Runs on your device
Compress an image to 200 KB.
The ceiling you meet most often, and the one this tool starts on. Enough room for a photo to stay sharp and a scan to stay readable.
Quality is searched automatically. If quality alone can't get under the limit, dimensions step down too.
1 image · drop more here
or drop them here · JPG, PNG and WebP
- Original
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- Compressed
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- Saved
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Compression settings
What must it fit under?
Limits & output
Leave empty to keep the original dimensions. Aspect ratio is always preserved.
JPEG has no transparency — transparent areas are filled with white.
Choosing a format
- JPEG
- The safest choice for photographs, and the one most forms and older software expect. No transparency — transparent areas become white.
- WebP
- The sensible default for the web. Roughly 25–35% smaller than JPEG at matching perceived quality, and it keeps transparency.
- PNG
- Lossless. Keep it for flat graphics, screenshots with text, and anything that must stay pixel-exact. Avoid it for photographs, where it is often larger than the original camera file.
AVIF is smaller still, but it is slow to encode and not yet universal, so it is not offered here. The guide below goes into more detail.
Results
Compressing to 200 KB
The limit you meet most often
Of all the caps imposed by upload forms, 200 KB is the one that turns up most. Government services, university applications, visa portals, recruitment sites and older content management systems have converged on it almost by convention, and it is why this tool opens on that number rather than any other.
It is also a genuinely workable figure. A 12-megapixel photograph typically comes back at around 1,600 pixels on its long edge — roughly a third more linear resolution than the same photograph forced under 100 KB, and comfortably enough to fill a laptop screen without looking soft.
Because the search runs per file, a mixed batch behaves sensibly: a flat screenshot and a dense photograph need very different settings to land on the same number, and each gets its own. Drop a folder's worth in, name the limit once, and take the results individually or as a ZIP.
Scans and documents at 200 KB
Most 200 KB limits exist because somebody at the other end is collecting identity documents, diplomas or signed forms. That is the case this size handles well. A scanned A4 page comes back legible at full-page zoom, which is precisely what the person reviewing it needs — and legibility, not sharpness, is the thing being tested.
Two habits make a real difference. Photograph or scan in even light, with no shadow falling across the page; and keep the page square in the frame. The tool preserves aspect ratio rather than cropping for you, so a skewed photograph spends part of its budget encoding the desk around the document.
One thing worth knowing if the form offers a choice: a PDF that simply wraps a photograph is not smaller than the photograph. If you need to submit a PDF under 200 KB, compress the image first and wrap it afterwards, not the other way round.
Other limits, same tool: 100 KB, 500 KB, 1 MB. Or read the full guide to formats, quality and file size.
Frequently asked questions
Why does this tool default to 200 KB?
Because it is the limit people arrive with most often. It is generous enough that a photograph keeps a useful resolution and a scan stays readable, while still being small enough to satisfy nearly every form that imposes a cap at all. When no number has been forced on you, it is a sound default.
Will my scanned diploma or ID still be readable?
In nearly every case, yes. A single scanned page at 200 KB stays legible zoomed to full page, which is the standard the reviewer is applying. Text on a pale background compresses efficiently, so documents do considerably better at this size than photographs of comparable dimensions.
The form wants 200 KB and a maximum width. Can I do both?
Yes, and it is worth doing in one pass. Set the width under Max width and leave the target at 200 KB: the image is resized first, then the quality search runs against the already-smaller picture. Doing it the other way round — compressing, then resizing elsewhere — throws away detail twice.
Can I do a whole set of application photos at once?
Drop them all in together. Each file is searched independently against the same limit, so a portrait, a scanned form and a screenshot each get the settings they need rather than one compromise applied to everything. Results download one at a time or all together.
Is 200 KB enough if the photo will be printed?
For a small print, often yes; for anything larger than a postcard, no. Print wants pixels rather than a small file, and at 200 KB a photograph has usually given up some. If the destination is a printer rather than an upload form, start from the original and only compress the copy you are sending.