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Delete Image Metadata

Remove Image Metadata

See what an image file is carrying, remove it, and download a clean copy. Nothing is uploaded — the file is read and rewritten on your own device.

  • .jpg
  • .jpeg
  • .png
  • .webp
Free
No account, no limit on files
0
Files uploaded — processing is local
4 formats
Lossless — pixels never re-encoded
Processed in your browser
Ready

How it works

  1. 1

    Load the file

    Drag, browse, paste or pick from your camera roll.

  2. 2

    Inspect

    Read the full field list, grouped by what it reveals.

  3. 3

    Remove

    Strip the metadata and check the verification panel.

  4. 4

    Download

    Save the clean copy; the original is untouched.

Where image metadata comes from

Metadata is added at every stage of an image's life, and each stage leaves a different trace. The camera or phone writes the capture record. The editor adds its own name and an editing history. Export tools add colour profiles and sometimes a comment. Upload and download through a chat app and you may pick up nothing at all — or lose everything, depending on the app.

This matters because removing metadata once does not immunise a file. Re-edit a cleaned photo in Photoshop and it will pick up fresh XMP records describing that edit. The last step before sharing is the one that counts.

  • Phones write GPS coordinates whenever location access is enabled for the camera
  • Editors write software names, version numbers and edit histories
  • Stock and press workflows write creator, credit and copyright fields
  • AI image tools write prompts, seeds and model identifiers

Removing metadata without touching the picture

There are two ways to build a metadata remover. The lazy way is to draw the image onto a canvas and re-encode it, which discards metadata as a side effect — and also re-compresses every pixel, softening detail and changing the file even when nothing needed to change.

This tool takes the other approach. It parses the container, copies the structural parts across byte for byte, and simply omits the metadata. The compressed image data in the output is identical to the input's. That is why a cleaned file has the same dimensions and no added compression artefacts.

What is reported back to you

After removal, the cleaned file is analysed again. You see the number of fields before and after, the number of metadata bytes removed, and an explicit list of anything still present. If a format cannot be fully cleaned, the page says which parts remain rather than rounding up to zero.

What this tool does

  • Lossless removal — no re-encoding, no quality change
  • Works offline once the page has loaded
  • Reports exactly what was removed and what was kept

What it does not do

  • Only JPG, PNG and WebP can be written back out
  • Very large files are limited by your device's available memory

Remove Image Metadata

See what an image file is carrying, remove it, and download a clean copy. Nothing is uploaded — the file is read and rewritten on your own device.

Open the tool

Reviewed and updated . Behaviour described on this page is covered by the project’s automated tests.

Frequently asked questions

Is my image uploaded to a server?

No. The image is read with the browser's File API and processed in page memory. There is no upload request for the file, and you can confirm that in your browser's network tab.

Does removing metadata affect image quality?

No. The image data is copied across unchanged rather than re-encoded, so quality and dimensions are identical to the original.

Why is the ICC colour profile kept?

Because removing it can visibly shift colours in wide-gamut photos. It describes the colour space, not you. There is a toggle to remove it if you want the smallest possible file.

What if my file is a HEIC from an iPhone?

You can inspect it to see what was stored, including GPS. To clean it, export or convert the photo to JPEG first, then run the JPEG through this tool.

Does removing metadata affect image search or SEO?

Not meaningfully. Search engines read the filename, surrounding text and alt attribute, not EXIF. IPTC captions are used by some image licensing systems, so keep those if you publish stock.

Can I remove metadata from an image inside a document?

Not directly. Extract the image first, clean it, then reinsert it — or clean the document itself if it is a PDF.

What happens to the colour profile?

It is kept by default, because removing it can visibly shift colours. There is a toggle to remove it if you want the smallest possible file.

Does the tool change the image dimensions?

No. Dimensions are a property of the image data, which is copied across untouched.

Keep going

Related tools

Back to the main metadata remover