How to Compress an Image Without Losing Quality
Updated October 22, 2026
Big pictures slow down websites, fill up email limits and fail to upload. The good news is that most pictures can shrink by half or more with no visible difference.
The four things that make a file smaller
- Reduce the size in pixels. A 4,000-pixel photo shown 800 pixels wide wastes most of its data.
- Lower the quality of JPG or WebP to about 70% to 85%.
- Choose the right format: JPG or WebP for photos, PNG for graphics with flat colors, and WebP for the smallest files on the web.
- Remove hidden data such as camera details and GPS location (EXIF), which also protects privacy.
Step by step with the Image Compressor
- Open the Compress Image tool and drop in your pictures.
- Start with the Balanced preset. Press Compare, and zoom to 100% to check faces and text.
- For a size limit, choose To a target size and type, for example, 200 KB.
- Download each picture, or all of them as a ZIP file.
How much can you save?
| Change | Typical saving |
|---|---|
| JPG quality from 100% to 80% | 40% to 60% smaller |
| Photo resized from 4,000 to 1,920 pixels wide | Around 75% fewer pixels |
| PNG screenshot reduced to 256 colors | 60% to 80% smaller |
| JPG converted to WebP at the same quality | Often 25% to 35% smaller |
Lossy and lossless
Lossless compression, used by PNG, shrinks a file without changing a single pixel but cannot save much on photos. Lossy compression, used by JPG and WebP, throws away detail you are unlikely to notice, and that is where the big savings come from. You cannot get lost detail back, so always keep your original.
Common size limits
| Where | Typical limit |
|---|---|
| Email attachments | About 20 to 25 MB in total |
| Online application forms | Often 1 to 5 MB per file |
| A page on your website | Aim for under 200 KB per picture |
Frequently asked questions
Is it really possible to compress without losing quality?
Lossless methods lose nothing but save little on photos. With lossy compression the quality loss is small enough that you cannot see it at sensible settings, such as 75% to 85%, so for everyday use the answer is yes.
How do I get a picture under 100 KB?
Choose To a target size, type 100 KB and add the picture. The tool lowers the quality as little as possible and reduces the size in pixels only if it needs to.