To remove metadata from a photo, drop it on the box above. The tool lists what the file contains, removes it, checks the cleaned copy again and gives you a Download button. You can drop several photos at once and save them all as a ZIP. Everything runs in your browser, so the photos never leave your device.
What a photo can carry besides the picture
Image files have room for text and extra data next to the pixels. What ends up there depends on where the image came from:
- Phone and camera photos usually hold the GPS position where the photo was taken, the date and time, the phone or camera model, lens details and sometimes the camera's serial number.
- Images from AI generators can hold Content Credentials (C2PA), a signed record that names the tool that made the image, and an IPTC field that says the image came from generative AI.
- Images from Stable Diffusion tools such as Automatic1111 and ComfyUI often store the full prompt, the seed and the settings as text inside the PNG. ComfyUI can store the whole workflow.
- Editing apps add their name, an edit history and sometimes a small preview copy of the image.
The list under each file sorts what was found into groups such as Location, Camera and phone, Dates, Names and copyright, and AI labels, so you can see what you were about to share.
Leaks people don't expect
- Embedded thumbnails. Some cameras and editors keep a small preview inside the file. If the photo was cropped later, the preview can still show the uncropped picture.
- Motion photos. Some Android phones store a short video clip after the photo in the same JPG. The tool detects and removes it, which also makes the file smaller.
- Extra images. iPhone and Android photos can contain a second image for HDR brightness or depth. These are removed with the rest.
- The file name. Names like
PXL_20261109_083012.jpgshow the date and phone brand, and AI tools often name downloads after themselves. The tool flags these, and the Rename option saves files as photo-1, photo-2 and so on.
JPG, PNG, WebP and GIF keep their exact pixels
For JPG, PNG, WebP and GIF files the tool removes the metadata blocks and copies the image data across byte for byte. Nothing is compressed again, so there is no quality loss, and animated GIF and WebP files keep every frame. Tools that redraw the picture and save a new JPG lose a little detail each time.
Two small things are kept by default because they change how the picture looks:
- The rotation flag. Phones often save photos sideways and record which way is up. Without it, a portrait photo can appear on its side. Only this one value is kept.
- The colour profile. iPhone photos use a wider colour range than standard screens, and the profile tells apps how to show it. A profile usually holds only its name, such as Display P3, and a copyright line from its maker, but a custom one can carry other text. The list under each file shows its name. Untick the option to remove it as well.
A browser can't save HEIC or AVIF files, so those are opened and saved as a new JPG at high quality, or a PNG if they have transparency. Saving a new JPG compresses the picture once, so this is the one case where the pixels change slightly. That copy has no metadata at all.
AI labels on social media
Meta has said it looks for the C2PA and IPTC markers that AI image tools write into files when it decides whether to label a post as made with AI, and other sites read the same fields. This tool removes both, along with prompt text and any other block it doesn't recognise, and it shows you which ones a file had.
Removing them doesn't guarantee that no label appears. Some generators also add an invisible watermark to the pixels themselves, such as Google's SynthID, and no metadata tool can remove that. Platforms can run their own detection on top, and some ask you to disclose realistic AI images yourself, whatever the file contains. Real photos sometimes get an AI label because an editing app wrote one of these fields, and cleaning the file clears that cause.
When to remove metadata
- Before posting photos of your home, children or anywhere you don't want pinned on a map.
- Before selling something online, so the listing photo doesn't give away your address.
- Before sending files by email, in chat apps as documents or through cloud links, which usually pass the file along with everything in it.
- Before publishing images on your own website, where metadata only adds weight to the page.
Large social apps remove most metadata from the copy they show other people, but the file you upload still reaches them with everything in it. Cleaning it first means it never does.
Limits to know
- Each file can be up to 100 MB. Files that look damaged are refused rather than cleaned halfway.
- Raw camera files, TIFF and BMP aren't supported. Convert them with the Image Converter first, which drops their metadata as well.
- Metadata is only one way a photo can give away where it was taken. Street signs, landmarks and reflections in the picture stay as they are.
To make the cleaned photos smaller, use the Image Compressor, or Compress Image to KB for upload forms with a size limit. To see what a whole web page loads, try the Website Image Extractor. Our guide to whether online file tools are safe shows how to check that a tool like this one really keeps files on your device.
