Compress Image to a Target Size
Make photos small enough for any upload form. Set a size in KB or a maximum width — free, batch, and nothing is uploaded.
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🔒 Your images are compressed on your own device. They are never uploaded to any server. Your settings are remembered in this browser.
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How to compress an image
- Optional: pick a target size (for example 200 KB) and/or a max width. Type any value in the Custom box.
- Drop your images into the box above, or tap Choose images.
- Download each image, or Download all as a ZIP. Change a setting any time and the images are redone.
Which setting should I use?
A form says “max 200 KB” or “under 500 KB”
Use Target size and pick the matching preset. For an unusual limit, type a number slightly below it in the Custom box (for example 290 for a 300 KB limit).
A site says “at most 1920 pixels wide”
Use Max width. You can combine it with a target size.
You just want smaller files for email or chat
Leave both on No limit and use Quality. Around 75–80 makes phone photos several times smaller with little visible difference.
How “Target size” gets under the limit
When you set a target such as 200 KB, the tool works like this:
- If the file is already a JPG under the target and you have not asked for a smaller width, the original is kept untouched. Re-compressing it would only lose quality.
- Otherwise it searches for the highest JPG quality that still fits, trying qualities between 30 and 92 and narrowing down in several steps.
- If even the lowest quality is too big — common with very large photos and small targets like 50 KB — it scales the image down and searches again, repeating a few times.
- If the target still cannot be reached, you get the smallest version it managed, marked “Could not reach target”.
Sizes are counted the way computers count them: 1 KB is 1,024 bytes, so a 200 KB result is at most 204,800 bytes. If a form rejects a file that looks right, try a target a little below its limit.
What to expect from different photos
How small a photo can get without looking bad depends on what is in it. Smooth areas such as sky, walls or a plain background compress very well. Fine detail — grass, gravel, fabric, small text — needs more data, so those photos hit a size limit sooner and may need to be scaled down.
A 12-megapixel phone photo is about 4000 pixels wide. For viewing on a screen or attaching to a form, 1280 to 1920 pixels wide is plenty, and setting a max width first usually lets the tool keep a higher quality for the same file size.
Screenshots and graphics with large areas of flat color are a special case: as JPG they can show faint smudges around text. If a screenshot must stay crisp and the limit allows it, keep it as PNG, or use the PNG to JPG converter at a high quality and check the result.
Typical upload limits and how to meet them
Online applications, exam and job portals and government forms often limit photos and scans to somewhere between 50 KB and 500 KB, and sometimes also set pixel dimensions. Email services allow much more per message, but large attachments are still slow to send and receive. When a form gives both a size in KB and dimensions in pixels, set the dimensions first with Resize Image, then bring the file under the KB limit here.
If the form wants one PDF rather than separate images, compress the images first, then combine them with Image to PDF.
Frequently asked questions
How do I compress an image to a specific size, like 200 KB?
Pick a size such as 200 KB next to “Target size”, or type any number in the Custom box, then add your images. The tool automatically finds the highest quality that fits under that size. If the photo still cannot fit, it is scaled down a little until it does.
Are my images uploaded?
No. Compression runs entirely in your browser on your own device. Nothing is sent to a server, so it is private and works fast even for large batches.
How do I resize an image to a smaller width?
Pick a width next to “Max width”, such as 1280, or type your own in the Custom box. Wider images are scaled down to that width and keep their proportions. Images that are already narrower are not enlarged.
What formats are supported?
You can add JPG, PNG, WebP and iPhone HEIC photos. The result is always a JPG, which is the format almost every website and app accepts. Transparent areas in PNG files become white.
Why does it say “kept original”?
If your JPG is already smaller than what you asked for and you did not ask to resize it, re-compressing would only lower the quality, so the original file is kept as it is.
Does compressing remove the photo’s location data?
Yes. The compressed JPG does not include EXIF metadata such as GPS location or camera details.
Why is my PNG bigger or blurrier after compressing?
The output is always JPG. Photos shrink a lot as JPG, but simple graphics and screenshots with text can look slightly smudged. For those, keep PNG if the size limit allows it.
Can I compress to an exact size, like exactly 100 KB?
The tool aims for the largest file that is still at or below the target, so the result is usually a little under it — which is what upload forms check for.