A picture straight from a phone or a camera is often several megabytes. That is more than a web page, an email or an upload form needs. When you compress an image, you keep the picture and drop the data your eye does not miss, so the file gets much smaller.
This image compressor gives you two ways in. Drag a Quality slider, or reduce image size in KB with Target size: ask for 100 KB, say, and let the tool find the setting. Either way, the file is really encoded before you save it, so the size you see is the size you get, and the split view shows the result next to the original.
It all runs in your browser. The picture is never uploaded, and it is free, with no account and no watermark.
How to compress an image in your browser
- Press Select images and choose a picture, or several. JPG, PNG, WebP, AVIF, GIF, BMP, TIFF, ICO and iPhone HEIC photos all open.
- Under Compress by, pick Quality or Target size.
- Leave Format on Original to keep the type of file you have, or pick JPG, WebP, AVIF or PNG.
- Watch the Original and Result bars in the panel. Once the result is measured, they show the exact sizes and how much smaller it is, for example 71% smaller.
- Press Compress, then save. The new file ends in _compressed, so your original stays as it was.
Split view is on as soon as the picture opens: Before on the left, After on the right, with a divider you can drag. Hold to compare, or the Space key, shows the original for as long as you hold it. Press 100% under the picture to see it one pixel for one pixel, which is where compression shows first.
The Result line at the foot of the panel sums it up, for example JPG · 4032 × 3024 · 612 KB · 71% smaller. While the tool is still measuring, sizes carry a "≈" and the chip on the picture says Encoding the preview.
Quality or Target size: two ways to reduce image file size
Both settings reduce image file size. They answer different questions. Quality asks how good the picture should look. Target size asks how big the file may be.
Quality: you choose the look
The Quality slider runs from 1 to 100 and starts at 75. Three chips jump to useful points:
| Chip | Quality | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| Smallest | 50 | Thumbnails and pictures that only need to be recognised |
| Balanced | 75 | Most photos for screens, the web and email |
| Best | 90 | Photos you want to keep close to the original |
Quality applies to JPG, AVIF and WebP. A PNG has its own choice instead: Lossless keeps every pixel, and Fewer colours makes the file much smaller. The Compress PNG page explains both.
Target size: you choose the file size
Pick Target size when a form or a site sets a limit. Drag the slider, which goes down to 10 KB, or pick a chip: 20 KB, 50 KB, 100 KB, 200 KB, 500 KB or 1 MB. The tool tries up to 8 quality levels to get under your target and keeps the best-looking one that fits.
If even the lowest quality is too big, Allow a smaller picture size also makes the picture smaller in pixels. Switch it off and the tool tells you instead that no setting gets the picture under the target. Each target chip also has a page of its own, such as compress an image to 100 KB.
Pick the format that makes the smallest file
The format often matters more than the quality. The same photo can be half the size in one format as in another, with no difference you can see. Format offers Original, JPG, WebP, AVIF and PNG.
| Format | Suits | Worth knowing |
|---|---|---|
| Original | Keeping the type you have | JPG, PNG, WebP and AVIF stay as they are. HEIC, TIFF and BMP become JPG; GIF and ICO become PNG. |
| JPG | Photos that must open anywhere | Transparent areas become white. |
| WebP | Photos and graphics for the web | Usually smaller than JPG for the same look, and keeps transparency. |
| AVIF | Often the smallest photos | Takes longer to make than JPG or WebP. |
| PNG | Screenshots, logos and drawings | Keeps every pixel with Lossless; a photo saved as PNG is usually bigger. |
WebP and AVIF are the quickest wins for photos on a website. Both are widely supported by current browsers, but check that the site or app you are sending to accepts them. If you are not sure, JPG is the safe choice, and Compress JPEG is set up for it.
The first time you pick AVIF, its encoder of about 3.5 MB loads once. An animated GIF keeps only its first frame, and the panel says so.
Fewer pixels, smaller file
Quality is only half of the size. The other half is the number of pixels. A 4000-pixel-wide photo shown 1200 pixels wide on a page carries data nobody sees, and no quality setting removes it.
Switch on Also make it smaller in pixels and set the Longest side, from 320 to 8,000 pixels. It starts at 1920. The picture keeps its shape, and a picture that is already smaller than the Longest side keeps its size: it is never enlarged.
- For a full-width picture on a web page, a Longest side of 1920 to 2400 is a sensible start.
- For a picture inside an article or an email, 1200 to 1600 is usually enough.
- For a thumbnail or a profile picture, 320 to 640 will do.
Together, fewer pixels and a sensible quality can make a phone photo many times smaller and still look sharp. If you need an exact width and height rather than a longest side, use Resize image first, then compress the result.
Compress photos in a batch, privately
To compress photos in bulk, select up to 100 pictures at once. They all get the same settings, and the button counts them for you, for example Compress 12 pictures. Each one is compressed in turn, and Save all as ZIP saves them together.
On the done screen, each row shows its new size and how much smaller it is. With a Target size, a picture that cannot reach it still gets the closest result, and its row says so in red, for example Could not reach 20 KB.
- Nothing is uploaded. The image compressor runs inside your browser, and our server does no picture work.
- Camera and location details are removed from every compressed picture. To take them out without compressing, use Remove EXIF data.
- It is free, with no account and no watermark. Image tools are not counted in the daily limit, which applies to document conversions only.
- It works in current Chrome, Edge and Firefox. Very large pictures may be too big for your browser.
This page works on pictures only. To compress a PDF and keep every page and its text, use Compress PDF, which works on our server.
Compress your image now
To compress an image well, pick a format that suits it, then use Quality to choose the look or Target size to choose the file size. Make it smaller in pixels when it is bigger than it will ever be shown, and check the split view before you save.
Select your pictures above and press Compress. It is free, and nothing leaves your device.
