Compress Image to 20KB

Getting a photo under 20KB

Add one or more photos and each is processed straight away. The tool saves a JPG at the highest quality that fits in 20,000 bytes. If quality alone isn't enough, it reduces width and height in proportion, aiming for a clean result at medium quality rather than a larger, blocky one. The row shows the new size in KB and bytes, the dimensions and the quality used. Photos already under 20 KB in the same format are left as they are.

If the image must also fit a pixel size, fill in Max width and Max height: it will fit inside them and still be under 20 KB.

Dimensions that work at 20KB

At medium JPG quality (about 1–2 bits per pixel), a 4:3 photo at 20 KB typically ends up around 330–460 px on the longer side. A head-and-shoulders portrait against a plain wall sits at the top of that range; a group photo or a busy street at the bottom. That is enough for an ID thumbnail or a form photo, which is usually shown small.

If the form specifies exact pixels, such as 200 × 230 px, use the photo resizer in KB, which sets the dimensions and the file size together.

Photo vs signature uploads

Photos and signatures need different treatment. For a photo, keep the color and crop so the face fills most of the frame. For a signature, crop tightly and tick Black and white (grayscale) under More options: in grayscale the same 20 KB gives a larger, crisper signature. For forms that cap signatures at 10 KB, see compress image to 10KB.

If you need between 20KB and 50KB

When a form allows 20 to 50 KB, more bytes mean a sharper photo, so aim for the top of the range with compress image to 50KB. If the form also sets a minimum, such as "at least 20 KB", a file compressed to 19 KB would be rejected: use the photo resizer in KB and fill in Min file size.