Compress JPG photos
Compress photos at the exact quality value you choose, and see the file size before you commit.
- Runs in your browser
- Nothing is uploaded
- No sign-up
- Batch up to 20 images
Drag & drop your image here
or tap to browse · you can also paste from the clipboard
JPG · PNG · WebP · GIF · BMP · AVIF · SVG · up to 50 MB each · up to 20 files
Choose imagesBefore
After
Processed image will appear here.
How to use the jpg compressor
To compress a JPG, upload it and set the quality slider to about 80. A 5 MB photo typically becomes 300-500 KB with no visible difference on screen. Quality 75-85 is the useful range for the web; below 70 artefacts start appearing in skies and skin tones.
- Add JPG filesAny image format is accepted; the output is always JPG.
- Set the qualityStart at 80 and slide down until the preview stops looking acceptable.
- DownloadSave one file, or batch-process and download a ZIP.
About this tool
JPEG throws away detail your eye is least likely to notice, which is why it remains unbeaten for photographs. The quality parameter controls how aggressive that discarding is: 100 keeps almost everything, 50 keeps the shapes but softens fine texture.
Because JPEG has no alpha channel, transparent areas in a source PNG or WebP are painted with the background colour you pick before encoding. Otherwise they would turn black.
What you get
- True JPEG encoder quality control (1-100)
- Background colour for transparent sources
- Optional resize during compression
- Batch processing with ZIP download
- Removes EXIF and GPS metadata as a side effect
When to use the jpg compressor
Photo galleries and portfolios
Dozens of full-size photos on a page is the classic cause of a slow site. Quality 80 at a sensible width keeps them looking good and loading fast.
Attaching photos to email
A dozen phone photos easily exceed a 25 MB attachment limit. Compressed to quality 75 they fit with room to spare.
Uploading to marketplaces and classifieds
Many listing sites re-compress your images anyway. Uploading a clean quality-85 file gives their encoder a better starting point than a 6 MB original.
Archiving holiday snapshots
Quality 85 at full resolution roughly quarters the storage while staying visually indistinguishable. Keep originals of anything you may print large.
What each quality value actually gives you
| Quality | Typical size vs original | Visible result |
|---|---|---|
| 95-100 | 60-90% | Indistinguishable; wasteful for screen use |
| 85-90 | 25-40% | Indistinguishable in normal viewing |
| 75-85 | 12-25% | The web sweet spot |
| 60-75 | 8-15% | Slight softening; fine for thumbnails |
| 40-60 | 5-10% | Visible blocking in skies and gradients |
| Below 40 | 3-6% | Obvious artefacts; use only for hard size limits |
How it works
JPEG splits the image into 8 × 8 pixel blocks, converts each to frequency coefficients with a discrete cosine transform, and divides those coefficients by a quantisation table before rounding. High-frequency detail, the fine texture your eye is least sensitive to, rounds to zero first and disappears. The quality value selects how aggressive that table is.
This is also why JPEG struggles with sharp edges. A hard black-on-white boundary needs many high-frequency coefficients to describe; discard them and you get the characteristic ringing halo around text and line art. Photographs have few such edges, which is why the same setting looks flawless on a landscape and awful on a screenshot.
Repeated saving compounds the damage. Each re-encode quantises already-quantised data, and the errors accumulate. This is generational loss. Always compress from the original file rather than from a previously compressed copy. JPEG also has no alpha channel, so transparency from a PNG or WebP source must be painted with a solid colour before encoding.
Common problems and how to fix them
- The compressed JPG is still several megabytes
- Quality is only half the equation. Pixel count is the other half. A 12 MP photo at quality 80 is still around 2 MB. Switch on "Also resize the image" and reduce the width to 1600-2000 px.
- I can see blocky squares in the sky
- That is JPEG quantisation at a quality below roughly 60. Raise the quality, or switch to WebP, which handles smooth gradients much better at small file sizes.
- There are halos around my text
- JPEG is the wrong format for text and line art. Use PNG or WebP for screenshots, logos and diagrams.
- My transparent PNG turned black when converted
- Set the background colour before converting. JPEG cannot store transparency, so those pixels must become something solid. The picker appears automatically when your source has transparency.
- The photo looks worse each time I edit and save it
- That is generational loss. Keep a lossless master (PNG or your camera original) and produce a fresh JPEG from it each time rather than re-saving the JPEG.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best JPEG quality for the web?
Between 75 and 85. Below 70, blocking artefacts start appearing in smooth areas like skies and skin; above 90 the file grows quickly for detail almost nobody can see on a screen.
Can I compress a JPG without losing quality?
Not with a browser encoder. JPEG is lossy by design and every re-encode discards a little more. If you need lossless size savings, use a dedicated tool like jpegtran, which reorders the existing data without re-encoding.
Does compressing repeatedly damage the image?
Yes. This is generational loss. Each save re-quantises the already-quantised data, and artefacts accumulate. Always compress from the original file, not from a previously compressed copy.
Is JPG or WebP better?
WebP files are typically 25-35% smaller at matching visual quality and support transparency. Every current browser supports it. Keep JPG only when a specific system or printer requires it.
Why is my compressed JPG still large?
Quality is only half the story. Pixel count is the other half. A 12 MP photo at quality 80 is still around 2 MB. Switch on "Also resize the image" and cut the width to 1600-2000 px.
What is the difference between JPG and JPEG?
Nothing. They are the same format. The three-letter extension exists because older Windows file systems limited extensions to three characters.
Why is my 100% quality JPEG still smaller than the PNG?
Even at quality 100 JPEG applies its transform and drops some chroma detail, and it stores photographic data far more efficiently than PNG's lossless scheme. Quality 100 is not the same as lossless.
Does compressing remove EXIF and GPS data?
Yes. Canvas re-encoding produces a clean file with no EXIF, GPS coordinates, camera model or timestamps. That is good for privacy when publishing, but keep your original if you need the metadata.