Free tool · JPEG, PNG, WebP · Runs in your browser
Remove EXIF data from photos
Short answer
Choose your photos and the tool removes the hidden data from them in your browser, with no upload: Exif, XMP, IPTC, comments and data tacked on after the image.
Nothing is uploaded. The picture data is copied byte for byte, so quality does not change; only the hidden information is left out.
Key takeaways
- Nothing about the picture changes: 29 of 29 files decoded to identical pixels after removal, because the image data is copied byte for byte instead of being compressed again.
- It works: ffprobe counted 1,248 metadata tags across the 29 files before and 1 after. The one left is the rotation flag of a photo that needs it.
- Location is not rare: 4 of 29 photos carried GPS coordinates, 28 the date and time taken, 6 a camera serial number and 2 an author name.
- The saving is small: 1.82 MB of 74.80 MB (2.4%), from 36 bytes to 769.4 KB per photo. Remove metadata for privacy, not to shrink a file.
- Re-saving the photo is not the same: running the same photos through a browser canvas at JPEG quality 92 changed 28% to 87% of the color values, and 1 of 10 files got bigger.
- Some files hide more than Exif: 5 of 29 carried data after the end of the image (up to 750.7 KB), 13 had XMP and 9 had IPTC.
Measured: what was in the photos
The picture itself is copied byte for byte, so quality does not change. In our test of 29 photographs, 29 came out with identical pixels, ffprobe found 1,248 metadata tags before and 1 after (the one kept was a rotation flag), and the files were 2.4% smaller in total.
Measured with the tool's own removal code on 29 photographs from Wikimedia Commons (public domain, CC0 and Creative Commons licenses; phone and camera files, 646.3 KB to 4.49 MB). Pixels were compared as SHA-256 of the raw RGB frames decoded by ffmpeg before and after, and the metadata was read back with ffprobe, an independent reader, before and after.
| Kind of hidden data | Photos that had it | Share |
|---|---|---|
| Exif block (camera, date, settings, thumbnail) | 29 | 100% |
| GPS location | 4 | 14% |
| XMP (editing history, rights, keywords) | 13 | 45% |
| IPTC / Photoshop block (captions, credits) | 9 | 31% |
| Date and time taken | 28 | 97% |
| Camera serial number | 6 | 21% |
| Author name | 2 | 7% |
| Data after the end of the image | 5 | 17% |
The Exif block is almost universal in camera files: 29 of 29. It holds the camera make and model, the time, the settings, and often a thumbnail. Wikipedia's Exif article notes that a photo from a GPS-enabled camera can reveal the exact location and time it was taken and the unique ID number of the device, often without the user's knowledge.
Measured: pixels before and after
The test that matters is whether the picture changed. We decoded every file before and after with ffmpeg, without applying any rotation, and compared a SHA-256 hash of the raw color values.
| Photo | Before | After | Saved | Pixels identical | Tags before / after (ffprobe) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ISS031-E-15558 - View of Earth.jpg | 1.14 MB | 1.12 MB | 15.1 KB | Yes | 46 / 0 |
| Podol 25 09 13 218.jpg | 3.59 MB | 3.57 MB | 17.4 KB | Yes | 44 / 0 |
| TMC 4173 (35005978781).jpg | 2.68 MB | 2.66 MB | 26.0 KB | Yes | 51 / 0 |
| Finestral Hostal de la Bona Sort.jpg | 1.48 MB | 1.48 MB | 106 bytes | Yes | 3 / 0 |
| Panneau Station Église Auteuil Métro Par | 3.17 MB | 2.97 MB | 199.0 KB | Yes | 62 / 0 |
| Bears on offense at Colorado at Cal 2010 | 646.3 KB | 610.9 KB | 35.4 KB | Yes | 46 / 0 |
| ISS044-E-69204 - View of Earth.jpg | 1.62 MB | 1.60 MB | 21.4 KB | Yes | 52 / 0 |
| Haniwa, tomb figure of a boar.jpg | 3.05 MB | 3.01 MB | 43.0 KB | Yes | 35 / 0 |
| Dienville, l'église et le pont sur l'Aub | 3.31 MB | 3.30 MB | 16.2 KB | Yes | 38 / 0 |
| Crossing of via Auteri and via Garibaldi | 3.89 MB | 3.72 MB | 166.9 KB | Yes | 60 / 0 |
| Elbląg Holy Trinity church Kielecka 24-0 | 2.41 MB | 2.39 MB | 19.7 KB | Yes | 51 / 0 |
| Ceilândia DF Brasil - Capela do Divino E | 4.49 MB | 3.72 MB | 769.4 KB | Yes | 41 / 0 |
Across all 29 files: 29 identical, 1,248 tags before, 1 after. The median file shrank by 1.32%.
Why not just save the picture again?
Many online tools remove metadata by drawing the picture on a canvas and saving it again. That works, but the picture is compressed a second time. We did exactly that in headless Chromium with ten of the same photos, at JPEG quality 92 and 85, and compared the decoded colors with the original.
| Photo | Original | Copy without metadata | Canvas quality 92 | Color values changed at 92 | PSNR at 92 | Canvas quality 85 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ISS031-E-15558 - View of Earth | 1.14 MB | 1.12 MB | 1.20 MB | 28% | 50.52 dB | 1.00 MB |
| Podol 25 09 13 218.jpg | 3.59 MB | 3.57 MB | 2.88 MB | 61% | 44.85 dB | 1.56 MB |
| Panneau Station Église Auteuil | 3.17 MB | 2.97 MB | 2.96 MB | 54% | 47.23 dB | 2.34 MB |
| Haniwa, tomb figure of a boar. | 3.05 MB | 3.01 MB | 974.6 KB | 87% | 34.79 dB | 666.8 KB |
| Crossing of via Auteri and via | 3.89 MB | 3.72 MB | 3.48 MB | 44% | 46.29 dB | 2.48 MB |
| Ceilândia DF Brasil - Capela d | 4.49 MB | 3.72 MB | 1.87 MB | 66% | 43.26 dB | 1.29 MB |
| Dočesná 2017 (019).jpg | 1.06 MB | 1.02 MB | 1.05 MB | 32% | 49.72 dB | 886.7 KB |
| Biserica fortificata din Crist | 2.41 MB | 2.34 MB | 971.4 KB | 67% | 45.17 dB | 653.4 KB |
| Moorenweis-Brandenberg Kapelle | 4.39 MB | 4.35 MB | 3.56 MB | 61% | 43.71 dB | 2.18 MB |
| Penampungan air di pabrik Gula | 3.22 MB | 3.20 MB | 1.22 MB | 44% | 47.76 dB | 669.3 KB |
At quality 92 the saved copies changed 28% to 87% of the color values (a PSNR of 34.79 to 50.52 dB, which is hard to see but not lossless), and 1 of 10 files came out larger than the original. Copying the data keeps the original file's quality and avoids both.
What is removed and what stays
| Part of the file | What the tool does | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Exif (APP1) | Removed | Camera, time, GPS, serial number, thumbnail |
| XMP (APP1) | Removed | Editing history, rights, keywords, sometimes a second thumbnail |
| IPTC / Photoshop (APP13) | Removed | Captions, credits, copyright lines |
| Comments and other application segments | Removed | Software notes and vendor data |
| Multi-picture data (MPF) and data after the end of the image | Removed | Can carry extra images or video in motion photos |
| JFIF header | Kept | Standard JPEG header |
| ICC color profile | Kept | Without it colors can shift |
| Rotation flag | Kept by default, as a minimal block | Without it a phone photo can show sideways |
| PNG text, time and Exif chunks | Removed | Author, software and edit time |
| WebP Exif and XMP chunks | Removed | Same as JPEG |
One of the 29 photos (Penampungan air di pabrik Gula Colomadu.) had a rotation flag of 8. The tool wrote a new block of 36 bytes holding only that flag; ffprobe still reported a 90 degree display rotation after removal. You can switch it off to remove every tag, in which case the photo may show sideways.
PNG and WebP
PNG and WebP carry less metadata than camera JPEGs, but they can hold some. We added two text chunks (author and software) and a modification time to a real PNG: the tool removed 96 bytes, the result was byte-identical to the original file and the pixels matched. We wrapped a WebP with Exif and XMP chunks: 94 bytes were removed, the RIFF size was updated correctly and the pixels matched.
Free tools:Check a photo for locationCompress an imageConvert HEIC to JPGRead the text in an image
What this does not do
- It does not blur faces, street signs or license plates. Anything visible in the picture stays visible.
- Wikipedia notes that editing software sometimes leaves an old thumbnail in the file; this tool drops the whole Exif block, thumbnail included.
- HEIC files are not supported here; convert them to JPG first with the HEIC converter, which does not copy the location.
- A website you upload to may read the file before it removes anything, so remove the data first.
How the removal works
A JPEG is a series of marked segments. The tool walks them, copies the ones that describe and contain the image, and leaves out the application segments that hold metadata. It never decodes or re-compresses the image, which is why the pixels cannot change and why it takes milliseconds. Wikipedia describes the layout: Exif lives in an APP1 segment, JFIF in APP0, and both use the application markers that the base format left for extra data.
The figures come from 29 real photographs. The exact sizes, the segments removed from each and the ffprobe output before and after are saved in the evidence for this page.
Questions people ask
How do I remove EXIF data from a photo?
Choose the photo above. The tool shows what it found and gives you a clean copy to download. It works in your browser.
Is my photo uploaded?
No. The file is read and rewritten in your browser.
Does removing the metadata lower the quality?
No. The picture data is copied byte for byte. In our test 29 of 29 photos decoded to identical pixels.
Does it remove the GPS location?
Yes. 4 of the 29 test photos had coordinates and ffprobe found none in any of the cleaned files.
Why is the file only slightly smaller?
Metadata is small compared with the picture: 2.4% of the total in our test, 36 bytes to 769.4 KB per photo. Use the image compressor if you need a much smaller file.
Why did my photo turn sideways?
Phones often store a photo unrotated with a flag saying how to turn it. If the flag is removed it shows sideways. Keep the option "Keep the rotation flag" on to avoid this.
Which formats work?
JPEG, PNG and WebP. For HEIC, convert to JPG first.
Does it remove data from many photos at once?
Yes. Choose several files and download them one by one or as a ZIP.
Does social media remove the location for me?
Some services do and some do not, so do not rely on it. Wikipedia notes that some services remove the data and others, such as GitHub, keep every tag including location.
Related
Sources and how we checked
- Wikipedia: Exif (privacy and security) (read 2026-10-10)
- Wikipedia: JPEG (application segments) (read 2026-10-10)
- FFmpeg Documentation: ffprobe (used to read the metadata back) (read 2026-10-10)
Reviewed October 10, 2026. The measurements ran the tool's own code on 29 public photographs, compared the pixels before and after, and read the metadata back with ffprobe. The files and results are in data/seo/hub/evidence/2026-10-10/exif.