Compress a photo to an exact size

An upload form says “maximum 100 KB”, or “between 20 KB and 50 KB, 200×230 pixels”, and the photo on your phone is four megabytes. This page makes it fit. Choose the size, or the form you are filling in, then choose the photo; a few seconds later there is a file that the form will take, made on your own device.

It is the job most “compress image” sites half-do. They squeeze the photo as far as they like and leave you to find out whether it passes. Here you set the target, the page aims for the largest file that still fits it — because a larger file is a better-looking one — and it tells you exactly what it did.

How it works

Every photo is saved again at a lower JPEG quality, measured, and tried again, homing in on the highest quality that still comes in under the limit. That usually takes five to ten tries and well under a second on a laptop. If the lowest sensible quality is still too large, the picture is made smaller in pixels — a photo with fewer pixels at good quality looks better than a large one ruined by compression — and the search starts again.

Photos are never made bigger to reach a size, with one exception: when a form demands a minimum number of pixels, a picture just under it may be enlarged to exactly that minimum and no further. When a form fixes the shape — a square visa photo, a 200×230 exam photo — the photo is cropped from the centre to that shape, and the result says so.

The result shows its size against the limit, its pixel size and the quality it was saved at, and you can slide between the original and the result to check it with your own eyes. Choose up to fifty photos at once and download them together as a ZIP.

Photo and signature sizes for Indian exam and visa forms

Indian recruitment and exam portals are the strictest uploaders anywhere: nearly all of them set a minimum as well as a maximum, and many reject a file that is a single kilobyte out. That is why each size below is a window, and why the tool aims inside it rather than just under the top.

IBPS and SBI recruitment

The IBPS (PO, Clerk, SO) and SBI applications ask for four separate uploads, each with its own window: the photo 20–50 KB at 200×230 px, the signature 10–20 KB at 140×60 px, the left thumb impression 20–50 KB at 240×240 px (3×3 cm at 200 DPI), and the hand-written declaration 50–100 KB at 800×400 px. All four are JPEG. Choose all four files at once; each row of the list can be set to the upload it is, and gets its own window. SBI’s PO 2026 notice also captures a live photo, which this page cannot help with.

Use these sizes Source: ibps.in · checked Oct 2026

UPSC

The limits differ from one UPSC notice to the next, which is why guides to them disagree. The 2026 IES/ISS notice allows a photo of 20–200 KB and the ESE 2026 notice 20–300 KB; the tool uses 20–200 KB, which passes both. The signature is 20–100 KB on the same reasoning.

Use these sizes Source: upsc.gov.in · checked Oct 2026

NEET (UG), National Testing Agency

For NEET (UG) 2026 the passport-size photo is 10–200 KB and the signature 10–100 KB. The signature limit changed: guides written before 2025 still say 4–30 KB, and a file made to that old figure is now too small. The finger and thumb impressions are given as 10–200 KB in one place in the bulletin and 50–300 KB in another; 50–200 KB passes both.

Use these sizes Source: neet.nta.nic.in · checked Oct 2026

SSC (CGL, MTS, CHSL)

The Staff Selection Commission now takes the candidate’s photo live, through the camera, so there is no photo file to prepare. The signature is still uploaded: 10–20 KB, JPEG, about 6×2 cm.

Use these sizes Source: ssc.gov.in · checked Oct 2026

PAN card (Protean, formerly NSDL)

On Protean’s e-sign and DSC applications the photo must be up to 20 KB (3.5×2.5 cm, 200 DPI, in colour) and the signature up to 10 KB (2×4.5 cm, 200 DPI). Supporting documents may be up to 300 KB per page, scanned in black and white. A Protean blog post gives 50 KB for the photo; the instruction page linked here says 20 KB, and 20 KB passes either.

Use these sizes Source: tin.tin.proteantech.in · checked Oct 2026

Indian visas

The e-Visa photo is 10 KB–1 MB and must be square; a rectangular phone photo is cropped from the centre. The regular visa application asks for 10–300 KB, square, from 350×350 to 1000×1000 pixels.

Use these sizes Source: indianvisaonline.gov.in · checked Oct 2026 · Source: indianvisaonline.gov.in · checked Oct 2026

UK passport and visa photos

The UK’s limits run the other way: the danger is a file that is too small. HM Passport Office’s online application wants a digital photo of 50 KB–10 MB and at least 600×750 px, so a photo squeezed to 20 KB for some other form will be refused. The tool keeps the pixels and only cuts the size if the file is over the top limit.

Use these sizes Source: gov.uk · checked Oct 2026

A UK visa or immigration application takes a JPEG photo of 50 KB–6 MB, portrait, again at least 600×750 px.

Use these sizes Source: gov.uk · checked Oct 2026

US visa and passport photos

The DS-160 (and the DS-260 and the Diversity Visa lottery) wants a square photo between 600×600 and 1200×1200 pixels and no more than 240 KB. The tool makes it exactly 600×600 px, cropped from the centre, at the best quality that fits under 240 KB. Whether the face and the background pass is a separate test, which no file size can help with.

Use these sizes Source: travel.state.gov · checked Oct 2026

Renewing a passport online takes a photo of 54 KB–10 MB in JPEG, PNG or HEIC. The photo must not be edited; making the file smaller is not editing, but filters and retouching are.

Use these sizes Source: travel.state.gov · checked Oct 2026

USCIS online filing takes evidence files of up to 12 MB each, as PDF or JPEG. A photographed document over that limit only needs the size cut, and the text stays readable long before 12 MB is a problem.

Use these sizes Source: uscis.gov · checked Oct 2026

Canada: IRCC uploads

Most IRCC uploads are documents rather than portraits: the IRCC secure account takes up to 4 MB per file (citizenship and the PR Portal too), and the IRCC Portal up to 5 MB. A phone photo of a page is often over that and fits easily once it is compressed.

Use these sizes Source: ircc.canada.ca · checked Oct 2026

The PR card photo must be 715×1000 px to 2000×2800 px and up to 4 MB. The IEC work permit photo has a floor, not a ceiling: at least 420×540 pixels and not below 60 KB, “ideally 240 kB” — so the tool aims at 240 KB.

Use these sizes Source: canada.ca · checked Oct 2026 · Source: canada.ca · checked Oct 2026

Australia: ImmiAccount attachments

ImmiAccount accepts attachments of up to 5 MB each with a visa or citizenship application, and refuses ZIP files and encrypted PDFs. Documents attached to a citizenship application after it has been submitted are limited to 500 KB, as JPEG.

Use these sizes Source: immi.homeaffairs.gov.au · checked Oct 2026 · Source: immi.homeaffairs.gov.au · checked Oct 2026

When the size can’t be reached

Some targets are impossible, and the page says so rather than handing you a file that quietly misses. A photo that has to be exactly 600×600 pixels cannot be made much smaller than about 10 KB, however low the quality; to reach 4 KB it needs fewer pixels. In that case you get the closest file, marked Closest possible, and one button that fixes the cause — Allow fewer pixels — so you decide, not the page.

The opposite happens too. A tiny signature scan may already be under a form’s minimum. Making it bigger would only add blur, so it is left as it is and the page tells you; scan or photograph it again at a larger size. A detailed PNG — a screenshot, a diagram — sometimes cannot shrink enough as a PNG at all; the page offers to save it as a JPEG instead, which almost every form takes.

Will it lose quality?

Some, and it is honest to say how much. Compressing a photo to 1 MB or 500 KB is close to without losing quality you could see: a phone photo carries far more detail than a screen or an upload form shows. At 100 KB the difference shows if you zoom in. At 20 KB it is plainly visible — but the forms that ask for 20 KB want a small passport-style photo, not a landscape, and at 200×230 pixels a 20 KB file looks fine.

That is what the comparison under each result is for. Set it to Actual pixels, drag the line across the face or the text, and judge it yourself before you upload.

What happens to your photos

Nothing leaves your device. The part of this page that compresses photos runs in your own browser, so there is no upload, no queue, no server copy to be deleted later. Load the page, turn off your internet, and it still works. (One exception: iPhone HEIC photos outside Safari need a reader the page fetches the first time you pick one, so pick one HEIC photo before going offline.)

The camera’s hidden data is removed from every result — the phone model, the date and, most importantly, the GPS position of where the photo was taken — unless you untick that under Pixel size and format. The photo is turned upright first, so it never ends up sideways.

Questions people ask