Type the megabyte ceiling your upload allows into the open size field, decimals included, then drop the file. Every pixel stays; the bytes land at or under your number. Part of the image compressor.
Output format
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Drop images or browse
JPEG · PNG · WEBP · AVIF · HEIC · up to 50 at once · max 30 MB each
HEIC
PNG
JPEG
AVIF
WEBP
Advanced settings1 on
SmallerAutoBetter
Auto tunes each image.
A hard cap for the number your form demands.
KB
A floor for forms that refuse small files.
Max resolution
×
Empty side keeps the ratio. Never enlarges.
Every size target, one guarantee
A page for each number, arriving with the cap already armed. Under it, or a clear error, and never over.
The engine behind the cap, on a real photograph: 9.8 MB in, 97.1 KB out. Your file gets the same treatment with your size limit as the hard ceiling.
How do I reduce an image to a size in MB that I choose, never over?
Switch the unit selector beside the Max file size field to MB, type the number, decimals included, and drop the file. One MB here is 1,000,000 bytes, so a 2 MB cap is 2,000,000 bytes. That also satisfies a checker that counts a megabyte as 1,048,576. The engine searches quality for the most detail that fits under the cap. It keeps the format you dropped: a JPEG stays JPEG, a PNG stays PNG, and an iPhone HEIC comes back as JPEG. The output's exact size prints beside it. The 1 MB chip arms the most common megabyte cap with one tap.
Why is my photo so many MB in the first place?
Pixels, mostly. Our camera photo is 4964×2782 pixels, 13.8 million of them, and weighs 9.8 MB as the camera saved it: about 0.7 bytes on every pixel. A phone that shoots at that resolution and saves at that quality produces files of that order every time. On top of the pixels, a camera JPEG carries an embedded preview and EXIF metadata, which this tool strips. A form, a web page or an email needs the pixels at a sane quality and nothing else. That is what a megabyte cap buys.
Which uploads are capped in megabytes?
Passport and visa portals, business listings, marketplaces and mail. Each rule below is quoted from the help page or notice named in its row, as it read when we checked it.
Upload
Who states it
The rule, in its words
UK passport photo
HM Passport Office (gov.uk)
At least 50 KB and no more than 10 MB; at least 600 pixels wide and 750 pixels tall
US passport renewal photo
State Department (travel.state.gov)
Between 54 KB and 10 MB; JPG, JPEG, PNG, HEIC or HEIF
New Zealand visa photo
Immigration New Zealand
Between 512 KB and 3.14 MB; taken in portrait mode with 3:4 aspect ratio; a JPG or JPEG file
LinkedIn profile photo
LinkedIn help
PNG or JPG; maximum file size 8MB; 400×400 to 7680×4320 pixels
Photo on X
X help
Photos can be up to 5MB; GIF, JPEG and PNG
Google Business Profile photo
Google Business Profile help
JPG or PNG, between 10 KB and 5 MB; 720×720 recommended, 250×250 minimum
eBay listing photo
eBay help
Up to 12 MB each; JPEG, PNG, GIF, TIFF, BMP, WEBP, HEIC and AVIF; about 1600×1600 recommended
USCIS online filing
USCIS filing tips
PDF, JPG or JPEG, no larger than 12 MB
YouTube thumbnail
YouTube help
2 MB for a video thumbnail from a mobile device; 50 MB from a computer
Gmail attachments
Gmail help
Up to 25 MB per message on a personal account
The passport rules are from HM Passport Office's page on gov.uk and the State Department's online renewal page, the visa rule from Immigration New Zealand's photo page, the others from Google's, eBay's, USCIS's, YouTube's, X's and LinkedIn's own help pages. Portals change their numbers; the source is the authority.
Some portals set a minimum too: how do I stay above it?
Type the ceiling and read the result; the floor takes care of itself in almost every case. HM Passport Office wants a photo of at least 50 KB, Immigration New Zealand at least 512 KB, Google Business Profile at least 10 KB. A cap only removes bytes. A file that starts inside the window and is already under the cap comes back untouched. Our 576.8 KB reference photo came back untouched under a 1 MB cap, with no re-encode at all. A file above the cap comes down to the most quality that fits under it. On our 9.8 MB camera photo that meant 996.5 KB under 1 MB, well above any of those floors. The one way to land under a floor is a tiny source. The readout beside each result shows the bytes, so you see it before the portal does.
Can I type 1.5 MB or 2.5 MB?
Yes. The field takes decimals in either unit: 1.5 MB becomes a cap of 1,500,000 bytes, and 2.5 MB a cap of 2,500,000 bytes. The floor of the field is 10 KB. Files up to 30 MB are accepted per image. A cap can sit anywhere from 10 KB up to the size of the file itself. A decimal cap is the right move when a form states an odd number, or when you are splitting an email budget across several photos.
Will a 1 MB or 2 MB version look any different from the original?
Not in the dimensions, and only with the compare slider in the detail. The camera photo kept all 4964×2782 pixels under both caps. Under 2 MB the search kept the most quality that fit, and the result landed at 1.9 MB. Megabyte caps are the range where the engine never touches the picture's size, only its quality setting.
Source
Cap
Result
Dimensions
What the engine did
Camera photo
1 MB
996.5 KB
4964×2782
quality search alone
Camera photo
2 MB
1.9 MB
4964×2782
quality search alone
Reference photo
1 MB
576.8 KB
untouched
already under the cap, returned as it was
Sources: source.jpeg, 9.8 MB at 4964×2782, and photo.jpg, 576.8 KB at 1920×1280, each through Max file size with the engine's defaults. Each row is the file the engine produced.
Every byte count is the size of the actual file our engine produced from the named source, the same bytes you would download, not an estimate. The reference photo is one of our own photographs, an iguana on a branch, and the camera photo is a real one too. Drop your own file into the tool above to rerun any of them. How we measure names the sources and the settings.
Reduce image size to 10 MB, 5 MB or 3 MB: a page each, or type the number
The caps people meet most are the ones platforms publish. 10 MB is the US and UK passport photo, 5 MB a photo on X or Google Business Profile, 3 MB a LinkedIn Page image, and 8 MB a LinkedIn profile photo. Each has a page with the number armed; the links sit under the table of upload rules.
Photo resize in MB, with every pixel kept
Type any of them into the open size field, decimals included, and the result lands at or under it with every pixel kept.
One MB reducer for every cap
One field takes any number your upload states, decimals included, and the exact size prints beside the result; the cap pages are that field with the number already set. For a cap in kilobytes instead, the reduce image size in KB page opens on the same field in KB.
How do I fit ten photos into one 25 MB email?
Divide the budget and type the result. Gmail's help page allows attachments up to 25 MB per message on a personal account, so ten photos get 2.5 MB each. Type 2 MB to leave room for the message itself and drop all ten. The batch comes back as one ZIP with every file at or under the cap. For twenty photos, type 1 MB, or tap the chip. Up to 50 files take the same cap in one batch. Each row prints its measured size, so the total is a sum you can check before you attach.
Is the metadata removed, and is that a problem for a passport photo?
Removed, by default, and no. Every output leaves without its EXIF and GPS, so a photo taken at home stops carrying the location of your home. The rules are about the picture and the bytes. HM Passport Office's digital photo rules state a size window and a pixel minimum. A stripped file keeps its pixels and loses only bytes the rules never asked for. We keep nothing; files are wiped automatically once processed, and no account is needed.
When MB is the wrong unit
The portal wants 100 KB or 200 KB?
Switch the unit to KB, or use the kilobyte page, where the portal windows are listed with their sources.
A web page that wants pixels?
Set Max resolution in the same panel, or use the resize tool. Bytes follow pixels down.
The file is already under the cap?
Then there is nothing to do, and the tool says so by returning it untouched. Only a file carrying EXIF gets a stripped re-encode.
Several pages into one PDF?
The image-to-PDF converter caps each page and assembles the file; divide the limit by the page count for the cap.
The panel is already open above. One drop settles most of these.
Q:Why use MB instead of KB?
Because the form says MB, and typing the same unit avoids a slip of three zeros. The unit selector beside the size field switches between KB and MB; 1 MB here is 1,000 KB, or 1,000,000 bytes. Megabyte caps are the generous ones, where the engine keeps every pixel and spends only quality. The unit also tells you what to expect from the result.
Q:Can I set a decimal MB value?
Yes. Type 1.5 or 2.5 with MB selected and the cap becomes 1,500,000 bytes or 2,500,000 bytes. Decimals in KB work the same way. The only limits are the field's 10 KB floor and the file itself. A cap larger than the file changes nothing unless the file carries EXIF: the never-larger guard returns a file that already fits.
Q:Does it change dimensions?
Not at megabyte caps, in every test we have run. Our 9.8 MB camera photo kept all 4964×2782 pixels under a 1 MB cap, at 996.5 KB, and under 2 MB, at 1.9 MB. The engine only shrinks a picture when no quality setting can fit the cap, which happens at small kilobyte targets, not at megabytes.
Q:Which format should I choose?
Leave it on Auto and the file keeps its format: JPEG stays JPEG, PNG stays PNG, and iPhone HEIC comes back as JPEG. That is the safe choice for an upload whose rules name a format. Switch to WebP or AVIF for your own website. There our benchmark photo weighed 123.9 KB as AVIF against 273.9 KB as JPEG at the same Auto setting.
Q:Is metadata removed?
Yes, from every output, by default. EXIF, GPS and the rest leave the file, so a photo taken at home stops carrying the location of your home. If a workflow needs the metadata kept, the Keep metadata switch in the Advanced panel keeps it. Either way we keep nothing: files are processed and wiped automatically.
Q:How do I reduce the MB size of a photo?
Set the unit selector to MB, type the ceiling and drop the photo. The engine searches for the highest quality that fits under the number and returns the file at or under it, with its size printed beside it. A phone photo of several megabytes lands under 1 MB or 2 MB with every pixel intact, since those caps are generous for a photograph.
Q:How to reduce MB of photo without losing quality?
You spend a little quality and keep every pixel. Under a 2 MB cap our 9.8 MB camera photo came back at 1.9 MB at its full 4964×2782. The search kept the most quality that fit under the cap. Use the compare slider on your result; at megabyte caps the difference is one you hunt for.
Q:Why is my photo so many MBs?
Pixels multiplied by quality. Our camera photo is 4964×2782 pixels, 13.8 million of them, and weighs 9.8 MB as the camera saved it: about 0.7 bytes per pixel. A phone that saves at that quality makes files of that order every time. Metadata and an embedded preview add a little more. None of those bytes are needed for a form, a web page or an email.
Q:How do I reduce the MB of a photo on iPhone?
Open the tool in Safari, set the unit to MB, type the cap and pick the photo from the camera roll. HEIC is accepted as the phone saves it and comes back as a JPEG, which every upload accepts. Nothing installs. The result saves to Files or Photos like any download, ready to attach or upload.
Q:Does resizing an image reduce its MB?
Yes, faster than anything else: bytes pay for pixels, so halving the width and height removes about three quarters of them. But a megabyte cap rarely needs it. Our 9.8 MB camera photo fit under 1 MB with all 4964×2782 pixels kept. Resize when a page or portal states a pixel size; cap when it states bytes.
Q:How do I fit several photos into a 25 MB email?
Divide the 25 MB per message that Gmail's help page allows by the number of photos, and type a cap a little under that. Ten photos: type 2 MB. Twenty: tap the 1 MB chip. Drop them all in one batch of up to 50. The ZIP comes back with every file at or under the cap and its size printed. The total is a sum you can check before attaching.
