Category · 01 of 05
Image Compression Tools
Make image files smaller without making them look worse. Each compressor lets you aim at an exact file size, which is what listing limits and upload caps actually require.
- Compress JPGCompress JPG ImagesShrink JPEG files to a target size such as 100 KB or 2 MB, or dial in the quality by hand. Compression happens on your own device, so nothing is uploaded and there is no queue to wait in.
- JPEG is a lossy format.
- Very small target sizes on large images will produce visible blocking.
- Compress PNGCompress PNG ImagesTwo ways to shrink a PNG: lossless optimisation that keeps every pixel exactly as it was, or colour reduction that typically cuts file size by 60-80%. Transparency survives both.
- Lossless mode typically saves 10-30%.
- Colour reduction works beautifully on logos, screenshots, icons and flat illustrations.
- Compress WebPCompress WebP ImagesReduce the size of WebP images with quality control or lossless optimisation. WebP is already efficient, so use this when you need to squeeze a bit more out of files for a fast website.
- WebP is already a well-compressed format, so gains are smaller than you would see compressing a PNG or an unoptimised JPG.
- Re-compressing a lossy WebP loses quality again, the same way re-saving a JPG does.
Which compressor do you need?
Start from what the file already is, not from what you want it to become. Each format compresses in a fundamentally different way, and using the wrong tool wastes most of the available saving.
- Compress JPG — photographs, camera images, anything already a .jpg or .jpeg. Supports compressing to an exact target file size.
- Compress PNG — logos, screenshots, icons, illustrations, and anything with transparency. Offers both genuinely lossless optimisation and colour reduction.
- Compress WebP — files already in WebP, with lossy and lossless modes.
If your image is in the wrong format for its content — a photograph saved as PNG is the classic case — converting it will save far more than compressing it. The converters handle that.
Compressing to a specific file size
Real limits arrive in megabytes, not quality units: under 2 MB for a YouTube thumbnail uploaded from a phone, under 5 MB for an attachment, under 1 MB for a listing photo. Most free compressors only give you a quality slider and leave you re-checking the file size by hand.
The JPG and WebP compressors here have a target size mode. Type the limit and the tool searches for the highest quality that fits underneath it, normally settling in six to eight attempts.
When a target is genuinely out of reach, the answer is dimensions rather than quality. File size scales with pixel count, so halving the width and height leaves roughly a quarter of the file. Resize first, then compress.
What compression cannot do
Compression discards information. On a photograph at a sensible setting that loss is invisible, but it is permanent, and it accumulates: every save of a JPEG throws away a little more. Always compress from the highest-quality original you have rather than from a copy that has already been through the process.
It also cannot rescue an image that is already heavily compressed. If a file has been through several rounds, another pass will barely shrink it and may make it visibly worse.