Compress image to 500 KB

Squeeze a JPG, PNG, WebP or HEIC under 500 KB in your browser.

Make images or PDFs smaller.

or drop them here HEIC, JPG, PNG, WebP, AVIF, GIF, BMP, SVG and ICO, and PDFs or paste with Ctrl+V
    PDF
    JPG · PNG · WebP · Text · Word
    Word
    PDF · Text
    Convert to

    Your files are processed by your own browser and never sent to a server.

    Where 500 KB comes from

    Nothing forces 500 KB. It is the number people choose when they are the one deciding - a sensible ceiling for a hero image on a page whose speed you care about, and roughly where a photograph stops being a meaningful part of how long a page takes to arrive.

    What 500 KB costs you

    Almost nothing you can see. A photograph at sixteen hundred to two thousand pixels lands here with its quality still in the range the format was designed around, and the difference from the original is the kind you find by flicking between two tabs rather than by looking at one. This is the budget to pick when the file needs to be smaller and the picture is the point.

    What each format does at 500 KB

    Five hundred kilobytes is generous enough that every format below clears it for an ordinary photograph, so the interesting question is what each one leaves on the table. Auto picks for you; the list is for when you already know the answer:

    More on what compression actually throws away.

    Questions about 500 KB

    What is 500 KB actually for?

    Email attachments, content management systems with a default limit, and print-adjacent uses where you want the picture to hold up under scrutiny. It is generous enough that a photograph at 2000 pixels wide fits without visible compromise, which makes it the budget to pick when you want the file smaller but have no specific reason to go further.

    Will I see any difference at 500 KB?

    On a screen, almost certainly not, for anything up to about 2000 pixels wide. This is comfortably inside the range where the encoder is discarding only detail your eye does not attend to. If you are looking for a threshold where compression starts to show on an ordinary photograph, it is well below this: 500 KB is a limit somebody handed you rather than a quality decision you are making.

    Is there any harm in compressing something that already fits?

    Almost none, and what there is can be avoided. A file already under 500 KB is handed straight back rather than re-encoded, so nothing is lost. A file only just over it still pays a full generation of quality for a saving you may not have needed. The rule of thumb: compress to the limit you were actually given, not to a number that sounds tidy.

    The tool searches for a quality rather than asking you to guess one, and at this budget the search usually stops early, near the top of the range. Nothing is redrawn smaller unless the picture is genuinely enormous.

    Other sizes