How to compress pictures
- Add your pictures. Drop one or many anywhere on the page, paste one, or click the box to choose files.
- Choose how. Use the Quality slider, or switch to Setting a file size and enter a limit, with quick buttons for 50 KB, 100 KB, 200 KB, 500 KB and 1 MB.
- Press Compress. Each row then shows the old and new file size and how much was saved.
- Download. Use the link on a row, or Download all as ZIP for a batch.
If you change a setting afterward, the finished files are cleared, because they no longer match, and you press Compress again. Your originals are never touched.
Two ways to make files smaller
| Way | How it works | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Choosing the quality | Every picture is saved at the quality you set, from 30 (smallest) to 95 (best looking). The default is 75. Lower quality throws away more fine detail, so the file shrinks. | A whole folder where you want a consistent look, and you do not mind how big each file ends up. |
| Setting a file size | You enter a limit in KB. For each picture, the tool searches for the highest quality that still fits under it, so a picture that is already small is not squashed more than it has to be. | Upload forms and email limits, such as "under 200 KB" or "under 1 MB". |
When a size limit cannot be met by lowering the quality alone, the tool never goes below quality 30. Instead it makes the picture 15% smaller in each direction and tries again, up to ten times, and the row says that the pixel size was reduced. If a limit is still out of reach, the row says it could not get under that size and shows what it reached.
What happens to each file type
- JPEG and WebP are saved by your browser's own encoder at the chosen quality. This is lossy: some detail is gone for good, which is how the file gets smaller.
- PNG is different. A browser can only write PNG without loss, which often produces a file no smaller than the original. So PNGs go through UPNG.js, an open-source encoder (MIT license, by the author of Photopea) that reduces the picture to a limited palette of colors. Under More options you can pick 256 (best looking), 128, 64 or 32 colors. Flat graphics, screenshots and artwork shrink the most. Photographs and smooth gradients can show banding at lower color counts.
- GIF, BMP and AVIF files left on same type are saved as WebP. Animated files keep only their first frame.
In our own tests, a 766 KB photo JPEG became 228 KB at quality 75, a 1.2 MB photo PNG became 357 KB with 256 colors, and a 581 KB flat-color PNG became 163 KB. Your results depend on the picture. Photographs with a lot of fine texture shrink less than smooth ones.
Save as: keep the type, or switch
- Same type as the original keeps JPEG as JPEG, PNG as PNG and WebP as WebP.
- WebP is usually the smallest choice for photographs and for graphics, and it keeps transparency. Almost every current browser and phone opens it, though some older programs cannot.
- JPEG is the most widely accepted. It cannot hold transparency, so see-through areas become white.
Never a bigger file
Sometimes a file is already as small as this encoder can make it, for example a JPEG that someone has compressed hard before. If compressing would only make it bigger, the tool hands back your original file unchanged and says Already as small as it gets: the original is kept. That check applies when you keep the same type and do not shrink the pixels.
Shrinking the pixels as well
Under More options, tick Also shrink big pictures and set a longest side, for example 2048 px. Pictures larger than that are scaled down, and smaller ones are left alone. Fewer pixels means a smaller file even at the same quality, and a phone photo is often far larger than any screen needs. For full control of the size, use the image resizer first.
Metadata and privacy
- Metadata is not kept. The saved files are fresh drawings, so camera details and GPS location from the originals are left behind, which also saves a few kilobytes. The phone rotation tag is applied first, so pictures keep looking upright. See our EXIF guide.
- The work happens in this tab. The files on your disk are never changed or deleted. For what the site collects, see our privacy policy.
Limits to know about
- Browser encoders are decent but not the most aggressive. A dedicated desktop tool can sometimes squeeze a JPEG a little further at the same visual quality.
- Compressing a picture again and again lowers its quality each time. Keep your originals and compress from them.
- Large batches are held in memory until you download them, so do very large folders in groups, especially on a phone.
- HEIC photos cannot be opened by most browsers other than Safari. Convert them to JPEG first.
Frequently asked questions
How do I compress an image to 100 KB?
Add the picture, choose Setting a file size, click the 100 KB button, and press Compress. The tool finds the highest quality that fits under 100 KB, and shrinks the pixel size a little only if quality alone cannot get there.
Will compressing make my picture look worse?
At quality 75 most photographs look the same at normal viewing size, though zooming in may show some lost detail. The lower you go, the more detail is lost. Open the result next to your original to judge, and compress from your original each time, not from an already compressed copy.
Why did a file come back unchanged?
It was already as small as this tool could make it, and compressing it would have made it bigger, so the original is kept. Try saving it as WebP, choosing a lower quality, or turning on Also shrink big pictures.
Why is PNG treated differently?
PNG is a lossless format, so quality does not apply to it the way it does to JPEG. To make PNGs much smaller, the tool reduces the number of colors in the picture. That works best on graphics and screenshots, and photographs may show banding at low color counts.
Is WebP safe to use?
Yes for the web and most phones and apps today. If you share files with someone who uses older software that cannot open WebP, choose JPEG instead.
Does it remove location data?
Yes. Compressed pictures are redrawn on a canvas, which does not copy the original's metadata, so GPS location and camera details are left behind. The metadata viewer can confirm it.