Compress an image to 1 MB
Drop your photo in. The target is already set to 1 MB. Your browser searches for the highest quality that still fits under it, and nothing is uploaded anywhere.
click to choose · paste from the clipboard · add a whole batch
Nothing here is uploaded. See how the page enforces it.
Who needs 1 MB
Upload limits on forums, ticketing systems, wikis and chat platforms cluster at 1 MB. So do the attachment rules on a lot of older web applications.
What an image looks like at 1 MB
For almost any photograph 1 MB is a loose budget, and the output will be visually identical to the original. The compression is barely working.
Because the budget is loose, leave the dimensions alone unless the form also specifies them. There is no benefit to shrinking an image that already fits.
How the target is hit
Guessing a quality percentage and checking the result is the slow way to do this. Instead your browser encodes the image, measures the actual byte count, and narrows the quality range from both ends over seven passes, each one halving the remaining uncertainty. It stops at the highest quality whose output is still under 1 MB.
If even the lowest acceptable quality is still too heavy, it starts reducing the dimensions instead, because losing pixels is a better trade than reducing a photograph to mush. If it genuinely cannot reach 1 MB, the row says so rather than handing you a file that quietly missed the target.
Questions
+ Is the result exactly 1 MB?
It is at or just under 1,048,576 bytes, the largest file that still satisfies the limit. Landing on the number precisely would mean padding the file with junk, which no upload form wants.
+ Nothing happened. My file was already under 1 MB.
Then it is left as it is. The tool will not re-encode a file that already meets the target, because re-encoding an image always costs a little quality and there would be nothing to gain. The row will say so.
+ Are my images uploaded?
No. The whole thing runs in your browser through the Canvas API. Open devtools, watch the Network tab while you compress, and you will see no request carrying your file. The page keeps working with your connection switched off.
+ Can I do a whole batch at once?
Yes, and each file gets its own quality search. A simple graphic and a detailed photograph need very different settings to land on the same byte budget. There is no cap on how many, because there is no server to pay for it.
+ Does it work on a phone?
Yes, on iOS and Android. Photographs taken on the phone can be picked straight from the camera roll.