Compress Image to 20, 50 or 100 KB for Form Uploads
Shrink a JPG, PNG or WebP to a KB limit, with quality and size controls and a before/after slider
Drop an image here
JPG, PNG or WebP, any size
Compression happens entirely in your browser, so the image is never uploaded anywhere. JPG is the smallest choice for photographs and the format every portal accepts; WebP is smaller still and keeps transparency but a few older systems reject it; PNG is lossless and best kept for graphics, signatures and screenshots.
About this tool
Most Indian recruitment portals cap uploads in kilobytes, and a phone camera produces files in megabytes. A 12-megapixel photo is 3 to 5 MB. A signature photographed on paper is often over 1 MB. The portal wants the photo under 50 KB and the signature under 20 KB, so the file has to shrink by a factor of fifty or more without the face or the pen strokes turning to mush.
This compressor does that in one pass. Choose JPG, WebP or PNG, set a quality level or let a size limit pick it for you, cap the longest side if you want, and drag the handle across the preview to compare the original with the result before downloading. Cards under the preview show both sizes, the quality used and the percentage saved.
It runs in your browser with the Canvas API, so the image is never uploaded. That is the right way to handle an ID photo or a signature.
How to compress an image to a KB limit
- Click or drop the image. JPG, PNG and WebP open, at any size.
- Pick the output format. JPG is preselected for photos; an image with transparent areas opens as WebP or PNG so the transparency survives.
- Choose a quality preset (High, Balanced, Small or Tiny) or move the slider between 5% and 95%.
- Set a longest side, from 2048 px down to 600 px, if the form caps dimensions or the file is a full-resolution camera shot.
- Click a size limit (20, 50, 100, 200 or 500 KB) or type a custom KB value, and the quality is chosen for you.
- Drag the handle on the preview to compare, then download. The file is saved as name-compressed.jpg, .webp or .png.
Formats, quality presets, resize and size limit
Balanced at 70% is where most photographs lose little that the eye notices while dropping to a fraction of their size. Once a size limit is active the preset buttons deselect and the slider greys out, because the tool is now choosing the quality; the value it settled on appears beside the slider and on the Compressed card. JPG has no transparency, so see-through areas are filled with white after a warning.
| Control | Choices | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Format | JPG, WebP, PNG | JPG is smallest for photos and accepted everywhere; WebP is smaller and keeps transparency; PNG is lossless with no quality setting |
| Quality | High 85%, Balanced 70%, Small 50%, Tiny 30%, or the slider from 5% to 95% | JPG or WebP quality; Balanced is preselected |
| Resize | Original, 2048, 1600, 1280, 1024, 800, 600 px | Caps the longest side; options larger than the image are greyed out |
| Size limit | None, 20, 50, 100, 200, 500 KB, or a custom value from 5 KB | Highest quality under the cap, shrinking only when quality alone cannot get there |
| Compare slider | Drag left or right | Original left of the handle, compressed right, file sizes in the corners |
How the size limit search works, with a worked example
The limit is read as KB times 1024 bytes, the way portals measure it. The tool first encodes the image at 5% quality, the lowest it will use, at the chosen longest side or at the original dimensions. If that fits, a binary search between quality 5 and 95 runs for seven rounds and keeps the highest quality whose file lands under the limit. If even 5% is too large, the longest side is cut to 75% of its value and the check repeats, up to ten times, stopping once the side would fall to around 200 px. PNG has no quality setting, so a PNG limit only ever shrinks the dimensions.
Hypothetical: a 4000 × 3000 px camera JPG of 4.2 MB, JPG output, Resize on Original, limit 50 KB. The sizes are illustrative. After the fourth shrink the file fits, so the search tries 50%, 73%, 62%, 56%, 59%, 58% and 57% in that order and keeps each result under 50 KB. The download is 1266 × 950 px at 57% quality. Setting Resize to 1280 px first would have skipped the shrinking rounds.
| Round | Longest side | Quality tried | Result | Under 50 KB |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Start | 4000 px | 5% | 180 KB | No |
| Shrink 1 | 3000 px | 5% | 110 KB | No |
| Shrink 2 | 2250 px | 5% | 70 KB | No |
| Shrink 3 | 1688 px | 5% | 52 KB | No |
| Shrink 4 | 1266 px | 5% | 38 KB | Yes |
| Quality search | 1266 px | 50, 73, 62, 56, 59, 58, 57% | 48 KB at 57% | Yes |
Photo, signature and document caps on Indian portals
Caps differ by exam, so read the notification before choosing a limit. Recent SSC notifications put the photograph between 20 and 50 KB and the signature between 10 and 20 KB, both JPEG. IBPS guidelines use similar windows. UPSC allows up to 300 KB for the photo under its online application instructions. Scanned certificates for state PSC and university portals are commonly capped per page between 100 KB and 500 KB.
Many windows have a floor as well as a ceiling, so under a 20 to 50 KB rule a 12 KB file can be rejected too. If the result lands far below the floor, pick a bigger limit or raise the quality. A signature photographed on a phone carries shadows and paper grain, which PNG keeps in full; convert it to JPG here and set the 20 KB limit.
Output quality and when the result is not smaller
Every export is a fresh encode of the decoded original, so moving the slider back and forth does not stack losses. If the result is not smaller than the original, the source was already well compressed; lowering the quality, picking a smaller longest side, or switching a photographic PNG to JPG is where the large savings sit. The WebP option only appears when the browser can encode WebP, which older Safari versions cannot.
If the panel says it could not get under the limit, the image was still too large at 5% quality and about 200 px on the long side. Crop to the part that matters first, or choose a larger limit.
Frequently asked questions
›How do I compress a photo to under 50 KB for SSC?
Open the photo, keep JPG, and click the 50 KB limit. The tool tries quality levels and keeps the highest that fits, shrinking the sides only if it has to. If the result drops below 20 KB, which recent SSC notifications set as the floor, raise the limit or set a longest side of 600 px and pick the quality yourself. Check the final size on the Compressed card.
›How do I make my signature 10 to 20 KB?
Choose JPG, then click the 20 KB limit. A signature on white paper usually lands well under 20 KB even at high quality. If the file comes out under 10 KB and the form has a floor, switch the limit to None and set the quality to High, which raises the size a little without changing the picture.
›Does compressing reduce the quality of my photo?
JPG and WebP compression discard fine detail, so some loss always happens. At 70% or above the difference is hard to spot on a form-sized photo. Below about 40% skin starts to look blotchy and edges blocky. Drag the compare handle across the face before downloading; if it looks fine there, it will look fine to the verifier.
›What does the quality percentage mean?
It is the value passed to the JPG or WebP encoder, from 5% to 95%. Higher keeps more detail and makes a larger file. It is not a percentage of the original size, so 50% does not mean half the bytes; a photo at 50% is often a tenth of its original size.
›Why is WebP missing from the format list?
The tool checks whether your browser can write WebP before showing the option. Older Safari versions and some embedded browsers cannot, so only JPG and PNG are listed there. Use a current Chrome, Firefox, Edge or Safari to get WebP, or pick JPG, which every portal accepts anyway.
›Can I compress a PNG without converting it to JPG?
Yes. Select PNG as the output. PNG is lossless, so there is no quality slider; the only way to shrink it is to reduce the pixel size, which the Resize buttons or a size limit will do. For a screenshot or a signature this is often enough. For a photograph PNG stays large, and JPG or WebP is the practical choice.
›Why does the tool say it could not get under the limit?
It shrank the image round by round down to roughly 200 px on the long side and the file was still too big at 5% quality. That happens with a very small limit on a very detailed image, or with PNG, which cannot lower quality. Crop away everything except the part you need and try again, or move from PNG to JPG.