Remove EXIF Metadata From Images
Re-encode a photo without carrying its EXIF metadata into the new file. That removes GPS coordinates, camera model, lens information, orientation tags and capture time before you attach the image to a listing, message, report or public post. The image is processed on our server and deleted within 30 minutes; the original on your device is never modified.
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Add to Chrome — freeWhat it does
- Removes common EXIF fields by re-encoding pixels
- Keeps the original file unchanged
- Supports JPG, PNG, and WebP input
- Re-encoded, not edited, so no tag survives
- Shows the cleaned file size before download
How to use EXIF Remover
- 1
Choose the image
Drop a JPG, PNG or WebP image into the tool. It is uploaded, decoded to pixels, and deleted as soon as the clean copy is written.
- 2
Let the canvas re-encode it
The tool draws the image into a fresh canvas and exports a new image. That export contains pixels, not the original metadata blocks.
- 3
Check the result
Confirm that the metadata status says Removed and compare the output size. Re-encoding may change compression and file bytes.
- 4
Download the clean copy
Save the generated file and keep the original separately if you may later need the camera metadata or highest-quality source.
How it works
An image file is more than the visible pixels. JPEGs commonly contain application segments with camera make, lens, orientation, software, capture time, and sometimes GPS coordinates. PNGs and WebP files can also carry metadata chunks. Removing one known tag at a time is easy to get wrong because formats and applications use different fields.
This tool takes the conservative route: the image is decoded to raw pixels and a new file is encoded from those pixels alone. Nothing is edited or deleted tag-by-tag, so there is no list of fields to keep up to date and no format-specific block that gets missed. The export simply has no connection to the original metadata. JPG and WebP are re-encoded lossily; PNG stays lossless. The source file on your device is never modified.
It runs on our server, not in your browser. That is worth stating plainly on a privacy tool. The re-encode uses sharp, which handles EXIF, XMP and IPTC in every format this accepts, where a browser canvas silently varies between browsers in what it preserves. The cost is that the photograph reaches our machine: it is deleted the moment the operation finishes, the result within thirty minutes, and nothing is stored or looked at in between.
If that trade is wrong for your photograph, do it locally. exiftool -all= photo.jpg
removes every tag without re-encoding the pixels at all, which is strictly better
than what this page can offer, and it is free. This tool exists for the case where
installing something is not worth it.
Privacy limits
Metadata cleaning is one part of a sharing checklist, not a guarantee that an image is anonymous. A face, address, license plate, landmark, filename, upload timestamp, or visible map can reveal information even when EXIF is gone. Some platforms also create their own records after upload. Inspect the actual picture and the destination's privacy policy.
The tool supports common browser-decodable JPG, PNG, and WebP files. HEIC, RAW camera formats, animated images, and unusual profiles may need a format-specific desktop application. If the result matters as evidence or an original, retain the untouched source and use the cleaned copy only for the intended share.
The re-encode costs you something
Redrawing through a canvas is what makes the metadata removal complete, and it is also the trade. You are not editing the original file; you are decoding it and writing a new one, and for JPG and WebP that new one comes out of a lossy encoder.
For a photograph shared once, that second generation is invisible. Where it shows is on images that have already been compressed hard — a screenshot that has been through a chat app twice, a meme saved from a feed — because compression artifacts are themselves detail the encoder now has to spend bits describing. Each pass makes the next one worse.
File size can move in either direction and neither is a bug. A camera JPEG carrying a thumbnail preview and a full metadata block often gets smaller. A heavily optimized image from a build pipeline usually gets larger, because the browser's encoder is tuned for speed rather than for the smallest possible file.
If you need both the cleaning and the original quality, strip metadata with a tool that rewrites the container without touching the compressed data — exiftool and jpegtran both do this losslessly. Use this page when the convenience is worth one generation, which for most sharing it is.
Orientation is the one tag you may miss
Most EXIF fields are descriptive. One is not: the orientation tag tells a viewer to rotate the image before displaying it, and plenty of phone cameras write the pixels sideways and set that tag rather than rotating anything.
The canvas path handles this correctly — the browser applies the orientation when it decodes, so the exported file has the pixels the right way up and no longer needs the tag. That is the outcome you want, and it is worth knowing it happened, because it means the cleaned file is genuinely different from the original in a way beyond metadata.
The reason to care is the reverse case. If you strip EXIF with a tool that removes the tag without rotating the pixels, images that looked fine everywhere suddenly appear on their side. If you ever see that, the cleaner did not do what this one does. Check a portrait-orientation phone photo before trusting any metadata tool with a batch.
Examples
Phone photo before a public listing
The location is not inferred or replaced; the new file simply does not carry the EXIF block that could reveal where the photograph was taken.
Screenshot exported as PNG
Screenshots often have little EXIF to begin with, but cleaning them gives a repeatable handoff rule when files come from mixed sources.
Frequently asked questions
Does removing EXIF remove the image location?
It removes the GPS fields stored in the image metadata, so compatible photo viewers will no longer find the embedded latitude and longitude. It cannot remove a street sign, landmark, or other location clue visible in the pixels. Review the picture itself before sharing if privacy is important.
Will the image quality stay exactly the same?
The pixel dimensions stay the same, but the file is re-encoded and therefore the bytes are not identical. PNG remains lossless; JPG is exported at a high quality setting and may lose a small amount of information. Keep the original if you need a camera-grade archival source.
Which metadata does this remove?
Re-encoding from decoded pixels removes every metadata block the original carried, including EXIF GPS, camera, lens, orientation and timestamp fields, plus XMP and IPTC. It cannot remove information that is visibly printed into the image itself — a timestamp burned into the corner by a dashcam is part of the picture, not a tag.
Is my photo uploaded?
Yes, and this page used to say otherwise, which was wrong. The image is sent to our server, re-encoded there with sharp, and returned. The upload is deleted as soon as that finishes and the result is deleted on a thirty-minute timer swept every five minutes, so nothing survives past about thirty-five. There is no account, no history and no copy kept. If the photograph is sensitive enough that this matters, a tool that never receives it is safer than any promise about how long we keep it — see below.
Further reading
- Stripping Camera, Lens and GPS Data Saved Eighteen Bytes"Strip the metadata to make the file smaller" is advice that has been repeated for twenty years, and on the fields people actually worry about it is worth almost nothing. That does not make stripping pointless — it makes the reason for doing it a different one.
- Why HEIC Photos Fail to Open, and What to Convert Them ToHEIC is not a damaged version of JPEG. It is a newer image container with a more efficient codec, and the reason it fails is usually the software around the photo rather than the photo itself. The right conversion depends on what needs to open it next.
- What Your Photos Are CarryingA photograph is not only a picture. Attached to it is a small database your camera wrote — the model, the settings, the moment, and very often the coordinates. Most of it is harmless and some of it is useful. The problem is that it travels silently.