Low Quality ImagesMake an Image Lower Quality
Pull the quality down until the file is small enough for whatever is refusing to accept it. The size readout updates while you drag, so you can stop at the first setting that fits.
What changes when you lower image quality
Lowering quality is a trade, and it is worth knowing what gets traded first. A JPEG encoder spends most of its bits on fine, high-frequency detail — individual hairs, the grain in fabric, the crisp boundary of small text. Those go first. Broad shapes, overall brightness and the general colour of a region survive far longer, which is why a heavily reduced photo of a landscape still reads perfectly while a heavily reduced screenshot of a spreadsheet becomes unusable.
That asymmetry is the practical rule. Photographs of people, food, scenery and products tolerate aggressive reduction and often lose 90% of their size before anyone would comment. Anything with small text, thin lines, flat colour panels or a logo degrades visibly much earlier, because the encoder has to choose between smearing the edge and spending bits it does not have. If your image is in the second group, expect to stop the slider higher up.
There is also a second lever running alongside quality on this page. As you drag below the halfway mark the tool starts reducing the working resolution too, then scales the result back to its original dimensions. That keeps the picture the same size on screen — important when something expects a particular width — while removing far more data than compression alone could. It is the difference between a file that is 40% smaller and one that is 95% smaller.
How to lower an image's quality
Load the picture
Drag it in or click to browse. Files up to 25 MB are fine, and anything bigger than 1600 pixels on its long side is worked on at 1600 for speed.
Drag until the size fits
Watch the KB figure beside the preview rather than the slider number. Aim slightly under your limit — a 5 MB cap is safer met at 4 MB than at 4.98 MB.
Check the preview, then save
Look at the smallest text or thinnest line in the picture. If that is still readable, you have not gone too far. Download and you get a standard JPG.
Why lower quality here rather than in an app
You aim instead of guessing
Desktop editors show you a quality number from 0 to 100 that means nothing until you export. Here the actual byte count moves as you drag, so hitting a 200 KB target takes one attempt rather than four export-check-adjust rounds.
The dimensions stay put
Some reducers quietly shrink your image to hit their target, which breaks layouts and looks obviously wrong next to other images. This one keeps the pixel dimensions you started with unless you are genuinely at the far end of the slider.
Nothing to install or sign into
No desktop app, no browser extension, no email address, no daily limit on how many pictures you can put through. Open the page, do the job, close the tab.
Safe for pictures you would not upload
Because the file is processed locally, you can reduce a screenshot containing a private message, an internal document or an ID photo without it ever crossing a network you do not control.
Questions about lowering image quality
How can I reduce the quality of an image?
Load it above and drag the slider left until the readout shows a size you are happy with. For an ordinary photograph a setting around 55 to 65 typically cuts the file by three quarters with damage most people would never notice. Below about 35 the compression blocks become obvious in skies and skin. For screenshots and anything with small text, stay above 70 unless illegibility is the goal.
How do I decrease the MB size of a photo?
Open More options, type your limit into Target file size and press Fit to size. The tool searches for the highest quality setting that still lands under the number you gave and moves the slider there for you — no export-check-adjust loop. If your limit is in MB, multiply by 1024: a 2 MB cap is 2048 KB. When even the lowest setting cannot reach your number, it says so instead of pretending.
How do I make a JPEG lower quality?
Exactly the same way, with one thing worth knowing: a JPEG that is re-encoded has been compressed twice, and the second pass builds new artefacts on top of the first. That is why the result looks rougher than a single save at the same setting would. It is also why re-running your own downloaded file through the tool keeps degrading it further, round after round.
How do I make an image low quality on iPhone?
This page works in Safari on iOS — tap the box, pick from your camera roll, drag the slider, then use the share sheet to save the result. If you would rather not use a website at all, iOS can do a crude version by itself: open the photo in Markup, crop and re-save, or send it to yourself in Mail and choose a smaller image size on the send screen. Neither gives you control over the exact result.
Will this change my image's dimensions?
Not at ordinary settings — the width and height you started with are the width and height you download. Only in the bottom portion of the slider does the tool internally work at a smaller size and scale back up, and even then the final pixel dimensions are unchanged. What changes is how much real detail is inside those pixels.
What happens to a PNG with a transparent background?
Choose PNG under More options and the transparency survives — the alpha channel is carried through and only the colour detail gets degraded. Leave it on JPG and it will not: JPEG has no alpha channel, so anything transparent comes out solid black. WebP keeps transparency too and produces much smaller files, but a few older tools still refuse to open it.
Related tools
Get it under the limit
Drag until the number fits, check the preview, download. That is the whole job.
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