Free tool · GPS check · Runs in your browser
Remove the location from a photo
Short answer
Choose a photo and the tool shows whether it carries a GPS location and removes it, in your browser with no upload. 4 of the 29 photos in our test had coordinates in them; after removal ffprobe found 0 GPS tags in all 29 files (it found 66 before).
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
- 4 of 29 photos carried GPS coordinates, and ffprobe read 66 GPS tags in them; after removal it read 0 in all 29 files.
- The location is not the only private field: the same files carried the date and time taken in 28 of 29 cases, a camera serial number in 6 and an author name in 2. The tool removes them together.
- Pixels stayed identical in 29 of 29 files, so a photo you share looks exactly like the original.
- Phones and cameras with a GPS receiver store the position in the Exif block by default, Wikipedia notes, often without the user knowing; the tool shows what a file holds before you share it.
- Data can also sit after the end of the image: 5 of 29 files carried it, up to 750.7 KB. It is removed too.
Measured: which photos carried a location
The pixels stayed identical in 29 of 29.
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.
| Photo | GPS found | GPS tags read by ffprobe before | GPS tags after | Other private fields |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Panneau Station Église Auteuil Métro Paris L | 48.85, 2.27 | 13 | 0 | Date taken |
| Crossing of via Auteri and via Garibaldi, Ca | 37.5, 15.08 | 9 | 0 | Date taken |
| Elbląg Holy Trinity church Kielecka 24-007.J | 54.14, 19.41 | 6 | 0 | Date taken |
| Boyton, St. Mary's Church, Stained glass win | 51.16, -2.07 | 14 | 0 | Author, Date taken |
4 of 29 is a minority, but each of these files would have published where it was taken. Wikipedia notes that cameras and phones with a GPS receiver store the position in the Exif header by default, often without the user knowing.
What else the same files gave away
| Kind of hidden data | Photos that had it | Share |
|---|---|---|
| GPS location | 4 | 14% |
| Date and time taken | 28 | 97% |
| Camera serial number | 6 | 21% |
| Author name | 2 | 7% |
| XMP | 13 | 45% |
| IPTC / Photoshop block | 9 | 31% |
| Data after the end of the image | 5 | 17% |
A location is the most direct risk, but a date and a camera serial number can also tie a picture to a person or a place. Check all of them before you publish.
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%.
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:Remove all EXIF dataCompress an imageConvert HEIC to JPG
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.