Compress Image to 20 KB

Private: the search runs on your device, nothing is uploaded

Drop images here, or click to choose them As many as you like at once, each brought under the same limit. You can also paste a screenshot straight onto this page. Up to 25 MB each.

Must be under

Unit

Shrink pixels if needed

Type the size limit you have to meet, for example 100 KB, then drop an image in.

The limit is already set to 20 KB, so drop your photo in and it comes back underneath it. This is the tightest size any form still asks for, and it is the one where the tool has to work hardest: quality is taken as low as it goes first, and the pixel dimensions come down only if that was not enough.

About the 20 KB limit

20 KB is where a photograph starts to visibly suffer, and every tool that promises it either shrinks your picture without telling you or hands back something over the line. It is still a real requirement: older exam portals and government forms were written when a 20 KB photo and a 10 KB signature were reasonable, and the validation has never been relaxed.

What actually fits in 20 KB is a question of pixels more than quality. A head and shoulders photo at roughly 200 by 250 pixels fits easily and still looks like the person. The same face at 2000 pixels across does not fit at any quality setting, because there is simply more detail than 20,000 bytes can record. That is why this page reduces the dimensions when it has to, and why it tells you in the figures under the result exactly what scale it used.

Flat images are the exception and they are the other half of this SERP. A scanned signature is mostly white paper, and white paper costs a JPEG almost nothing, so a signature crop fits in 20 KB at a size that would be impossible for a photograph. If yours will not fit, the paper is probably picking up speckle or a grey shadow, and cropping tighter fixes it faster than any setting here.

If the form gives you a pixel size as well as a KB limit, do the pixels first with Resize Image, then bring the result here and untick Shrink pixels if needed so the dimensions you just set are kept.

How to compress an image to 20 KB

Drop your photo on the box, click to choose it, or paste it straight onto the page. The limit is already 20 KB.
Crop to the face first if you can: at this size, every pixel you are not using is quality you are throwing away.
Leave Shrink pixels if needed ticked unless the form also demands exact dimensions.
Read the status line. It says how far under 20 KB you landed, or that the limit could not be met and what the smallest was.
Press Download. The file is named with the size, so you can tell it from the original.

Common questions about compressing to 20 KB

Can every photo reach 20 KB?

No, and this page will tell you when yours cannot rather than handing back something over the limit. A photograph straight off a phone has too many pixels to fit in 20 KB at any quality setting, so the pixels have to go too. With Shrink pixels if needed left ticked almost anything gets there in the end. With it unticked, a large photo often will not, and you will be told the smallest it managed.

Does a 20 KB photo still look like me?

At passport thumbnail dimensions, yes. Around 200 by 250 pixels the face is clear and the compression shows mostly in the background and in hair detail. What does not work is keeping a full sized photo and forcing the quality down to reach 20 KB: that gives blocky skin and coloured smears. Cropping tightly to the head and shoulders first is the single thing that helps most, because you are then spending all 20 KB on the part that matters.

Does anything leave my device while it shrinks?

No. Every attempt is encoded by your own browser and discarded there, including the ones that came out too big. Nothing is sent, and there is no copy anywhere for anyone to keep. That matters at this size in particular, because a 20 KB limit usually belongs to an exam or government form, so the picture is a photo of your face filed next to your name and your roll number.

Why did the pixel size change?

Because quality had run out. The search drops the JPEG quality as far as it goes first, and only when the file is still over 20 KB at the bottom of that range does it reduce the dimensions, which is the only thing left that reliably makes a smaller file. The figures under the result tell you the scale that was used. If the form also demands exact dimensions, set those first with Resize Image and then come back here with the shrink option unticked.

My signature scan will not go under 20 KB. Why?

Usually because the paper is not really white. A scan of a signature looks flat to you but is full of faint speckle and shadow, and JPEG spends real bytes recording noise. Two things fix it: scan or photograph the signature in even light, and crop to the signature itself rather than the whole sheet. A clean signature crop fits in 20 KB at well over a thousand pixels wide, which is far more than any form needs.

Related tools

All Image tools

Compress Image to 50 KB Bring an exam or portal photo under the 50 KB it allows. Compress Image to Size Hit an exact file size limit, like under 100 KB for a form. Resize Image Resize by pixels or percent, with the aspect ratio locked. Crop Image Crop freehand or to a fixed ratio, right in the browser.