Compress image to 500 KB

How this hits 500 KB exactly

A quality slider cannot tell you which setting clears a limit, so this does not use one. It encodes your image, measures the result, and narrows in on the highest quality that still fits under 500 KB, ten times over. You get the best-looking file that satisfies the limit rather than a guess that overshoots or wastes room you were allowed to use.

If even the lowest quality is still too big, the picture has too many pixels for the budget rather than too much detail. It is then scaled down in steps and the search runs again. If it truly cannot fit, you are told so instead of being handed a ruined file.

Why 500 KB?

A good ceiling for a photograph on a web page you care about the speed of. Large enough that almost nothing is lost, small enough to load quickly on a phone.

Which format should the output be?

Leave it on Auto and it encodes several ways and keeps whichever hit the target with the least damage. If the form you are feeding demands a JPG, pick JPG. WebP will usually reach the same size at a visibly better quality, so choose it whenever the thing receiving the file will accept it.

Will it look bad?

That depends entirely on how far the target is from where the file started. Going from 4 MB to 500 KB is a real reduction and you may see it in fine detail and flat areas of sky. Going from 600 KB to 500 KB is usually invisible. Every tile shows the size before and after, so you can judge the result rather than trust a promise about it.

Is anything uploaded?

No. The search for the right quality runs entirely in your browser, which is also why it is instant: there is no file being sent anywhere and nothing coming back. Open your network tab and watch, or switch your connection off after the page loads and use it anyway.