Compress JPG
Reduce the file size of your JPG photos. The compressor removes unnecessary data while keeping the image looking great. Set your target quality or file size and download the result.
How to compress jpg
Three steps. No Photoshop skills needed.
Upload a JPG file
Select the JPEG image you want to make smaller.
Set compression level
Choose how much to compress: mild, medium or heavy.
Download
Save the compressed JPG. Compare before and after to verify quality.
What You Can Do with This Tool
JPEG compression works by analyzing blocks of 8x8 pixels and simplifying the color information within each block. At high quality settings (85-95%), the simplification is minimal and nearly invisible. At low quality settings (below 50%), you'll see characteristic "JPEG artifacts": blocky patterns, color banding and smudged edges.
The quality scale is not linear. Going from 95% to 85% quality might cut your file size in half with almost no visible difference. Going from 85% to 75% saves less space proportionally but starts to show artifacts. Most photos look perfectly fine at 80% quality for web use.
JPEG compression works best on photographs with smooth gradients and natural textures. It struggles with sharp text, line art and images with large areas of solid color. If your image has text overlays or sharp graphic elements, consider using PNG format instead.
Each time you open a JPEG, edit it and save it again, more quality is lost. This is called generation loss. Always keep your original high-quality file and only compress copies for distribution.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does my JPEG look worse every time I save it? The quality keeps degrading.
JPEG compression is lossy. Every save throws away a tiny bit of detail. Open a JPEG, edit it, save it, and the quality drops a little. Do that ten times and the damage is very visible. It's like photocopying a photocopy. Always work from the original file and save only once at the end.
What quality setting should I use? Is 70%, 80% or 90% the sweet spot?
For web use, 80-85% is the sweet spot for most photos. Barely any visible difference from 100% but significantly smaller files. For printing, use 90-95%. Below 70%, you'll start seeing blocky artifacts, especially around text and sharp edges. Our tool lets you preview the result before downloading so you can judge for yourself.
How do I compress a JPEG without getting those ugly blocky artifacts around text and edges?
Those blocks are more visible on images with sharp text, lines and solid colors. JPEG wasn't designed for those. Keep the quality slider above 80% for images with text. If the file is still too large, resize the dimensions down before compressing. A smaller image at higher quality looks better than a large image at low quality.
I have a 12MB photo from my phone. How do I get it under 1MB for my website?
First, resize the image. A phone photo is usually 4000x3000 or larger, but most websites show images at 1200-1600px wide. Resize to 1600px wide first (that alone might cut it to 2-3MB), then compress at 80% quality. You should easily get under 1MB with no visible quality loss at web viewing sizes.
Can I compress a JPEG without any quality loss at all?
Not in any meaningful way. JPEG is a lossy format by design. You can strip metadata (EXIF data, camera info) to save a few KB without touching the image itself, but real compression requires some quality tradeoff. If you need truly lossless compression, use PNG instead, but the files will be much larger.