Compress Image to KB
Shrink a JPG, PNG or WebP image below an exact size such as 20, 50, 100 or 200 KB for online forms and uploads — processed in your browser, never uploaded.
Drop a JPG, PNG or WebP image here
or click to browse — max 50 MB
🔒 Your image is compressed locally in your browser and never uploaded.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I compress an image to 50 KB or 100 KB?
Drop your JPG, PNG or WebP image into the tool, pick the 50 KB or 100 KB preset (or type any size), and click Compress. The tool finds the highest quality that fits under the limit and lets you download the result.
Is my photo uploaded to a server?
No. The image is decoded and re-encoded entirely in your browser with the Canvas API. Nothing is uploaded or stored, which matters for ID photos, signatures and documents.
Why was my image made smaller in pixels?
When even the lowest JPEG quality is still above the target, the only way to shrink the file further is to reduce the dimensions. The tool scales the image down in small steps and stops at the largest size that fits.
Does the tool use 1 KB = 1000 or 1024 bytes?
It aims below the target × 1000 bytes. A 50 KB result is therefore at most 50,000 bytes, which also passes upload forms that count 1 KB as 1024 bytes (51,200 bytes).
Can I compress a PNG with a transparent background?
Yes. Choose WebP to keep transparency. JPEG has no alpha channel, so transparent areas are filled with white before compressing.
Will compressing remove EXIF data from my photo?
Yes. The output is encoded from pixels only, so camera details and GPS coordinates are removed. This also saves a few kilobytes, which helps with very small targets like 20 KB.
Why Do Forms Ask for a Size in KB?
Government portals, exam boards and job sites often store millions of applicant photos, so they set strict upload limits — and reject files that are even one byte over. A modern phone photo is 2–5 MB, which is 40 to 100 times too big. Generic "optimizers" reduce size by a fixed percentage, but you would still have to guess. This tool works backwards from the number you need.
Typical Size Limits
Limits vary by organisation and change over time, so always check the instructions of your specific form. These ranges are common:
| Upload | Typical limit |
|---|---|
| Scanned signature (exam / government forms) | 10–20 KB |
| Passport-size photo on application forms | 20–50 KB |
| Online visa or ID photo | 50–240 KB |
| Job portal profile picture | 100–500 KB |
| Scanned certificate or document page | 100–300 KB |
| Email-friendly photo | 200–500 KB |
Many forms also specify pixel dimensions (for example 200 × 230 px for a photo). Crop and resize to those dimensions first, then compress: a small image reaches the KB limit at a much higher quality.
How the Compression Works
JPEG and WebP have a quality setting that trades detail for size, but the relationship is not linear and depends on the picture: a blue sky compresses far better than a forest. So the tool runs a binary search. It encodes the image at 95% quality; if that fits, you get it. Otherwise it tries the midpoint between the lowest and highest quality, keeps the half that contains the answer, and repeats eight times — enough to land within about half a percent of the best possible quality.
If even 5% quality is too big, lowering quality further would only add ugly blocks. Instead the image is scaled down by about 15% and the search starts again, until it fits. A sharp small image looks far better than a large, heavily compressed one.
Tips for the Best Result
- Crop tightly — every pixel of background costs bytes.
- Use a plain, light background for ID photos; noise and texture are expensive to compress.
- Prefer WebP when the site accepts it: it is roughly 25–35% smaller than JPEG at the same quality.
- Signatures: scan in black ink on white paper; they compress to under 20 KB easily.
What Quality Can You Expect?
As a rough guide, a 600 × 600 px portrait with a plain background fits in 50 KB at a quality that looks clean on screen, and in 20 KB with slightly soft details. A full-size 12 MP phone photo needs about 1–2 MB to look perfect, so squeezing it into 100 KB always involves scaling it down to around 1000–1500 px wide. If the result looks blocky, the target is too small for the image's dimensions: crop or resize first, or try WebP if the site accepts it. Text documents and signatures behave differently — they are mostly white, so they stay readable even at very small sizes.
Related Tools
- Crop Image — crop a passport photo to the required ratio first.
- Image Resizer — set exact pixel dimensions required by a form.
- HEIC to JPG — convert iPhone photos before compressing.
- Image Optimizer — reduce file size by quality instead of a target.
- JPG to PDF — when the form asks for a PDF instead of an image.