Compress a JPEG
You choose the quality; nothing is decided for you.
- Step 1Drop your imagesAnywhere on the page
- Step 2Set quality 75%Already selected for you
- Step 3Download the resultOne file or a zip
Every other page here aims at a file size. This one gives you the quality dial directly, which is what you want when the requirement is "smaller, but still good" rather than a specific number of kilobytes.
How far you can push depends on the picture. Images with large smooth regions show artefacts earliest, because the eye reads any disturbance in a flat gradient immediately. Busy, textured photographs — foliage, crowds, gravel — hide compression remarkably well and can often go to 60 without complaint.
The honest way to choose is to compare. Try 80, look at the result at full size, and only reduce further if you cannot see a difference.
Quality preserved
What the numbers mean
The quality scale is not a percentage of anything intuitive, and the numbers are worth knowing. Above roughly 90 you are adding bytes for differences almost nobody can see. Between 75 and 85 is where most images should live: the artefacts are present but invisible at normal viewing distance, and the file is a fraction of the original. Below about 60 the block structure starts to show on smooth areas like skies and skin. Below 40 it is obvious.
Not sure it held up? Every result has a Compare button — drag the divider to see your original against the processed version at full size.
Common questions
What quality setting should I actually use?
Start at 80. It is invisible on most photographs and typically produces a file several times smaller than the original. Reduce further only after checking the result at full size.
Why does quality 80 give different sizes for different photos?
Quality is a measure of how much detail is preserved, not a target size. A detailed photograph simply needs more bytes than a plain one to retain the same level of fidelity.
Does compressing twice at 80 equal compressing once at 64?
No, it is worse than either. Each pass re-encodes the previous pass's artefacts as if they were real detail. Always compress from the original rather than from an already-compressed copy.