Pixelate an image
Break a picture into a grid of flat-coloured squares. Small squares give a soft mosaic; large ones leave only blocks of colour.
- 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 image pixelator
Add the picture and move the Square size slider. Each square of the grid is filled with the average colour of the pixels it replaces. The default gives about 85 squares along the longer side; slide right for fewer, larger squares.
- Add your imageIt is pixelated at once with medium-sized squares.
- Set the square sizeSlide right for bigger, fewer squares.
- DownloadPNG keeps the squares perfectly crisp; JPG is smaller.
About this tool
Pixelating replaces each square patch of a picture with the single average colour of that patch. The outline of the scene survives and the detail inside it does not, which is why the effect is used both as a style and as a way of making something unrecognisable.
This page pixelates the whole picture. The slider sets how big the squares are as a share of the picture's longer side, so a setting that gives about ninety squares across a phone photo gives about ninety across a small image too. The square size in pixels is listed with the result.
What you get
- Squares of the true average colour, not a blur
- Square size follows the picture's size
- Transparent areas stay transparent
- Batch up to 20 images with one setting
- Runs on your device, with no upload
When to use the image pixelator
A mosaic look for posts and covers
Medium squares turn a photo into a tiled pattern that is still recognisable from a distance.
Teasers and reveals
A heavily pixelated version of a product shot or a poster hints at what is coming without showing it.
Low-detail placeholders
A handful of large squares makes a tiny stand-in image with the right colours in the right places.
Hiding a whole picture's detail
When everything in the frame should be unreadable, large squares over the full image do it in one step.
What each setting does
| Square size | Squares along the longer side | Square on a 4000 px photo | Looks like |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | about 300 | 13 px | A slight coarsening |
| 10 | about 200 | 20 px | Fine mosaic |
| 25 | about 85 | 46 px | Clear squares, scene still obvious |
| 50 | about 40 | 102 px | Large blocks, outline only |
| 75 | about 24 | 168 px | Abstract |
| 100 | about 17 | 240 px | A few blocks of colour |
How it works
The picture is divided into a grid starting at its top-left corner, and every pixel inside a square is replaced by the mean of that square. This is a true average, not a single sampled pixel, so the squares do not flicker between light and dark when the setting changes. Squares along the right and bottom edges are cut short where the picture's width or height is not an exact multiple of the square size.
The side of a square runs from 0.2% to 6% of the picture's longer side and is never less than two pixels. Where a picture has transparency, each square takes the average opacity of its pixels, and transparent pixels do not tint its colour. Saved as PNG the squares have perfectly hard edges; a lossy format at high quality is smaller and nearly indistinguishable.
Common problems and how to fix them
- The squares are too small to see
- On a large photo shown small, fine squares disappear. Raise the slider, or use the zoom buttons under the picture to check at 100%.
- I wanted to pixelate one area only
- Use Censor Image, where you mark the area with a box.
- The squares look smudged after saving
- That is JPG or WebP compression softening the hard edges. Choose PNG as the output format, or raise the quality.
- The last column of squares is narrower
- The grid starts at the left and the picture's width is not a whole number of squares, so the final column gets what is left over. Crop the picture to a suitable width first if it has to be even.
Frequently asked questions
How do I pixelate just a face or a number plate?
Use the Censor Image tool, which pixelates only the areas you mark with a box. This page pixelates everything in the picture.
Is this the same as pixel art?
No. Pixelating keeps every colour in the picture and only groups pixels into squares. Pixel art also cuts the picture down to a small number of colours, which gives the hand-drawn game look. For that, use Image to Pixel Art.
Can a pixelated image be restored?
No. Each square holds one colour where there used to be hundreds or thousands of pixels, and the others are not kept. Large squares cannot be turned back into the original. Very small squares over simple, predictable content such as printed digits can sometimes be guessed, so do not rely on fine pixelation to hide secrets.
Which format should I download?
PNG if you want every square to have clean, hard edges. JPG and WebP at high quality look almost the same and are smaller, but they can leave faint smudging along the edges of the squares.
How is pixelating different from just making the image smaller?
The arithmetic is the same: both average groups of pixels. The difference is that a pixelated picture is drawn back at its original size with each average shown as a visible square, so it still fits the same space.
Can I pixelate a batch of images?
Yes, up to 20 at a time. They all get the same setting, and because the square size follows each picture, a small image and a large one end up with about the same number of squares.