--- title: Are PDFs getting bigger? | daily.dev description: A large-scale analysis of over 20.5 million PDF documents from the June 2026 Common Crawl dataset examines how median PDF file size has evolved over 20 years.... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/are-pdfs-getting-bigger--mks8mxpyq twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Are PDFs getting bigger? | daily.dev og:description: A large-scale analysis of over 20.5 million PDF documents from the June 2026 Common Crawl dataset examines how median PDF file size has evolved over 20 years.... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/are-pdfs-getting-bigger--mks8mxpyq og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/MKs8mXPYq.png og:image:alt: Are PDFs getting bigger? og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Are PDFs getting bigger? **[Medium](https://daily.dev/sources/medium_js)** · 7 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A large-scale analysis of over 20.5 million PDF documents from the June 2026 Common Crawl dataset examines how median PDF file size has evolved over 20 years. Using median, quartiles, and quadratic regression rather than arithmetic mean (due to a log-normal size distribution skewed by large outliers), the study finds that median file size grew steadily from about 0.20 MB in 2006 to over 0.40 MB around 2021-2022, then plateaued and has slightly declined since (annual growth turning negative from -0.31% in 2022-2023 to -2.00% in 2025-2026). A secondary finding shows Tagged PDFs are statistically significantly smaller than Untagged PDFs, contrary to expectations, possibly because tagged PDFs are more often digitally born rather than scanned. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### Are PDF files getting bigger over time on the web? No, growth in typical PDF file size has plateaued and is now slightly declining. Analysis of over 20.5 million PDF documents from the June 2026 Common Crawl dataset shows median file size rose from about 0.20 MB in 2006 to roughly 0.40 MB around 2021-2022, then began shrinking, with annual growth at -2.00% for 2025-2026. _daily.dev surfaces data-driven deep dives like this for developers tracking document format and storage trends._ ### Are Tagged PDFs larger or smaller than Untagged PDFs? Tagged PDFs are systematically smaller in median file size than Untagged PDFs, contrary to the expectation that added structure-tree objects would make them larger. A Wilcoxon signed-rank test confirmed this difference is statistically significant (P-value = 1.65875e-13), with one hypothesis being that tagged PDFs are more often digitally born rather than scanned. _developers weighing PDF accessibility tagging against file size trade-offs can find analyses like this on daily.dev._ ### Why should the median be used instead of the mean when analyzing PDF file sizes? Because PDF file sizes follow an approximately log-normal distribution spanning several orders of magnitude, so the arithmetic mean is heavily skewed by a small number of very large files. The largest 1% of PDFs account for roughly 25-35% of all bytes in a typical month, sometimes up to 40%, making median and interquartile ranges more representative of a typical document. _daily.dev helps developers dig into statistical methodology behind large-scale data reports like this one._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [New PDF compression filter will save space, need software updates](https://daily.dev/posts/new-pdf-compression-filter-will-save-space-need-software-updates-vl3n4e2of) · InfoWorld · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#data-analysis](https://daily.dev/tags/data-analysis), [#statistics](https://daily.dev/tags/statistics) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/are-pdfs-getting-bigger--mks8mxpyq) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Are PDFs getting bigger?","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/are-pdfs-getting-bigger--mks8mxpyq","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/are-pdfs-getting-bigger--mks8mxpyq"},"datePublished":"2026-09-03T00:44:37.819Z","dateModified":"2026-09-14T07:44:01.514Z","description":"A large-scale analysis of over 20.5 million PDF documents from the June 2026 Common Crawl dataset examines how median PDF file size has evolved over 20 years....","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/fa216cf3429cfe1170e529d0ba125967?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/fa216cf3429cfe1170e529d0ba125967?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Medium","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Medium","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/medium","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/medium_js"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/are-pdfs-getting-bigger--mks8mxpyq","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"data-analysis,statistics","timeRequired":"PT7M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Medium","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/medium_js"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Are PDFs getting bigger?"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/are-pdfs-getting-bigger--mks8mxpyq#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"Are PDF files getting bigger over time on the web?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"No, growth in typical PDF file size has plateaued and is now slightly declining. Analysis of over 20.5 million PDF documents from the June 2026 Common Crawl dataset shows median file size rose from about 0.20 MB in 2006 to roughly 0.40 MB around 2021-2022, then began shrinking, with annual growth at -2.00% for 2025-2026. daily.dev surfaces data-driven deep dives like this for developers tracking document format and storage trends."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"Are Tagged PDFs larger or smaller than Untagged PDFs?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Tagged PDFs are systematically smaller in median file size than Untagged PDFs, contrary to the expectation that added structure-tree objects would make them larger. 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