Compress JPG Joint Photographic Experts Group Free Online Secure
Pick a resolution and get a smaller JPG. The photo never leaves your device.
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Two different ways of making a file smaller
There are only two ways to make a file smaller, and they are not alike. The first is to find repetition and write it down once instead of a thousand times — the method of zip, of PNG and of the streams inside a PDF. Nothing is lost; the original comes back bit for bit. The second is to decide that some of the information was not worth keeping, and this is what JPEG does with a photograph: it discards the detail the eye is least likely to miss. The first method has a hard limit, because there is only so much repetition to find. The second has no limit at all — you can go on discarding until nothing recognisable is left — which is why it comes with a quality setting and the first does not.
Where you need it
An attachment that will not fit the mail server's limit; a portal that rejects anything over a few megabytes; a website where every image is downloaded by every visitor; a phone running out of space; an archive of scans where the same document occupies ten times what it needs. Compression is almost always about somebody else's constraint rather than your own preference.
Questions people ask
How small can I go before it starts to look bad?
For photographs, surprisingly far. Dropping a JPEG to around three quarters of its original quality typically removes more than half the file and leaves nothing visible at normal viewing size. Below about half quality, edges start to show a faint halo and flat areas become blotchy, first in skies and skin. The honest test is to look at the result at full size before sending it, since the damage is invisible in a thumbnail and permanent once saved.
Why did compressing my PNG barely help?
Because it was probably already compressed, and because PNG never discards anything. The format finds repetition, and a photograph saved as a PNG has very little repetition to find, which is also why it was so large to begin with. If the image is a photograph, converting it to JPEG will shrink it enormously. If it is a screenshot, a logo or a diagram, it is already near the smallest it can be without losing something.
Does the file lose quality?
It depends on what the two formats can hold. Converting between formats that store the same thing — a PNG to a BMP, a WAV to a FLAC — loses nothing. Converting into a format that throws information away to save space, such as JPEG or MP3, loses a little every time, and converting back does not bring it back. Where a choice exists, this page errs towards keeping the original quality rather than making the smallest file.
Is my file uploaded anywhere?
No. The conversion happens inside your browser, on your own machine; the file never leaves it and there is no server here that could receive it. That is why a large file is limited by your own memory rather than by an upload, and why nothing you convert can appear in anybody's logs — including ours. The audio and video tools do fetch their conversion engine from this site the first time you use them, some thirty megabytes once; after that the work still happens entirely on your machine.
Why people compress JPG files
Modern phones and cameras take photographs with so many pixels that a single picture can weigh five, eight or even twelve megabytes. That is wonderful for printing a poster and wasteful for almost everything else. An email attachment limit, a job-application form that accepts two megabytes, a website that loads slowly because of oversized images, a phone running out of space: these are the everyday reasons people compress JPG files. The aim is simple: a smaller file that still looks good for the job it has to do.
The saving can be dramatic. A photograph straight from a recent phone might shrink to a tenth of its size and still look perfectly sharp on a screen, because a screen simply cannot show all the detail the camera recorded. Compressing is therefore not a compromise in most cases; it is removing detail nobody would ever see. That is why it is worth doing before you send, upload or publish a picture.
This page lets you compress JPG files entirely in your browser. The photo never leaves your device, which matters for family pictures, IDs and anything private. Below you will find how the size is reduced, what is preserved, what is lost, and how to choose a setting that suits your purpose.
How the size is reduced
You pick a resolution
To compress a JPG here, you choose a resolution, and the tool produces a smaller picture at that setting. A lower resolution means fewer pixels, and fewer pixels mean a smaller file. This is the most predictable way to shrink a photograph, because you control exactly how much detail you keep, and you can see the result before you use it.
The proportions stay the same
When you compress JPG files this way, the proportions of the picture are kept. A landscape photo stays landscape, a square stays square, and nothing is stretched or cropped. The picture is simply drawn with fewer pixels, so it looks the same shape and the same composition as before.
The printed size is preserved
One detail deserves a mention: the size the photo would print at is kept. Only the pixel count changes. In practice this means that if you printed the photo on a page, it would take up the same area as the original, just with a coarser grid of dots. For screens, where size is determined by pixels, the picture will appear smaller on a screen that shows it at actual size, which is exactly why the file is lighter.
Why pixel count is what matters
A JPG file's size is mostly about how many pixels it holds. A photo of 4000 by 3000 pixels holds twelve million of them; at 2000 by 1500 it holds three million, a quarter as many. Because file size follows pixel count closely, halving the width and height cuts the file to roughly a quarter. That is why choosing a lower resolution is such a powerful way to compress JPG files.
What is lost
Re-encoding costs a little quality
Here is the honest trade-off. JPEG is a lossy format: it already discards some detail when it is saved. Whenever a JPEG is re-encoded, which happens when you compress it, it loses a little more. For a single compression the loss is small and usually invisible, but it is real, and repeated rounds of compressing the same picture add up. For that reason, keep your original and always compress from it, not from an already compressed copy.
Detail cannot be brought back
A higher resolution setting cannot bring back detail that is already gone. If you compress a photo to a small size and later decide you needed more, you must go back to the original. Compressing a compressed file to a higher resolution gives a bigger file but not a sharper one; it only makes the blur bigger. So never throw away the original after you compress JPG files.
Which loss matters
For viewing on a phone or a laptop, you will not see the loss at sensible settings. For printing at large sizes, or for cropping into a small part of the picture later, you will. If either is likely, keep the full-size original safe and use the compressed copy only for the purpose it was made for.
What a JPG is, and why it can be compressed further
JPG, also written JPEG, is the format almost every camera and phone uses for photographs. It stores a picture as a grid of coloured dots and keeps the file small by discarding detail the eye is unlikely to miss. That is why JPGs are much lighter than other image formats, and also why they are called lossy: some information is permanently thrown away when the picture is saved.
Even so, most JPGs straight from a camera are much bigger than they need to be for everyday use, because they hold far more pixels than any screen can show. When you compress JPG files by choosing a lower resolution, you are dropping pixels, not just discarding fine detail inside each one. This is why the saving is so large, and why it is predictable: halving the width and height cuts the number of pixels to a quarter, and the file shrinks accordingly.
Megapixels in plain language
A megapixel is a million pixels. A modern phone photo may be twelve megapixels or more. A full-screen photograph on a typical laptop needs about two megapixels, and on a phone about one. Anything beyond that is detail the screen cannot show, which is why it is safe to compress JPG files down to a couple of megapixels for viewing and still have a photograph that looks crisp.
Compress JPG files without ruining the picture
Good compression is about restraint. Choose the smallest size that still looks right for its purpose, and no smaller. To judge it, open the result at the size you will actually use: if it is for a screen, look at it on a screen at the usual viewing size; if it is for a printed page, look at a test print. A picture that looks soft on screen at one hundred per cent is too small; one that looks fine is done.
It also helps to compress JPG files once, from the original, rather than step by step. Each re-encode adds a little loss, so ten small reductions are worse than one right-sized one. If you are unsure which setting to pick, try two: one moderate and one smaller. Compare them side by side with the original and pick the lightest that you cannot tell apart at your viewing size.
Faces, text and fine detail
Some pictures tolerate compression better than others. A landscape with soft clouds and distant trees forgives a lot. A photograph of a document, a whiteboard or a sign, where small text must stay readable, does not. If you compress JPG files that contain text, be more generous with the resolution and check that the words are still legible at the size they will be read.
Photos of documents and screenshots
Many people photograph documents, receipts and forms and then need to send them. These pictures are full of small text, so aggressive compression can make them hard to read, and the result may be rejected by whoever receives it. Choose a resolution high enough that the smallest text is clearly legible, and test by zooming in on the result.
If what you really have is a screenshot, which is usually a PNG, JPG may not be the best format: screenshots are mostly flat colour and sharp text, which PNG keeps perfectly. For those, compressing the PNG is better than turning it into a JPG.
When the file is still too big
If a photo is still above a size limit after you compress JPG files at a moderate setting, reduce the resolution a step further, or crop away parts of the picture you do not need before compressing. Cropping removes pixels outright, so it shrinks the file without lowering the quality of what remains.
How to compress JPG files here
Add your photo
Drop the JPG onto the page or pick it from your device. It is read inside your browser and is not uploaded.
Pick a resolution
Choose the setting that matches the use. For an email or a form with a size limit, a moderate setting is usually enough. For a website image, aim for a width that matches where it will be shown. For quick sharing on a phone, a smaller one still looks good.
Compress and compare
Press the button and download the smaller file. Open it next to the original and look at them at the size you will actually use. If it looks fine, you are done; if it looks too soft, repeat from the original with a higher setting.
Choosing a setting for your purpose
For email and forms
Most limits are between one and ten megabytes. A photo reduced to a couple of megapixels is usually well under, and still looks sharp on any screen. Check the size of the result against the limit before you send.
For websites and blogs
Images on web pages rarely need to be wider than about two thousand pixels, and often much less. Compressing to the width you actually display speeds up the page, which helps visitors and search rankings alike.
For sharing on messaging apps
Messaging apps compress photographs again anyway. Sending an already reduced picture often gives a better-looking result than letting the app crush a huge one.
Questions people ask before compressing
Will the picture look worse?
Slightly, at most, at sensible settings. Re-encoding costs a little quality, and reducing the resolution removes detail, but on a screen you will rarely notice.
Can I get the detail back later?
No. A higher setting cannot restore detail that is gone. Keep the original.
Is my photo uploaded?
No. Everything runs in your browser and the photo never leaves your device.
What about PNG or BMP files?
Use compress PNG for PNG files and compress BMP for BMP. Photographs usually shrink far more as JPG, so if you have a photo saved as PNG, converting it to JPG may help.
Who needs to compress JPG files
Anyone sending photos by email
Attachments have size limits, and a few full-size photos can exceed them. Compressing first makes sure they get through.
Website owners and bloggers
Large images slow pages down. Compress JPG files to the size they are displayed at.
Anyone short of phone storage
Copies of photos reduced to a sensible size take a fraction of the space, which is helpful for archives and backups.
Common mistakes
Compressing the same file repeatedly
Each round loses a little more. Always compress from the original.
Deleting the original
You cannot restore detail later. Keep the full-size file.
Choosing the wrong size for printing
A picture reduced for screens will look coarse if printed large. Keep a full-size copy for printing.
Related tools
If your picture is a PNG, compress PNG reduces it, and converting JPG to WebP can produce an even smaller file for websites. To put pictures in a document, use JPG to PDF. If an iPhone photo is in HEIC, convert it to JPG first, and if a picture is sideways, rotate the JPG before you compress it. To label a picture, add a watermark.
When to compress JPG files, and when not to
Compressing is right when a picture is bigger than its purpose needs: an email, a form, a website, a chat. It is the wrong move for a photograph you may want to print large, crop heavily or edit seriously later, in which case keep the full-size original and make a compressed copy only for sharing. And it is pointless if the file is already small: a picture of a few hundred kilobytes has little left to give.
For the common cases, such as email attachments, application forms, blog images and phone storage, it is quick, private and effective to compress JPG files in the browser. Your original is never changed, so you can come back and compress JPG files again at a different setting whenever you like.
Batches of photos
If you have many photos to shrink, compress JPG files one at a time and keep the originals in a separate folder. Use the same setting for all of them so that the results look consistent. Before you do the whole batch, try one photo and check it at the size you will use, so you do not have to redo twenty of them.
Combining with other steps
If your photos are going into a document, compress them first and then put them in the PDF with the JPG to PDF converter, which keeps the compressed data as it is. Doing it in that order gives you a small PDF without any further loss. The alternative, compressing the PDF afterwards, works too, but you have less control over how much each picture is reduced.
Large photos and slow devices
Everything runs on your own device, so very large pictures depend on its memory. A twelve-megapixel photo is no trouble for a modern phone. A very large panorama may be slow on an older device. If a huge picture struggles, give the browser a moment, and avoid switching to other apps while it works.
If the colours look different
Occasionally a compressed picture seems slightly different in colour or brightness. That is almost always a viewing difference rather than a change in the file, caused by different programs displaying colour in different ways. Open both pictures in the same program to compare them fairly.
Your photo stays on your device
The compression happens locally. Your photograph is read by your own browser, reduced there and handed back. Nothing is uploaded, so there is no copy on a server and no one else who could see it. For family pictures, IDs and private documents, that is the safe way to compress JPG files.
A worked example
Say you have a holiday photo of 4000 by 3000 pixels and 6 megabytes, and a booking form that accepts at most 2. You drop it here, pick a moderate resolution and press the button. The result is a picture of a few hundred kilobytes, the same shape, and on screen it looks every bit as sharp. You upload it and the form accepts it. The original stays on your phone for printing.
A simple routine to compress JPG files well
Decide where the picture is going and how big it needs to be. Keep the original safe. Compress JPG files once, from the original, at the smallest setting that still looks right. Compare the result with the original at the size you will use. Then send, upload or publish the small copy. This routine takes a minute and works whether you compress JPG files once a month or every day, and it keeps your best photographs intact for the day you need them.
Before you close the page
Check that you downloaded the smaller file, that it looks fine at the size you will use it, and that you kept the original.
Summary
To compress JPG files here, drop the photo, pick a resolution and download the result. The proportions and the printed size are kept; only the pixel count changes. Re-encoding a JPEG always costs a little quality, and a higher setting cannot bring back detail that is already gone, so keep the original. Nothing leaves your device.