What quality setting should I use?

80% is the usual sweet spot: a large size saving that most people cannot distinguish from the original. Below about 60% the artefacts become visible, especially around text and sharp edges.

Is the size shown an estimate?

No. The image is actually re-encoded at your settings each time you move the slider, so the number is the real size of the file you would download.

Why did my PNG get bigger?

Converting a flat-colour PNG such as a screenshot or logo into JPEG usually makes it larger, not smaller, because JPEG is built for photographs. Keep those as PNG, or use WebP.

Does compressing remove EXIF data?

Yes, as a side effect. The image is redrawn on a canvas, which keeps only pixels, so camera and GPS metadata do not survive.

Compress Image

Make a photo small enough for an email or an upload limit. The size shown is the real one — the image is re-encoded as you move the slider. Nothing is uploaded.

Drop an image here

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JPEG, PNG, WebP • Max 30MB

What the quality slider does

JPEG throws away detail the eye is bad at noticing. The quality number decides how aggressively: at 100 it discards almost nothing and the file stays large; at 40 it discards a great deal and the file becomes tiny and visibly blocky.

90–100% — Archival. Little saving over the original.
75–85% — The normal choice. Large saving, no visible change on a photograph.
60–75% — Noticeably smaller. Fine for the web, artefacts start to show on flat areas.
Below 60% — Only when a hard size limit leaves no option.

Pick the right format

JPEG is for photographs — anything with gradients, skin, sky, texture. WebP typically produces files 25–35% smaller than JPEG at the same visual quality and every current browser displays it.

Screenshots, logos and diagrams are a different problem. They are flat colour and sharp edges, exactly what JPEG handles worst: it smears the edges and the file often ends up bigger than the PNG you started with. Keep those as PNG, or convert them with the image converter.

Resize before you compress

A modern phone photo is around 4000 pixels wide. If it is going into a document, an email or a web page, it will be displayed at perhaps 1200. Halving the dimensions removes three quarters of the pixels — a far bigger saving than any quality setting, and with no visible cost at the size it is actually viewed. Do that first with Resize image, then compress what is left.

Frequently asked questions

Is this really not uploading my photo?

Correct. Everything happens in the page with the browser's own image decoder. You can turn off your network connection and it still works.

Can I compress the same file twice?

You can, but do not. Each pass throws away more detail permanently, and the damage accumulates. Go back to the original and compress once.

Why is there no PNG option?

PNG is lossless, so a quality slider has nothing to act on. To turn a photo into PNG use the converter.

Related tools

Resize image — usually the bigger saving
Convert image — JPEG, PNG and WebP
Remove EXIF — strip metadata before sharing
Compress audio — the same job for sound files