Compress an Image for Email
Most email providers cap attachments somewhere between 10 MB and 25 MB, and a handful of modern phone photos clears that easily. This tool shrinks an image two ways at once: anything wider than 1600 pixels is scaled down to 1600, and the result is re-encoded as JPEG at a quality level you choose between 40 and 85. A typical 4-5 MB phone photo usually lands between 200 and 600 KB with no difference you would notice in an email. Pick a lower quality for the smallest file, higher if the image contains fine print you still need to read.
Compression Level
LightDrag & drop your file here
or click to browse
JPEG, PNG, WEBP · Max 30MB
How it works
Upload your image.
Use the quality slider to control how aggressively to compress.
Download the smaller file — ready to attach to an email.
Why use this tool
Most email services have a 10–25 MB attachment limit.
Large images slow down email load times.
No visible difference for typical document photos at balanced quality.
If the result is not what you expected
The compressed file is barely smaller, or even larger
This happens when the original was already well compressed — a photo that has been through WhatsApp, for example, has been squeezed once already. The tool detects this: if the first pass does not actually reduce the size, it automatically retries at 1200 pixels wide and quality 50. If the result is still not smaller, the image is close to its practical floor and further compression would mostly destroy detail.
Text in my document photo became blurry or unreadable
Compression artifacts hit fine detail hardest, and text is the most fragile thing in a photo. Move the quality slider toward the "Best quality" end and re-run it. If the document still is not legible, compression is the wrong tool — try Clean Up Scanned Document, which converts to high-contrast black and white and often produces a smaller and more readable file for text documents.
My PNG turned into a JPEG and lost its transparency
That is by design — JPEG has no transparency channel and is far more efficient for photographs, so transparent areas get filled. If you need to keep transparency, this is the wrong tool; a PNG with transparency should stay a PNG.
I need to send several photos and each one is still too big
Combining them into a single PDF is usually more effective than compressing each one, and most portals prefer it anyway. Images to PDF merges them into one file.
Frequently asked questions
- Results vary by image. A 5 MB phone photo typically compresses to under 500 KB at balanced quality while remaining clearly viewable.
- Very wide images (over 1600 px) are resized as part of compression. Otherwise pixel dimensions are preserved.
- JPEG is almost always better for photos sent via email. PNG is larger and better suited for graphics with transparency or sharp lines.