Compresses an image to a size you specify. Not "high, medium, low" — an actual number in kilobytes, because the real job is almost always "this form will not accept anything over 2 MB".
How hitting an exact size actually works
So the only reliable method is to try. The image is encoded, measured, and the quality adjusted — bisecting between 5% and 100% — until the largest quality that fits under your target is found. Ten encodes, and the result is the best-looking file that meets the limit.
This is the case where running in a browser makes the product genuinely better rather than merely cheaper. Ten re-encodes cost nothing on your own machine. On a server they are ten times the CPU per request, which is why upload-based compressors offer you a slider and let you guess.
When quality alone cannot get there
The fix is to resize as well. Halving the dimensions quarters the pixel count, which usually does more for file size than any quality reduction. The resize options on this page apply before compression.
The limits people are actually working against
Most job application portals cap a CV photo at 1–2 MB. Passport and visa applications commonly demand under 500 KB, sometimes under 240 KB. Ebay and marketplace listings cap around 7–12 MB per image. Discord's free tier is 10 MB. Email attachments are effectively 20–25 MB in total. A great many government forms sit at 2 MB.
All of them are byte counts, which is why "medium quality" is not an answer.
Metadata is removed, which is usually the point
For a photo you are about to publish this is a feature. A JPEG straight off a phone can carry the exact coordinates of where it was taken, and stripping that before it goes anywhere public is good practice — the conversion does it as a side effect.
The one piece of metadata that is honoured before being dropped is the orientation flag. Phones store photos in the sensor's native orientation with a tag saying which way is up; ignoring it produces sideways pictures. It is applied to the pixels, so the result is upright without needing the tag.
If you need the EXIF preserved, this is the wrong tool — a converter that re-encodes cannot keep it.
Other names for this
Also searched as “reduce image size”, “compress jpeg to 200kb”, “image compressor”, “resize image to under 2mb”.
Questions
- Will it land exactly on my target?
- Just under it, which is what a limit means. The result is the highest quality that fits.
- It says it cannot reach my target.
- The image has too many pixels for that size at any quality. Use the resize options as well — halving the dimensions quarters the pixel count.
- What format does it output?
- JPEG, which is what upload forms overwhelmingly expect. Use PNG to WebP if you need transparency and a small file.
- Will my transparent PNG work?
- It converts, with transparency flattened onto your chosen background — JPEG has no alpha channel.
- Can I convert a whole folder of images?
- Yes. Drop as many files as you like, or a whole folder. Each keeps its original name with the new extension —
IMG_4032.heicbecomesIMG_4032.jpg, neverconverted_1.jpg— and you can download them individually or as a ZIP. - Are my photos uploaded?
- No. The decoding and re-encoding happen in this tab using the browser’s own image support. Photos are personal in a way most files are not, and none of them is transmitted. Turn your Wi-Fi off and the converter keeps working.