⚡ 10-second version
Drop a folder's worth of images into tooladda.online/image-compressor.html, pick a mode, and pull down a ZIP. Every file is processed on your own machine — including the 40-photo batch that would take twenty minutes to upload.
❗ Important
Photos carry EXIF metadata: GPS coordinates, device model, timestamp. Uploading holiday or family photos to a compression site hands all of that to a stranger. Here nothing is transmitted, so there's nothing to hand over.
🎚️ Where the quality/size curve actually bends
JPEG quality is not linear, and this is the single most useful thing to know about compressing images. Going from quality 100 → 85 typically removes more than half the bytes while the difference is invisible at normal viewing size. Going 85 → 70 saves much less and starts showing visible artefacts around sharp edges and text.
| Quality | Typical size vs q100 | What you see |
|---|---|---|
| 100 | 100% | Nothing gained over 90 — you're storing noise |
| 90 | ~50–60% | Indistinguishable for photos |
| 85 | ~40–50% | 🎯 The sweet spot for web use |
| 75 | ~30% | Slight softening; fine for thumbnails |
| 60 | ~20% | Visible blocking near edges and text |
| 40 | ~12% | Obviously degraded |
The trap: generation loss
JPEG is lossy and cumulative. Every save re-quantises the image, and the damage never comes back:
original.jpg → compress → compress again → compress again
crisp fine softening mush
Always compress from the original, never from an already-compressed copy. This is also why editing and re-saving the same JPEG repeatedly slowly destroys it.
Pick the right format
| Use | Format | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Photographs | JPEG or WebP | Lossy compression is designed for continuous tone |
| Screenshots, logos, text, sharp lines | PNG or WebP lossless | JPEG smears text edges badly |
| Transparency needed | PNG or WebP | JPEG has no alpha channel at all |
| Smallest modern web delivery | AVIF / WebP | Meaningfully smaller than JPEG at equal quality |
⚠️ Warning
Never save a screenshot containing text as a JPEG. The artefacts cluster exactly on high-contrast edges — which is what text is entirely made of. PNG or WebP, every time.
🧭 How it works
✨ What's inside
| ### 📦 Real batch processing Dozens of files in one pass, out as a single ZIP. No uploading each one and waiting for a server queue. | ### 👀 Before/after comparison Judge with your eyes at full size before committing. Compression numbers mean nothing if the result looks wrong. |
| ### 🎚️ Three honest modes High Quality, Balanced and Maximum Compression — plus resize, because halving the dimensions saves far more than any quality slider. | ### 🔄 Six formats in, sensible format out JPG, PNG, WebP, GIF, BMP and AVIF read natively; convert to a better-suited format as part of the same step. |
🛠️ Real jobs
| Situation | What you do |
|---|---|
| 🌐 Site loading slowly | Compress every image on the page; usually the single biggest speed win available. |
| 📧 Email attachment limit | 30 photos under 25 MB total, in one batch. |
| 📤 Upload form capping each file | Compress to fit without opening Photoshop. |
| 🛒 Product listing images | Consistent, fast-loading photos across a whole catalogue. |
| 💬 Sharing without quality loss | Compress once, properly — instead of letting a messaging app mangle it. |
| 💾 Reclaiming disk space | Batch a photo archive down at a quality you actually chose. |
📖 Five steps
1. Open → tooladda.online/image-compressor.html
2. Drop → all your images at once (use the ORIGINALS)
3. Mode → Balanced for web, High Quality for print
4. Resize → also cut dimensions if they're bigger than needed
5. Compare → check before/after, then download the ZIP
▶ Start compressing — tooladda.online/image-compressor.html
💡 Tip
Before touching quality, ask how big the image needs to be. A 4000 px photo displayed in a 800 px column is wasting 96% of its pixels — resizing beats compressing, and you can do both here in one pass.
❓ FAQ
Is it free? Any file limit?
Free, no watermark, no signup. The batch limit is your device's memory, not a plan tier.
Are my photos uploaded?
No. They're read and re-encoded in your browser. EXIF, GPS and all, they never leave your device.
What quality should I use for a website?
Balanced (around JPEG q85) is the right default for photographs. Resize to the display size first for the bigger win.
Why did compressing again make it look terrible?
Generation loss — JPEG damage accumulates with every save. Always start from the original file.
PNG or JPEG?
Photographs → JPEG/WebP. Screenshots, logos, text or anything needing transparency → PNG/WebP. Putting a text screenshot in JPEG is the classic mistake.
Should I use AVIF or WebP?
Both beat JPEG substantially at the same visual quality. WebP has the broadest support; AVIF usually goes smaller. For a website, serve a modern format with a JPEG fallback.
Does it strip EXIF?
Re-encoding typically drops most metadata, which is usually what you want before publishing a photo. Nothing was ever sent anywhere regardless.
🔬 Under the hood
- Canvas + codec re-encoding in the browser, vanilla JavaScript, no upload endpoint.
- Batch work is queued so the UI stays responsive on large sets.
- ZIP assembled client-side.
- Offline-capable once loaded.
Originally published on ToolAdda, where Image Compressor runs free in your browser — nothing is uploaded, nothing leaves your device.
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