Compress image to 500 KB

Half a megabyte is where web images stop being a performance problem and start looking like photographs again. This page is preset to 500 KB: hero images, blog features and attachment-ready photos, compressed precisely instead of "somewhat".

Drop images here, or browse your files

JPG, PNG or WebP · add as many as you like · everything runs locally in your browser, nothing is uploaded

Target size

20 KB 50 KB 100 KB 200 KB 500 KB 1 MB

Custom KB

Output format Keep original format JPG — best for photos WebP — smallest for the web PNG — lossless, shrinks by resizing

Compress

Add an image to begin.

Why 500 KB is the web's favourite ceiling

• Blog and article images. A featured image at or under 500 KB keeps page weight sane on mobile connections.
• Hero and banner photos. Large on screen, so they need the bytes — but 500 KB is usually plenty at display sizes.
• Email attachments. A few 500 KB photos travel fine; a few 8 MB originals bounce off attachment limits and clog inboxes.
• Slides and documents. Embedding 500 KB versions keeps a deck's total size emailable.

WebP shines at this size

At form sizes the format barely matters — everything is tiny. At 500 KB it does. Try the same photo twice: once as JPG, once as WebP. WebP typically reaches the target at a visibly higher quality setting, or keeps quality and comes in lighter, because its encoder handles smooth gradients and fine detail more efficiently. Every modern browser displays WebP, so unless a specific platform demands JPG, WebP is the better export for anything bound for a web page. More in the WebP guide.

Going the other direction

Nothing here ever enlarges a file. If your original is already under 500 KB, the tool keeps it exactly as it is and says so — padding a small image up to a round number would only waste bandwidth.