How to compress an image to a specific size
Choose a format, pick quality or an exact target size in KB, drop in your photo, and the compressed file is ready in a couple of seconds. Everything runs inside your browser tab — nothing is uploaded anywhere.
Quality mode vs. target size mode
By quality is the simplest option: pick a number from 5 to 95 and the encoder re-compresses the image at that setting. Higher numbers mean less compression and a larger file; lower numbers mean smaller files with more visible artifacts. For photos, 75–85 is usually the sweet spot — noticeably smaller than the original with no obvious quality loss.
By target size flips the question around: instead of picking a quality number, you say “I need this under 200 KB” and the tool works backward to find the highest quality that still fits. This is the mode to reach for when a form has a hard upload limit — a job application, a visa or exam portal, a marketplace listing — and you don’t want to guess at quality settings by trial and error.
Why PNG can’t use target size mode
PNG compression works completely differently from JPEG and WebP. It’s lossless — every pixel is preserved exactly — and its “quality” parameter in the browser’s own image encoder is simply ignored; asking for quality 10 or quality 90 produces the identical file. There’s no dial to turn, so there’s no way to search for a quality level that hits a target size. If you need a specific file size and your image is currently a PNG, converting to JPEG or WebP first is the only way to get there — this tool disables the target size tab for PNG and points you at the alternatives.
What the search behind target size mode is doing
Finding the right quality isn’t a single guess — the tool tries a value, checks the resulting file size, and narrows the range: too big, it tries a lower quality; comfortably under, it tries a bit higher. After a handful of tries it lands on the highest quality that stays under your target. If even the lowest quality setting still produces a file larger than your target — a very detailed photo compressed to an unreasonably small size — checking “allow shrinking dimensions” lets the tool also reduce the pixel size, which brings file size down further than quality reduction alone ever could.
A note on your original photo’s metadata
Like every tool on this site, compression happens by decoding the image and re-encoding it, which means EXIF metadata — GPS location, camera model, capture time — never makes it into the output file. That’s a side effect of how canvas-based image processing works, not a separate privacy feature, but it’s worth knowing if you’re compressing a photo before sharing it.