Does removing metadata reduce the quality of my photo?

No. The compressed image data is passed through byte for byte — we verified it on a 3.5 MB phone photo, where all 3,440,095 bytes of image data came out identical and the pixel difference measured zero. This is worth asking of any such tool: the common shortcut is to redraw the photo, which strips the metadata and adds a round of compression loss you did not ask for.

What exactly is removed?

EXIF (GPS coordinates, camera make and model, lens, date and time, exposure settings), XMP editing history, IPTC and Photoshop blocks, MakerNotes, embedded comments, PNG text chunks and timestamps, vendor data blocks, anything appended after the end of the image, and the identifying parts of the colour profile. The colour profile itself is kept and rebuilt, because deleting it would change how your photo looks.

Which AI model does this use?

None, and that is the stronger claim. Reading and rewriting file structure is exact work, not a guess — there is nothing here for a model to improve on. Nothing is downloaded and nothing is inferred.

Which files does it handle?

JPEG and PNG. HEIC — what an iPhone shoots by default — is not supported yet. Neither is video: stripping metadata from an MP4 means rewriting the container, which is a different job and is not done here rather than done badly.

Is my photo uploaded anywhere?

No. It is processed by your own browser and never leaves your device. That is the whole point of this particular tool: every alternative asks you to upload the file whose location you want removed to a server in order to remove it.

It says nothing was found — is it broken?

Probably not. Screenshots, images already processed by a social network, and photos from a phone with location services off often carry nothing identifying. The tool tells you that plainly instead of inventing a list, and you can still download the copy.

Does this make my photo anonymous?

No, and it is worth being precise about that. Metadata is removed completely. What cannot be removed without recompressing the picture is the encoder fingerprint — the compression tables your phone chose, which are documented per camera model. And what cannot be removed at all is sensor noise: a faint pattern unique to your individual camera, present in the pixels themselves. Any tool claiming to make a photo anonymous is overselling.

What does the rebuilt-copy download do?

Two different jobs. The ordinary download is byte surgery: the file’s structure is walked, every metadata block in it is deleted, and the compressed image data is copied across untouched. That removes the metadata completely and changes nothing else — which is the point, and also the limit, because your phone’s own compression settings are not metadata. The quantization tables and chroma subsampling it chose are a signature that has been catalogued per camera model, and they can only be changed by re-compressing. So the rebuilt copy takes the opposite trade. Your browser decodes the photo to plain pixels and writes a new JPEG from them, and the picture is the only thing that crosses over: nothing survives a round trip through a bitmap, the compression tables become your browser’s, and a colour profile we could not safely rebuild is gone rather than kept. You pay for it once and permanently: the picture is recompressed at high quality, colours are converted to sRGB so a wide-gamut photo shifts, and a PNG comes back as a JPEG with any transparency filled in. It still does not make the photo anonymous — sensor noise identifies an individual camera, lives in the pixel values themselves, and is exactly what a rebuild from pixels preserves. Take it when being matched to a camera model is what worries you; take the first download otherwise.

View and remove metadata from your photos

Every photo your phone takes carries a hidden record: the exact coordinates where you stood, which phone took it, the lens, and the second the shutter opened. Post it and that record travels with it. This tool shows you what is in there, then hands back the same photo with the record removed — and without re-compressing a single pixel.

Your photo
Drop a photo here
JPEGPNG
Your files are never uploaded.
JPEG and PNG. The photo is read on your device — nothing is uploaded, and the cleaned copy is built here too.
What was in it

How to remove photo metadata

Add a photo

Drag in a JPEG or PNG, or click to choose one. It is read on your device and never uploaded, which matters more here than anywhere else on this site: the file you want to make private is the file you would otherwise be handing to a stranger's server.
See what was in it, then download the clean copy

The coordinates, device and timestamp are shown first, so you can see what you have been posting. The cleaned photo is ready underneath — same image, no record.

What you get

The photo comes back untouched

The compressed image data is copied across byte for byte. Nothing is decoded and nothing is re-encoded, so there is no quality loss — not a little, none. Tools that redraw your photo to a canvas do strip the metadata, and quietly recompress every pixel while they are at it.

It finds what other tools miss

A PNG can carry the same EXIF three different ways, and removing the obvious one leaves your phone model sitting in the file as plain text. Phones also append data after the end of the image — one test photo hid its model, its sensor part number and 53 KB of Qualcomm debug data there. Even the colour profile named the manufacturer. All of it goes.

Your photo stays the right way up

Which way is up is itself stored in EXIF, so stripping it carelessly turns portrait photos on their side. That one orientation flag is rewritten on its own — nothing identifying, still upright.

No model, no download, no waiting

There is no AI here and nothing to fetch. This is byte-level surgery on the file itself, so it finishes the moment you drop the photo in, and works the same offline.

Your colours are not the price

The colour profile is rebuilt rather than deleted: every colorimetric byte is copied across and only the maker's name, timestamp and copyright are dropped. Verified against profiles from ICC v2 to v4.4 — a colour-managed comparison of before and after differs by zero pixels.

Frequently asked questions

Does removing metadata reduce the quality of my photo?: No. The compressed image data is passed through byte for byte — we verified it on a 3.5 MB phone photo, where all 3,440,095 bytes of image data came out identical and the pixel difference measured zero. This is worth asking of any such tool: the common shortcut is to redraw the photo, which strips the metadata and adds a round of compression loss you did not ask for.
What exactly is removed?: EXIF (GPS coordinates, camera make and model, lens, date and time, exposure settings), XMP editing history, IPTC and Photoshop blocks, MakerNotes, embedded comments, PNG text chunks and timestamps, vendor data blocks, anything appended after the end of the image, and the identifying parts of the colour profile. The colour profile itself is kept and rebuilt, because deleting it would change how your photo looks.
Which AI model does this use?: None, and that is the stronger claim. Reading and rewriting file structure is exact work, not a guess — there is nothing here for a model to improve on. Nothing is downloaded and nothing is inferred.
Which files does it handle?: JPEG and PNG. HEIC — what an iPhone shoots by default — is not supported yet. Neither is video: stripping metadata from an MP4 means rewriting the container, which is a different job and is not done here rather than done badly.
Is my photo uploaded anywhere?: No. It is processed by your own browser and never leaves your device. That is the whole point of this particular tool: every alternative asks you to upload the file whose location you want removed to a server in order to remove it.
It says nothing was found — is it broken?: Probably not. Screenshots, images already processed by a social network, and photos from a phone with location services off often carry nothing identifying. The tool tells you that plainly instead of inventing a list, and you can still download the copy.
Does this make my photo anonymous?: No, and it is worth being precise about that. Metadata is removed completely. What cannot be removed without recompressing the picture is the encoder fingerprint — the compression tables your phone chose, which are documented per camera model. And what cannot be removed at all is sensor noise: a faint pattern unique to your individual camera, present in the pixels themselves. Any tool claiming to make a photo anonymous is overselling.
What does the rebuilt-copy download do?: Two different jobs. The ordinary download is byte surgery: the file’s structure is walked, every metadata block in it is deleted, and the compressed image data is copied across untouched. That removes the metadata completely and changes nothing else — which is the point, and also the limit, because your phone’s own compression settings are not metadata. The quantization tables and chroma subsampling it chose are a signature that has been catalogued per camera model, and they can only be changed by re-compressing. So the rebuilt copy takes the opposite trade. Your browser decodes the photo to plain pixels and writes a new JPEG from them, and the picture is the only thing that crosses over: nothing survives a round trip through a bitmap, the compression tables become your browser’s, and a colour profile we could not safely rebuild is gone rather than kept. You pay for it once and permanently: the picture is recompressed at high quality, colours are converted to sRGB so a wide-gamut photo shifts, and a PNG comes back as a JPEG with any transparency filled in. It still does not make the photo anonymous — sensor noise identifies an individual camera, lives in the pixel values themselves, and is exactly what a rebuild from pixels preserves. Take it when being matched to a camera model is what worries you; take the first download otherwise.

Just want to look first? Check what a photo reveals without changing anything, or read what your photos reveal about you — including the one layer no tool can remove. Removing a face rather than a coordinate? The background blur tool softens what is behind your subject. To take something out of a PDF instead, the redaction tool removes the text rather than covering it.

Your photo

What was in it