Image Compressor

Compression makes the file smaller without changing the image’s width and height. There are two kinds:

• Lossy compression throws away detail your eye is unlikely to miss. JPG and WebP work this way, and the quality setting decides how much goes.
• Lossless compression packs the same pixels more tightly, so nothing changes. PNG works this way, which is why a photo saved as PNG is so large.

This tool re-saves each image at your chosen quality. If that isn’t smaller than the file you started with, you get your original back, so compressing never makes a file bigger. Measured in Chrome at the default 80% with Smallest file (see below):

Under Output format you choose what comes back:

• Same as original (the default): JPG stays JPG, PNG stays PNG and WebP stays WebP. Use it when a form or website only accepts certain formats. The phone photo above stayed a JPG and went from 2.54 MB to 1.33 MB.
• Smallest file: the compressor also tries WebP and keeps whichever version is smallest. In Chrome and Edge that’s usually WebP, so photo.jpg comes back as photo.webp. Best for your own website, where every current browser can show WebP.

Either way, images with see-through areas are only saved in formats that keep transparency.

PNG compression is lossless, so with Same as original a photo saved as PNG barely shrinks. Choose Smallest file for those, or turn them into JPGs with the Image Converter.

Safari, like every browser on iPhone and iPad, doesn’t let web pages save WebP, so Smallest file there usually gives a JPG, and PNGs often come back unchanged.

Many upload forms cap files at 100 KB, 200 KB or 1 MB. In Target Size Mode the compressor tries up to eight quality levels and keeps the best-looking version that fits under your limit.

• Leave a margin. The tool counts 1 KB as 1,024 bytes, but some websites count 1,000. For a 100 KB limit, enter 95.
• Big photos: tick Make images smaller if needed. A full-size 12 MP phone photo can’t get under 100 KB without looking blocky: ours couldn’t, even as WebP at the lowest quality. With the box ticked, quality isn’t lowered below 60%. If a photo still won’t fit, it’s saved with fewer pixels, scaled from the full-size image with its shape unchanged, and the result says Made smaller to fit with the new size. Images that already fit keep every pixel.
• Or choose the size yourself. Resized to about 1,200 pixels wide, our 12 MP photo fitted comfortably at a quality that looks clean. Leave the box unticked to keep the size you chose.
• If an image can’t reach the target, the result tells you, and you get the smallest version it could make.

The box is off on this page. Compress to 100 KB and Compress to 50 KB open with it ticked.

For photos, 70% to 85% is the sweet spot. At 80%, our test photo was hard to tell apart from the original even at full size. Below about 50%, fine texture such as grass, hair and stone starts to look smoothed over, and by 10% the loss is obvious. Screenshots hold up better: small text was still crisp at 50%.

Setting 100% doesn’t mean “no change”. The image is re-saved at maximum quality, which usually makes it bigger, so you’ll just get your original back.

Click a result’s before and after thumbnails to compare them with a slider.

Images are often the heaviest part of a web page, and the biggest saving comes from pixels, not quality. A 4,000-pixel photo shown 800 pixels wide still makes every visitor download all 4,000.

• Resize to about twice the width the image is shown at, so it stays sharp on high-resolution screens.
• Then compress at 75% to 85% with Smallest file. Every current browser can show WebP, so it’s a safe choice for websites.
• The Web Optimization preset in Workflows does both in one go: it resizes to a maximum of 1,920 pixels and saves WebP.

Phone and camera photos carry hidden details (EXIF), such as the camera model, the date and often the GPS location. Compressed images come out without any of it. Photos stored sideways are turned upright first.

The exception is a file you get back unchanged because compressing wouldn’t shrink it: that’s your original, metadata included. To check or remove metadata on its own, use the Metadata Viewer.

Compression happens in your browser, on your own phone or computer. Your images are never uploaded or sent anywhere.

You can check this yourself: open your browser’s developer tools, watch the Network tab and compress an image. The only requests are anonymous usage counts, described in our privacy policy. After your first visit, the compressor works offline too.