Compress Image to KB or MB

Phone cameras take photos of around 12 megapixels, usually 2–5 MB each, while many online applications accept only 100–500 KB. The size of a photo depends on two things: how many pixels it has, and how strongly it is compressed.

This compressor works in that order. First it searches for the highest JPG quality that fits under your limit at the original dimensions. Only if the photo still doesn't fit at a reasonable quality does it reduce the width and height, a little at a time. The result is the sharpest image that fits, rather than one that has simply been squashed.

For passport-style photos, crop to your face first. Removing the background gives the compressor fewer pixels to fit into the same number of kilobytes, so the photo comes out sharper. For signatures, crop tightly on a white background, as they can easily go under 50 KB.

Forms often have a minimum size as well as a maximum, and some count 1 KB as 1000 bytes instead of 1024. This tool uses 1024, so its results are always safely under the limit. See our full guide on reducing photo size for online forms.