How to compress an image
- Choose your images. Drop one or many JPG, PNG, WebP, AVIF, GIF or BMP files onto the box, pick them from your phone's gallery, or paste a screenshot with Ctrl+V.
- Pick Quality or Target size. Quality 80 is a good default for photos. Target size is for upload forms with a limit such as "under 100 KB".
- Optionally change the format, the maximum dimensions and the metadata. Every change re-compresses the batch in a moment.
- Check the result in the compare view: drag the divider across the picture, or zoom to 100% to see fine detail. Then download each image, or all of them as a ZIP.
Quality or target size?
Quality sets how much detail the encoder may throw away. For JPG and WebP, 75 to 85 looks the same as the original to most people at a fraction of the size; below 60 you start to see blocky edges and smeared colors in skies and skin. The file size then depends on the picture: a detailed landscape needs more bytes than a flat screenshot.
Target size works the other way around. You set the most a file may weigh, and the tool searches for the highest quality that fits: it starts at quality 92 and halves the gap until it finds the best setting under your limit. If the file is still too big at quality 40, it reduces the dimensions a little and tries again, because a smaller sharp picture looks better than a large one full of artifacts. Untick "Make the picture smaller" when a form requires exact pixel dimensions; the tool then only lowers the quality, and tells you if the size can't be reached.
Which format to choose
| Format | Best for | Transparency |
|---|---|---|
| JPG | Photos, and any upload form that asks for JPG | No (becomes white) |
| WebP | Photos and graphics on your own website: usually a quarter to a third smaller than JPG | Yes |
| PNG | Screenshots, logos, diagrams and anything with sharp text | Yes |
| AVIF | The smallest photos, where your browser can create it | Yes |
"Same as original" keeps each file's format, so a mixed batch stays mixed. GIF and BMP files become PNG, and HEIC photos (Safari only) become JPG. For PNG, the tool reduces the image to a palette of 256 colors, the technique behind popular PNG shrinkers, and spreads the rounding error with dithering so gradients stay smooth. An image that already has 256 colors or fewer, such as most screenshots of text and icons, is stored exactly, with no loss at all.
Resizing
Photos from a phone are often 4000 pixels wide, far more than a web page, an email or a chat app shows. SettingMaximum size to 1920 or 1600 px on the longest side cuts the file size by around three quarters before any quality is lost. The picture keeps its proportions and is never enlarged. Choose a custom width and height for a box such as a 1200 × 630 share image or a 600 × 600 profile photo.
Metadata and privacy
Photos from phones and cameras carry EXIF metadata: the date, the camera and often the exact GPS position where the picture was taken. The compressor removes all of it by default, and the list says "location removed" for every photo that had a position. If you want to keep the date and camera details, choose Keep EXIF, remove location. To see exactly what a photo contains before you share it, open it in the EXIF viewer.
Nothing you add here leaves your device: the images are decoded and encoded by your browser in a background worker, and the page makes no uploads. That makes it safe for ID photos, signatures, scanned documents and private pictures.
Troubleshooting
- The result is larger than the original: the file was already well compressed. Lower the quality, choose WebP, or set a maximum size.
- "Can't get under" the target: the picture has too much detail for that many bytes at its size. Allow a smaller picture, choose a smaller maximum size, or use WebP.
- A transparent logo turned white: JPG can't store transparency. Choose PNG or WebP.
- HEIC photos won't open: only Safari can read HEIC. Use Safari, or export the photo as JPG from the Photos app first.
Need to shrink a video instead? The video compressor works the same way, to a target size like 10 MB. To check whether a picture was made by AI before you post it, try the AI image detector.