Free image compressor and resizer

What a well-compressed picture looks like

A good result is one nobody notices. The photo looks the same on the screen it is going to be seen on, and the file is small enough that it uploads first time, attaches to an email without a warning, and appears on a web page before the visitor has started scrolling past it.

That is a different target from "as small as possible". Push any picture compressor far enough and you get blocky skies, smeared skin and halos round lettering. The aim is the smallest file that still looks right at the size it will actually be shown, which is why this tool shows you the new dimensions and file size for every image before you download it.

Compress, resize, downscale: three words for two jobs

People search for a photo compressor, a pic size reducer, a downscaler or an image resolution decreaser, and they usually want the same outcome: a lighter file. There are only two ways to get there, and this tool does both at once.

Resizing (also called downscaling, downsampling or reducing the resolution) throws away pixels. A 4000 by 3000 photo from a phone has twelve million of them; scaled to 1600 pixels wide it has under two million. Fewer pixels means a smaller file before any compression happens, and on a photo this is usually where most of the saving comes from.

Compressing keeps the pixel dimensions and stores them more economically. For JPEG and WebP that is the quality slider: lower quality discards detail the eye is least likely to miss. PNG has no quality setting, because PNG is lossless, so a PNG only gets lighter by being resized.

• Image too big in pixels for where it is going (a website, a slide, a form) — lower the maximum width.
• Image already the right size but the file is heavy — keep the width and lower the quality.
• Both — the usual case for a phone photo — do both, starting with the width.

How to use the image compressor, step by step

Everything happens in your browser tab. The picture is decoded, scaled and re-encoded on your own device using the browser's built-in canvas, so there is no upload step and no waiting in a queue on someone else's server.

• Drop your images onto the page or click to pick them — up to 30 at a time, each up to 25 MB. JPEG, PNG, WebP, AVIF and GIF all go in.
• Set a maximum width, a maximum height, or both. The presets (2560, 1600, 1200, 800) cover most jobs, and "Any" leaves the dimensions alone. Images are never enlarged, and the proportions are always kept.
• Choose the output format: JPEG, WebP or PNG. WebP only appears if your browser can write it.
• Move the quality slider if the format is JPEG or WebP. Each row updates to show the new size and how much smaller, or larger, it is than the original.
• Download each image on its own, or use Download all to save every finished file. Each one is named after the original with "-min" added, so nothing gets overwritten.

Two worked examples

A phone photo for a portfolio page. The original is a 4032 by 3024 JPEG straight from the camera. Set the width to 1600, keep JPEG, leave quality at 80%. The result is 1600 by 1200, which is wider than the photo will ever be displayed on a normal page, and the row tells you exactly what it now weighs. If it is still heavier than you want, try 1200 before you touch quality.

A logo with a transparent background. The original is a large PNG. Keep PNG (or choose WebP, which also keeps transparency) and lower the width to the largest size the logo is shown at. Do not pick JPEG here: JPEG cannot store transparency, so the tool fills the see-through areas with white, which is right for some uses and wrong for a logo that sits on a coloured header.

JPEG, PNG or WebP: which to choose

JPEG is the safe default for photographs. Every device, email client, upload form and printer accepts it. It has no transparency.

WebP is normally the smallest of the three at the same visible quality, and it keeps transparency. It is a good choice for images on your own website. Some older software and a few upload forms still refuse it, so for a job application portal or a government form, JPEG is the safer bet.

PNG is lossless, so it is right for screenshots, diagrams, flat graphics with sharp text and anything that needs transparency where WebP is not accepted. Converting a photograph to PNG almost always makes it bigger, and the tool says "larger" when that happens rather than presenting it as a saving.

Getting under a size limit: 1 MB, 500 KB, 100 KB

Upload forms for jobs, visas, exams and marketplaces often set a ceiling such as 1 MB, 500 KB or 100 KB, and sometimes fixed pixel dimensions as well. Read the form's own rules first; they are the only numbers that matter.

This tool does not have a "hit exactly 100 KB" button. It shows the resulting size live instead, so you can get under the limit in a few moves: lower the width first, then the quality, and watch the figure on the row. For a photo, the width does most of the work. For a small target such as a passport-style headshot under 100 KB, a width of a few hundred pixels at 70 to 80% JPEG quality is a sensible place to start, then adjust from what the row shows you.

If a form asks for exact dimensions (say 600 by 600), set both the maximum width and the maximum height to that figure. The tool fits the image inside that box without stretching it, so crop it square first if the form insists on an exact shape.

Common mistakes

• Lowering the quality to 30% to save space on a photo that is 4000 pixels wide. Resize first; the saving is larger and it looks far better.
• Re-compressing the same JPEG over and over. Each lossy save loses a little more. Keep your original and always start from it.
• Turning photos into PNG to "keep the quality". The file grows and nothing visible improves.
• Choosing JPEG for a logo or cut-out with a transparent background, then wondering where the white box came from.
• Expecting an animated GIF to stay animated. The browser canvas draws a single frame, so the output is a still image.

What this tool will not do

A few searches land here looking for something else, so it is worth being plain about it. It cannot "uncompress" an image or bring back detail that a previous save threw away — once a JPEG has lost information, no tool can restore the original. It does not enlarge or upscale pictures, and it does not simplify, cartoonise or edit what is in the picture. It reduces size, converts format, and leaves the content alone.