Compress an image to 500 KB — big photos made easy to send

How to use Compress Image to 500 KB

1. Choose your photos. Large camera files and phone photos are the usual starting point.
2. The Target size is 500 KB. Type a different value if you need one.
3. Pick Save as: JPEG for sharing and uploads, WebP for your own site, or the original format.
4. Leave Allow resizing if quality alone cannot reach the target on to make sure every file fits.
5. Press Compress to 500 KB.
6. Look at the result line under each file, then download the -500kb copies.

What it does and when to use it

Half a megabyte is a generous budget. Photos of a few megapixels can often keep their full pixel size at this limit, so this page is about reducing bulk rather than squeezing to the bone.

Typical reasons to use it:

• Email attachments. Sending ten photos at a few megabytes each can bounce off a mailbox size limit; at 500 KB each they go through easily.
• Upload forms with a roomy limit, such as a portal that accepts an image “up to 500 KB” for a certificate or proof of address.
• Large website images, like a full-width banner, where you want detail but not a multi-megabyte download.
• Saving space on a phone or cloud drive for photos you want to keep but do not need at full camera quality.

For the strictest forms, start lower: Compress Image to 50 KB suits most application photos.

How it works

The tool works entirely inside your browser, in a background worker. Your photos are not uploaded.

It looks for the best-looking file at or under 512,000 bytes (500 × 1,024):

1. It encodes the full-size image at top quality and stops if that fits.
2. Otherwise it tries 30% quality, then narrows in on the highest quality that still fits.
3. If even 30% is too big, and resizing is allowed, it finds the largest scale that fits and fine-tunes the quality there.

With a budget this large, smaller photos may finish at step 1 or 2 and keep every pixel. The JPEG encoder is MozJPEG, which is designed to produce smaller files than a standard encoder at similar quality.

Worked examples

500 KB is 4,096,000 bits. Dividing by the number of pixels gives a quick feel for the result.

A 1,920 × 1,080 px screenshot or video frame. About 2 million pixels, roughly 2 bits each. That is plenty; expect full size and a high quality setting.

A 2,048 × 1,536 px photo (3.1 megapixels). About 1.3 bits per pixel. Still comfortable for full size.

A 12-megapixel photo, 4,000 × 3,000 px. About 0.34 bits per pixel. A smooth scene, such as sky or a plain wall, may fit at full size with lower quality. A detailed one, such as leaves or a crowd, may need to be scaled down. The result line tells you which happened.

Limits and tips

• Detail decides. Two photos with the same pixel size can compress very differently. Busy textures need more bytes than smooth areas.
• Printing. If you plan to print, check the final pixel size before you delete any originals.
• Location data. Re-encoding does not copy EXIF data such as GPS, which makes these copies safer to share. To strip it without recompressing, use the EXIF Remover.
• HEIC from an iPhone? Convert it first with HEIC to JPG, then compress.
• No fixed target? The Image Compressor lets you set the quality yourself and compare.