20 MB PDF sample file
A PDF file of exactly 20,971,520 bytes. It is a valid Portable Document Format file, generated for this site and checked with an independent parser. Use it wherever you need a 20 MB sample, test or dummy PDF file.
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sample-pdf-20mb.pdf
20 MB20,971,520 bytes
Download 20 MB PDFDirect download. No sign-up and no waiting.
- Type
- application/pdf
- SHA-256
03da398b55b56c1cbdcb101d39cd82f2627534dce079950be27684ceb8b7dfe3- Direct URL
https://sampletestfiles.com/downloads/pdf/sample-pdf-20mb.pdf
What is in this file
9 pages of selectable text followed by 7 full-page test-card images stored as uncompressed RGB, which is what gives the file its size. 2,963 bytes of PDF comment lines before the cross-reference table bring the file to the exact size.
| Pages | 16 |
|---|---|
| Page size | A4 (595 × 842 pt) |
| PDF version | 1.4 |
| Fonts | Helvetica, Helvetica-Bold (standard, not embedded) |
| Images | 7 uncompressed RGB |
| Encrypted | No |
| Text selectable | Yes |
First bytes of the file
The first 64 bytes of sample-pdf-20mb.pdf as a hex dump: offset, bytes, then the same bytes as text. The PDF signature is 25 50 44 46 2D.
00000000 25 50 44 46 2d 31 2e 34 0a 25 e2 e3 cf d3 0a 31 |%PDF-1.4.%.....1|
00000010 20 30 20 6f 62 6a 0a 3c 3c 20 2f 54 79 70 65 20 | 0 obj.<< /Type |
00000020 2f 43 61 74 61 6c 6f 67 20 2f 50 61 67 65 73 20 |/Catalog /Pages |
00000030 32 20 30 20 52 20 3e 3e 0a 65 6e 64 6f 62 6a 0a |2 0 R >>.endobj.|Preview
Loads the whole 20 MB file in your browser.
Where 20 MB matters
A 20,971,520-byte file: right at the default attachment limit of Outlook, and just under the 25 MB ceilings of Gmail and GitHub web uploads. These are the default limits a file of this size is useful for testing:
| System | Limit | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Microsoft Outlook | 20 MB of attachments by default for internet mail accounts | This file is right at the limit; add a second attachment and it is exceeded. |
| Gmail | 25 MB per message | Under the limit, although email encoding adds about a third in transit. |
| GitHub web uploads | 25 MiB per file added through the browser | Accepted. Pushing with Git allows larger files. |
| Cloudflare Pages assets | 25 MiB per file | The largest round size that can be served as a static asset. |
| Amazon API Gateway | 10 MB payload | Rejected; the upload has to go directly to object storage. |
| ASP.NET Core (Kestrel) | About 28.6 MB request body by default | Accepted with room for the multipart overhead. |
Use this file for
- Testing email attachment limits
- Testing document upload forms and size limits
- Checking in-browser PDF previews
Testing notes for PDF
- A file cut off before its final "%%EOF" marker usually cannot be opened, which makes PDF a good format for detecting truncated transfers.
- PDFs can embed JavaScript and attachments, so upload handlers should scan them rather than trust the extension. The samples here contain neither.
Technical details
| File name | sample-pdf-20mb.pdf |
|---|---|
| Format | PDF (Portable Document Format) |
| Extension | |
| MIME type | application/pdf |
| Size | 20,971,520 bytes (20 MB) |
| Kind | Binary |
| Signature | 25 50 44 46 2D |
| SHA-256 | 03da398b55b56c1cbdcb101d39cd82f2627534dce079950be27684ceb8b7dfe3 |
| Created | 2026-10-10 |
| Validation | Exact size, signature bytes and structure checked when the file was generated |
| Preview | Available on this page |
| Source | Generated for this site; not copied from elsewhere |
| Licence | Free to use, modify and redistribute (terms) |
| Category | Documents |
Validated for expected format and integrity. As with any download, scan the file with your own security tools before opening it. How files are made and checked
Download from the command line and verify
Fetch the file with curl, then compare its checksum with the SHA-256 value above.
curl -o sample-pdf-20mb.pdf 'https://sampletestfiles.com/downloads/pdf/sample-pdf-20mb.pdf'
sha256sum sample-pdf-20mb.pdf # Linux
shasum -a 256 sample-pdf-20mb.pdf # macOSOn Windows, run Get-FileHash sample-pdf-20mb.pdf -Algorithm SHA256 in PowerShell. A matching value proves that the download is complete and unaltered.
Related files
Questions about this file
- Is this file exactly 20 MB?
- Yes. It is 20,971,520 bytes, which is 20 MB in the binary units that operating systems and server limits use (1 KB = 1,024 bytes).
- What is inside the 20 MB PDF file?
- 9 pages of selectable text followed by 7 full-page test-card images stored as uncompressed RGB, which is what gives the file its size. 2,963 bytes of PDF comment lines before the cross-reference table bring the file to the exact size.
- Do the sample PDFs contain selectable text?
- Yes. Every sample has real text set in the standard Helvetica font, so you can test text extraction and search. The larger files add full-page images to reach their size.