Compress Image
Smaller files, quality you control.
- Files stay on your device
- No upload, no waiting
- No sign-up, no watermark
How it works
Add your images
Drag them in or click to browse. Several at once is fine — they are processed one after another so your device stays responsive.
Set quality and a size cap
75 suits most photos. Setting a maximum width usually saves more than any quality setting, because file size scales with pixel count.
Download
Each result shows the before and after size. Press Apply to all after changing a setting to re-run the batch.
Related tools
All image toolsQuestions
What quality setting should I use?
75 is the sweet spot for photographs — visually clean at roughly a fifth of the original size. Go to 85–95 for images that will be printed or edited again, and down to 60 for thumbnails or backgrounds sitting behind text. Below about 50 you will see blocking in skies and other smooth gradients, which no amount of sharpening will fix afterwards.
Why is setting a maximum width more effective than lowering quality?
Because file size scales with the pixel count, and halving both dimensions removes three quarters of the pixels. A 4032 × 3024 phone photo shown in a 600-pixel column carries around 34 times more data than the screen can use. Capping the longest edge usually beats any amount of quality tuning, and it does not introduce compression artefacts.
Does compressing lose quality permanently?
Yes — lossy compression discards information and cannot be undone. Re-saving an already-compressed JPEG adds a second round of loss on top of the first, which is called generation loss. Always compress from the original file and keep that original somewhere safe.
Should I compress screenshots and graphics this way?
Not as JPEG. Lossy compression creates ringing around hard edges, which makes text and line art look fuzzy at any quality setting. Keep screenshots, logos and diagrams as PNG, or convert them to WebP, which handles both flat colour and photographs well. Leave 'Convert everything to JPEG' switched off and the original format is kept.
Is there a file size or count limit?
No. Compression runs in your browser on your own processor, so the only ceiling is your device's memory. Files are never uploaded, which means no queue, no watermark, and nothing stored on a server afterwards — the page keeps working even if you disconnect after it loads.
About compress image
Two ways to make an image smaller
People say “compress” when they mean one of two different things, and confusing them is why results disappoint. Quality compression keeps every pixel but stores it less precisely. Downscaling throws pixels away entirely. Downscaling is dramatically more effective, because file size scales with the pixel count — halving both dimensions removes three quarters of the pixels.
Most oversized images on the web are oversized because nobody downscaled them. A 4032 × 3024 phone photo displayed in a 600-pixel-wide column is carrying about 34 times more data than the screen can use. Set a maximum width above and you will usually beat any amount of quality tuning.
What the quality slider actually does
| Quality | Typical size vs. original | When to use it |
|---|---|---|
| 95 | ~60% | Archival, or images that will be edited again |
| 85 | ~35% | Photography portfolios, print previews |
| 75 | ~22% | The default here — visually clean for web use |
| 60 | ~15% | Thumbnails, backgrounds behind text |
| 40 | ~10% | Rarely worth it; blocking is visible in gradients |
The numbers are not a percentage of anything meaningful — they index a quantisation table, and the same value produces different results in different encoders. Judge by eye, not by number, and look specifically at skies, skin tones and any flat gradient, because that is where artefacts appear first.
Compression is one-way
Lossy compression discards information permanently. Re-saving an already-compressed JPEG at quality 75 does not get you back to the original — it adds a second round of loss on top of the first, a process called generation loss. Always compress from the original file, and keep that original somewhere.
The same applies to screenshots and graphics with sharp text. JPEG compression creates ringing around hard edges, which makes text look fuzzy at any quality setting. Keep those as PNG, or convert them to WebP, which handles both photos and flat colour well.
Related
Browse the rest of the image tools, or shrink the pixel count directly with the image resizer.