GST Registration: Preparing PDF Documents That Upload Successfully (India)

The GST portal accepts a limited set of formats for supporting documents, generally PDF and JPEG, and it applies size limits that differ by document type. Those limits have been revised before. Reports from mid-2024 described an increase to 500 KB for several registration documents, while photographs are handled separately. Treat any figure you read online, including this one, as a starting point and confirm the limit displayed on the upload field or in the official user manual for your application.

Photograph or scan each document, such as a rent agreement, electricity bill or ownership proof, and convert it to a PDF. Use the scan to PDF tool for photos taken on a phone. A flat page in good light gives a small, readable file. Photos taken at an angle with shadows are both larger and harder to read, and the portal cannot help with an unreadable page.

If a PDF is over the limit, compress it and check the result. Small text on utility bills and agreements is the first thing to become hard to read when compression is too strong, so zoom in after each attempt. If a multi-page agreement will not fit, consider whether the portal needs every page, and follow the instructions for what to upload.

When one document is genuinely too large, the split by size tool can divide it into parts that each stay under a limit you set, which is useful if the portal allows multiple files for the same requirement.

The most common problems are files above the size limit, a format the field does not accept, and file names with unusual characters. If a file that looks fine is rejected, re-save it as a fresh PDF, keep the file name short and simple, and try again. Save your application as you go so a failed upload never costs you completed sections.

Prepare every document before you open the application. Put the PDFs in one folder, named to match the upload fields, and check each file's size against the limit shown on the portal. This turns the upload stage into a series of quick attachments instead of a scramble.

Keep the original scans somewhere safe as well as the compressed versions. If the portal later asks for a clearer copy, you will not have to scan again. If you are working with an accountant or consultant, agree in advance who prepares the files so nothing is duplicated or missed.

Compress PDF redraws each page as an image at a lower size. A phone scan of a rent agreement shrinks a lot. An electricity bill downloaded from the supplier's website is already compact text, and the tool may report that it did not get smaller. In that case the file is fine as it is, and if it is still over the limit it simply has too many pages for that field.

For a tight limit, how you capture the page matters more than how hard you compress it. Photograph in daylight, fill the frame with the paper, and convert to greyscale with Grayscale PDF if the document has no colour that matters. A clean greyscale page compresses much further before the small print breaks up.