1800 and 2400 for Tiny, Small, Medium, Large and Original, not DPI targets, so effective resolution depends on page size. Smol does not aim for a byte count.
| Document | Preset to start with | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Scanned letters of support and signed forms | Medium | Readable text matters more than the last megabyte |
| Audited financial statements, mixed text and charts | Large, then Medium if over | Keeps tables legible |
| Photo-heavy appendix or program brochure | Medium | Images carry most of the weight |
| Text-only narrative | Large or Original | Little to gain; Smol keeps the original if the result would be larger |
| Copy for email to a program officer | Small | Lighter, for a 25 MB inbox with encoding overhead |
Some PDFs compress by almost nothing, especially ones made by certain generators. Others, such as scans and design-tool exports, shrink a lot. In our scanned PDF test, a 3-page, 300 PPI color agreement scan ran through OCRmyPDF (a separate tool) and then Smol Medium went from 5,017,560 to 288,609 bytes, 94.2% smaller, with the text layer intact. That is one scan, not a promise for yours. Details of what each preset does are in our preset explainer.
Will a compressed scan still be readable?
In the same test, text recovery by Tesseract was 100% at Medium (about 109 PPI), 96.8% at Small (82 PPI) and 1.42% at Tiny (55 PPI). Pick Medium for anything a reviewer must read, and open one page at full size afterward. Smol does not do OCR, so an image-only scan stays image-only.
How do I compress a grant package, step by step?
Work on copies, finish all edits and signatures first, and compress the whole folder at once.
Finish and sign everything
Compress after edits and signatures. Smol does not edit, sign, merge or split PDFs.
Drop the attachments folder into Smol
The whole folder goes in together. The output lands beside each original with a
_compressedsuffix by default.Choose the preset from the table above
Medium suits scans; Large suits text and tables. Our batch PDF guide covers large folders.
Sort by size and read the largest
Check each output file’s size and add them up against the package number in your funding notice, not the 200 MB suggestion alone.
Rename the copies to Grants.gov rules
50 characters or fewer, allowed characters only, no duplicate names.
Open each one before attaching
Check signatures, tables and small print are legible, then attach with the Add Attachments button.
How do I compress a PDF for a grant portal or foundation upload?
Find the portal’s own number first, then compress with Smol and check the result. Each foundation portal sets its own upload limit, so read the funder’s guidelines or the upload screen’s error text.
- Search the funder’s site for “application guidelines”, “file size” or “upload”, and write the limit on your checklist.
- If the portal counts total size, add up the output files in Finder.
- For email to a program officer, aim lower than 25 MB because encoding adds about 37%; our email guide shows the arithmetic.
- If a PDF is still over, try the next preset down and compare the pages that matter.
Our too-big-to-upload guide covers the general case. Funder documents like audits and donor lists may also carry document properties you do not want to share; the strip-metadata operation clears them, though for PDFs that result can be reversed unless the file is rewritten (see our PDF metadata post).
What do grant writers use today to shrink PDFs?
Free and built-in options come first. Preview’s Reduce File Size can enlarge text PDFs; in our test it did that to a 21-page contract (see our Preview post).
| Option | Cost | Where the file goes | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|---|
| Preview, Export with Quartz Filter | Free, built in | Stays on your Mac | Can enlarge text PDFs; no preset control |
| Rescan at lower resolution | Free | Stays on your Mac | Slow; re-sign if signatures were on paper |
| Online PDF compressors | Varies by service | Uploaded to a server | Limits vary; donor and budget data leaves your Mac |
| Adobe Acrobat | Paid | Stays on your Mac | Strong editing; heavier than a compress-only job |
| Smol | $29 once for Solo | Stays on your Mac | Five presets; no OCR, no redaction, no merging |
See our best PDF compressor roundup and the Acrobat alternatives page for the wider field. Similar needs show up in government contractor filings and journal submissions.
Teams and pricing
A development office with two grant writers and a program director on three Macs can buy Team, $49 once for three Macs. A larger staff can buy Enterprise at $20 a seat, 5 to 500 seats. Solo is $29 once for one Mac. There is no free trial. Presets live on each Mac, so write your settings down and recreate them on every machine.
When is Smol the wrong tool?
Smol compresses; it does not prepare or submit applications. Skip it in these cases.
- You need to redact a donor list or salary data. Smol does not redact; use a PDF editor that does.
- The PDF is image-only and the portal wants searchable text. Smol does not do OCR; run OCR in another tool first.
- You need to fill, sign, merge or split PDFs. Smol does none of those, so finish those steps elsewhere.
- You are on Windows or a Chromebook. Smol is macOS only.
- The file is already small and the problem is the file name or the form. Fix the name using the Grants.gov rules above.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Grants.gov file size limit?
Grants.gov suggests limiting the entire application package, attachments included, to 200 MB. It also says each agency has its own restrictions, so read the award-making agency’s instructions in your funding notice for the limit that applies. Compress every PDF first, then check the total.
What are the Grants.gov attachment requirements for file names?
Use only the characters Grants.gov lists (letters, digits, underscore, hyphen, space and some punctuation) and keep names to 50 or fewer characters. Names over about 50 can cause problems processing packages. Duplicate names cannot be processed without manual intervention, and Grants.gov says to attach only with the Add Attachments buttons in the form.
How do I reduce a grant application PDF size on a Mac?
Drop the PDF into Smol and choose a preset: Medium for scans, Large for text and tables, Small for email. Then read the output size and compare it with the limit in your funding notice. Smol sets presets, not byte targets, so the size must be checked, and some PDFs shrink very little.
Is there a foundation portal upload limit?
Each foundation and portal sets its own limit, so there is no single number. Check the funder’s guidelines or the error text on the upload screen, write the number on your checklist, and compress to fit it. For email, aim lower than 25 MB because encoding adds about 37%.
Will compressing a scanned letter of support make it unreadable?
Not at Medium in our test. A 3-page 300 PPI scan kept 100% word recovery at Medium (about 109 PPI), 96.8% at Small and 1.42% at Tiny, measured with Tesseract. Open one page at full size after compressing. Smol does not do OCR, so scans stay image-only unless you run OCR elsewhere.
Is it safe to use an online PDF compressor for donor and budget files?
An online compressor receives your file on its own server. Budgets, audits and donor lists are files you may prefer to keep local. Smol runs on your Mac with no account and uploads nothing. The choice is about who holds the file, not about whether the tool works.
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