Image Compressor

Shrink image file sizes with a live quality slider. Pick JPEG or WebP, watch the compressed size and percent saved update as you drag — all processed on your device, with no upload.

image-compressor · runs locally
Drop an image here, click to browse, or paste from the clipboard. PNG, JPEG, WebP, GIF or SVG.

How this image compressor works

Drop in an image, pick JPEG or WebP, and drag the quality slider — the tool re-encodes the image on a canvas and updates the compressed size, the percent saved and the live preview a moment after you stop moving the slider. When the balance of size and quality looks right, download the result. Because everything runs locally, a 20 MB photo compresses just as quickly as a small one; there is no upload and no queue.

The biggest savings come from format changes, not just the slider. A screenshot or photo saved as PNG is stored losslessly and is often enormous; re-encoding it as JPEG or WebP at quality 80 routinely cuts it by 80–95%. Pure PNG-to-PNG optimization is the one thing a browser canvas cannot do — see the FAQ below for the honest details.

Choosing a quality level

Lossy encoders spend bits where your eyes notice them, so the quality-to-size curve is steep at both ends. Between 80 and 85 most photos are visually indistinguishable from the original at a fraction of the size — that is why 80 is the default here. Below about 60, blockiness and smeared detail creep in, especially around text and sharp edges. Above 90, file size climbs rapidly for improvements you will struggle to see. Transparent images encoded to JPEG get a white background, since JPEG has no alpha channel — use WebP to keep transparency.

Compress smarter: resize first

Quality settings only go so far if the image has far more pixels than its destination needs. A 4000px-wide photo shown in a 800px column wastes bandwidth no matter how it is compressed. Run oversized images through the Image Resizer first, then compress the result here — the combination often beats either step alone by an order of magnitude. Shipping a website? Minify your stylesheets too with the CSS Minifier.

Frequently asked questions

Is my image uploaded to a server?

No. Compression runs on an HTML canvas 100% inside your browser — the image is decoded, re-encoded at your chosen quality and previewed without ever leaving your device. That is why there is no progress bar for uploading: there is no upload.

What quality number should I pick?

80–85 is the sweet spot for most photos: files shrink dramatically while artifacts stay invisible at normal viewing sizes. Drop to 60–75 for thumbnails or previews where size matters more, and go above 90 only for final deliverables — the file grows fast up there for little visible gain.

Should I choose JPEG or WebP?

WebP typically produces files 20–35% smaller than JPEG at comparable visual quality, and every modern browser displays it. Choose JPEG when the image must open in older software, email clients or systems you don't control; choose WebP when the destination is the web.

Why can't I compress to PNG?

PNG is lossless, and the browser canvas API exposes no PNG optimization settings — re-encoding a PNG through canvas usually makes it bigger, not smaller. Real PNG shrinking (palette reduction, better DEFLATE) needs tools like oxipng or pngquant. The wins here come from converting PNG photos to JPEG or WebP, which is often a 5–10× reduction.