Compress an Image Below 500 KB
Phone cameras often produce 3–8 MB photos. A 500 KB limit is generous enough to keep them sharp while meeting upload, email and marketplace limits. The tool checks the exact byte count for each file.
What fits under this limit?
Typical photo dimensions that met each limit in our tests. The highlighted row is this page's preset.
| Size limit | JPG q75 · typical | JPG q75 · safe start | JPG q85 · typical | WebP q75 · typical |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 KB | 450 × 300 | 410 × 270 | 380 × 250 | 540 × 360 |
| 50 KB | 710 × 470 | 650 × 430 | 610 × 400 | 860 × 570 |
| 100 KB | 1010 × 670 | 920 × 610 | 860 × 570 | 1220 × 810 |
| 200 KB | 1430 × 950 | 1310 × 870 | 1220 × 810 | 1730 × 1150 |
| 500 KB | 2260 × 1500 | 2070 × 1380 | 1930 × 1290 | 2730 × 1820 |
| 1 MB | 3200 × 2130 | 2930 × 1950 | 2730 × 1820 | 3870 × 2580 |
Measured by Metro Research on 11 November 2026 using four public-domain test photographs, a 3:2 frame and standard JPEG/WebP encoders. Browsers encode slightly differently, and large camera photos usually compress better per pixel than these small test images, so treat the “safe” column as a conservative starting point. See the full method and data ↗
Keep quality where it shows.
With 500 KB you can usually keep a high quality setting and avoid visible artifacts.
Good uses for a 500 KB target
- Marketplace and property listing photos
- Website hero and blog images
- Scanned documents that must stay readable
- Email attachments that need to look good when printed
What fits in 500 KB?+
Quite a lot. A typical photo fitted at about 2260 × 1500 pixels as a quality-75 JPG in our tests, which is plenty for websites, listings and most document uploads.
Why compress to 500 KB instead of the smallest possible size?+
Larger limits let you keep sharp detail for listings, portfolios and printed forms. Smaller is not better if the destination allows more; a 500 KB photo usually looks indistinguishable from the original on screen.
Can I compress several photos at once?+
Yes. Add up to 20 images, process them together and download a ZIP with a text manifest listing each file's final byte size and dimensions.
Does a 500 KB image load fast enough for a website?+
For a single hero image it is acceptable, but for galleries consider 200 KB or WebP to keep pages quick on mobile data.