Does removing EXIF reduce image quality?

No. For JPG, PNG and WebP the tool never decodes the picture. It walks through the file's internal blocks, deletes the metadata blocks and copies the compressed image data byte for byte, so the pixels are identical to the original. The file usually gets slightly smaller, by however many kilobytes the metadata took up — often 10–60 KB on a phone photo, more if it carried a large thumbnail or XMP edit history.

Don't Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp already strip metadata?

Most big social networks remove GPS from the public copy, but that is their policy, not a guarantee, and it does not cover everything you share. Photos sent as files or documents in messaging apps, attached to emails, uploaded to marketplaces, forums, cloud folders or your own website usually keep their EXIF intact. Stripping it yourself before sharing means you do not have to trust each service to do it for you.

Do PNG screenshots contain metadata?

Usually less than a camera JPEG, but not nothing. Screenshots can carry text chunks naming the software or device, a creation timestamp, and on some systems an eXIf block with orientation and sometimes more. PNGs exported from editing apps often include XMP with edit history. The tool lists exactly what it finds before you remove anything, so you can check a screenshot in a second.

Can it remove the embedded thumbnail?

Yes. Many cameras and phones store a small preview image inside the EXIF block. If you crop or blur a photo in an editor that does not update that preview, the thumbnail can still show the original, uncropped picture. Because the thumbnail lives inside EXIF, removing EXIF removes it too. The checker shows “Embedded thumbnail” when one is present.

Is the file name changed?

No. The cleaned JPG, PNG or WebP downloads with exactly the same name and extension as the one you dropped in. Keep in mind that a file name can itself reveal information — phone names like IMG_20240612_183245.jpg contain the capture date — so rename it before sharing if that matters. The only exception is an unusual format such as GIF or BMP, which is redrawn and saved as PNG.

Remove EXIF Data from Photos

Check what a photo says about you, then strip the GPS location, camera details and other hidden metadata. The picture itself is not touched.

Drop a photo to check its metadata

or click to browse — JPG, PNG, WebP up to 50 MB, or up to 50 photos at once

What a photo quietly carries

Every time a phone or camera saves a picture, it writes an EXIF block next to the image: the make and model of the device, the lens and its settings, the exact date and time the shutter fired, and — if location services were on — GPS coordinates accurate to a few metres. Many devices also store a small preview thumbnail in the same block. Editors that crop or blur a photo do not always regenerate that thumbnail, so the “cleaned” image can still contain a tiny copy of the uncropped original.

None of this is visible when you look at the photo, but anyone with the file can read it in seconds. That is why people strip metadata before they share: sellers on Marketplace, eBay or Craigslist whose listing photos were taken at home; parents posting pictures of their kids to a school group or a forum; journalists and activists protecting sources and locations; and anyone sending pictures to a stranger who does not need to know which phone they own or where they live.

How to remove EXIF data

1
Drop the photo in. The tool reads the file's structure and tells you what it found — for example “EXIF, GPS location, XMP”. Drop several photos at once to clean a whole set; up to 50 are processed in one go.
2
Click “Remove metadata”. The metadata blocks are cut out of the file. The compressed image data is copied unchanged, which takes a fraction of a second even for large photos.
3
Download the clean copy. The after panel re-checks the new file and shows what remains. It downloads with the same name and format; batches can be saved as a ZIP.

What gets removed vs kept

The goal is to remove what identifies you and keep what makes the photo look right. JPEGs are not re-encoded, so there is no second round of compression and no quality loss.

Block	Result	What it holds
EXIF	Removed	Camera make and model, lens, exposure, date and time, GPS coordinates, embedded thumbnail
XMP	Removed	Editing history from Lightroom or Photoshop, ratings, keywords, some phone metadata
IPTC (Photoshop APP13)	Removed	Captions, author, copyright and location fields written by photo agencies and editors
Comments / PNG text chunks	Removed	Free-text comments, software names, PNG creation time
ICC colour profile	Kept	Tells screens how to show the colours. Removing it can make wide-gamut photos look dull
JFIF header	Kept	Basic JPEG header with pixel density; contains nothing personal
Image data (pixels)	Kept	Copied byte for byte. JPEGs are not decoded or re-compressed, so there is no quality loss

PNG: eXIf, tEXt, zTXt, iTXt and tIME chunks are removed. WebP: EXIF and XMP chunks are removed and the header flags updated. Other image types are redrawn and saved as PNG, which keeps no metadata.

Questions about removing metadata

Does removing EXIF reduce image quality?: No. For JPG, PNG and WebP the tool never decodes the picture. It walks through the file's internal blocks, deletes the metadata blocks and copies the compressed image data byte for byte, so the pixels are identical to the original. The file usually gets slightly smaller, by however many kilobytes the metadata took up — often 10–60 KB on a phone photo, more if it carried a large thumbnail or XMP edit history.
Don't Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp already strip metadata?: Most big social networks remove GPS from the public copy, but that is their policy, not a guarantee, and it does not cover everything you share. Photos sent as files or documents in messaging apps, attached to emails, uploaded to marketplaces, forums, cloud folders or your own website usually keep their EXIF intact. Stripping it yourself before sharing means you do not have to trust each service to do it for you.
Do PNG screenshots contain metadata?: Usually less than a camera JPEG, but not nothing. Screenshots can carry text chunks naming the software or device, a creation timestamp, and on some systems an eXIf block with orientation and sometimes more. PNGs exported from editing apps often include XMP with edit history. The tool lists exactly what it finds before you remove anything, so you can check a screenshot in a second.
Can it remove the embedded thumbnail?: Yes. Many cameras and phones store a small preview image inside the EXIF block. If you crop or blur a photo in an editor that does not update that preview, the thumbnail can still show the original, uncropped picture. Because the thumbnail lives inside EXIF, removing EXIF removes it too. The checker shows “Embedded thumbnail” when one is present.
Is the file name changed?: No. The cleaned JPG, PNG or WebP downloads with exactly the same name and extension as the one you dropped in. Keep in mind that a file name can itself reveal information — phone names like IMG_20240612_183245.jpg contain the capture date — so rename it before sharing if that matters. The only exception is an unusual format such as GIF or BMP, which is redrawn and saved as PNG.

Your photos stay on your device

It would defeat the purpose to upload a private photo to a server just to make it private. Reading and removing the metadata happens in your browser with JavaScript; the file is never sent anywhere, and closing the tab discards it. You can load the page, switch off your connection and the tool keeps working.

HEIC to JPG — turn iPhone photos into JPGs first, then clean them here.
Image compressor — shrink a cleaned photo for email or a listing. Re-compressing also drops metadata, but costs some quality.
Image converter — switch between JPG, PNG and WebP.