Image Compressor

What is an image compressor?

An image compressor reduces the file size of a picture so it loads faster, uses less storage, and is easier to email or upload. It does this by re-encoding the image with a more efficient or more aggressive compression setting. The visible content stays the same; what changes is how many bytes are needed to store it.

This tool works entirely in your browser. When you pick a file, it is drawn onto an off-screen HTML canvas and then re-encoded as either JPEG or WebP at the quality you choose. Because all of that happens on your own device, there is no upload, no queue, and no waiting on a server — and your images stay private.

How to use it

1. Choose an image. Click the drop zone or drag a file onto it. JPEG, PNG and WebP files all work.
2. Pick an output format. JPEG is the safe default for photos and is supported everywhere. WebP usually produces a smaller file at the same visual quality and supports transparency.
3. Set the quality. The slider runs from 40% to 95%. Lower means a smaller file with more visible compression; higher means a larger file that looks closer to the original.
4. Check the numbers. You will see the original size, the compressed size, and the percentage saved, plus a live preview of the result.
5. Download. Click Download to save the compressed image. The file is named after your original with a -compressed suffix.

You can change the format or quality at any time — the preview and the size figures update immediately, so you can find the sweet spot by eye instead of guessing.

JPEG vs WebP: which should I pick?

Both are lossy formats, meaning they discard some data that is hard for the eye to notice in exchange for much smaller files.

• JPEG is the most widely supported image format on the planet. Every browser, email client, operating system and printer understands it. Choose JPEG when you need maximum compatibility or when you are not sure where the image will end up.
• WebP is a newer format that typically saves an extra 20–30% at the same perceived quality, and unlike JPEG it can store transparency. All current browsers support it, but some older software and a few platforms still do not. Choose WebP for the web, where it shines, and when you control where the file will be used.

If your source image has a transparent background and you want to keep it, use WebP — JPEG has no transparency and will fill those areas with solid colour.

Finding the right quality

Quality is the single biggest lever you have. A useful starting point for photographs is around 75%, which is where this tool defaults. From there:

• Drop toward 60% for images that will be shown small — thumbnails, avatars, list items — where compression artefacts are hard to spot.
• Stay near 80–90% for hero images, product photos and anything that will be viewed large or zoomed.
• Avoid pushing all the way to 95% unless you genuinely need it; the file grows quickly for very little visible gain.

The honest way to choose is to watch the preview. Lower the quality until you start to notice softening or blocky patches in detailed areas — skies, skin, gradients and text are the first places artefacts appear — then nudge it back up a step. The size-saved figure tells you exactly what each adjustment costs you.

Tips and best practices

• Resize before you compress when you can. A photo straight from a phone might be 4000 pixels wide, far more than a web page or a document needs. Reducing the dimensions first with the Image Resizer removes a huge number of bytes before compression even begins, and the two steps together beat either one alone.
• Compress once, at the end. Every lossy save throws away a little more detail. If you re-open a JPEG, edit it and save again, the losses stack up. Keep an original (or a lossless master) and export a compressed copy only when you are finished.
• Match the format to the content. Photographs compress beautifully as JPEG or WebP. Flat graphics with sharp edges and few colours — logos, icons, screenshots of text — often look worse and weigh more as JPEG; for those, a PNG or WebP usually serves better.
• Watch the saved percentage, not just the slider. Two images at the same quality setting can compress very differently depending on how much detail they contain. Let the numbers guide you per image.

Common mistakes to watch out for

• Expecting a smaller PNG. Saving a photo as PNG keeps every pixel exactly, so it often comes out larger than the original, not smaller. For photographs, convert to JPEG or WebP instead.
• Over-compressing important images. A product shot or a portrait pushed to a very low quality can look cheap, with visible blocks and banding. When the image matters, spend the extra kilobytes.
• Re-compressing an already-compressed file. If a JPEG is already small and soft, running it through again mostly adds more artefacts without saving much. Start from the highest-quality version you have.
• Forgetting transparency. Converting a transparent PNG to JPEG replaces the see-through areas with a solid background. If you need the transparency, choose WebP.

Private by design

Because the entire process — decoding, re-encoding and previewing — happens inside your browser tab, you can compress as many images as you like without anything being uploaded, logged or stored. That makes this tool a good fit for sensitive material: receipts, ID photos, contracts, work-in-progress designs — and for those it's worth stripping hidden location and camera data with the EXIF Metadata Remover before you share them. Compress, download, and the data is gone the moment you close the tab.