How to use it
- Add a JPEG, PNG or WebP. The panel shows what the file contains: camera, lens, date taken, GPS position, software, owner and serial numbers where present.
- Click Strip metadata. The result lists what was removed and re-checks the new file.
- Download the cleaned copy. Add several files to clean a batch.
What photos give away
Phones record a GPS position in every photo unless location is switched off for the camera. A photo of your new puppy can therefore carry the coordinates of your front yard to within a few metres; a photo from a holiday rental, the address; a photo taken at school pick-up, the school. The date and time are there too, often with a time zone, and the phone or camera model and sometimes its serial number. Editing apps add their names, and some cameras store the owner's name.
Many large social networks strip location when they display a photo, but the original file you email, send by messaging app as a document, upload to a forum, list on a marketplace or share from cloud storage usually keeps everything. Removing it before sharing is a simple habit.
Lossless: how it works
Most tools "remove EXIF" by decoding the photo and saving a new one, which re-compresses it and loses a little quality each time. This tool edits the file's structure instead:
- JPEG: it walks the file's segments and drops APP1 (EXIF and XMP), APP13 (IPTC and Photoshop data), comments and other application blocks. It keeps the JFIF header, the ICC colour profile and the Adobe segment that CMYK images need. Everything from the start of the image data onwards is copied byte for byte.
- PNG: it removes eXIf, tEXt, zTXt, iTXt and tIME chunks and keeps the image chunks.
- WebP: it removes EXIF and XMP chunks and updates the header flags.
The automated tests check this: a JPEG with a GPS position goes in, the stripped file has no position, and its compressed image data is identical to the original's.
Other formats
HEIC, AVIF and TIFF store metadata differently and cannot be edited losslessly here. Convert them with HEIC to JPG or the compressor: re-encoding writes a fresh file with no EXIF at all, at a small quality cost.
Turning location off at the source
- iPhone: Settings → Privacy & Security → Location Services → Camera → Never. Or, when sharing, tap Options and turn off Location.
- Android: open the Camera app's settings and turn off location tags (the wording varies by maker).
Photos you have already taken keep their location until you strip it.
What is kept
Colour profiles stay, so the photo looks exactly the same; image dimensions, pixel data and transparency are untouched. The orientation tag, which is part of EXIF, is removed: a photo that relied on it may display sideways in some viewers. If that happens, run it through resize with no size change, which bakes the rotation into the pixels.
Who should strip metadata
- Online sellers photographing items at home, before listing on marketplaces or classifieds.
- Parents sharing photos of children outside closed family groups.
- Anyone selling or renting a home privately, whose photos would otherwise carry the address.
- Journalists, researchers and advocates protecting sources and locations.
- Businesses publishing staff photos taken on personal phones.
Checking a photo before you share it
Add the photo here even if you are not sure it has metadata: the panel lists everything found. If it says "No camera, date or location data found", there is nothing to remove and the photo is safe to share as it is. If it shows a GPS position, you will see the latitude and longitude, which you can paste into any map to see exactly where the photo was taken. That is what anyone who receives the original file can do too.
What metadata does not cover
Removing metadata does not change what is visible in the photo. A street sign, a house number, a school uniform, a car's number plate or a distinctive view out of the window can reveal a location just as clearly. Check the picture itself before posting it publicly, and crop or blur anything identifying.
Batches
Add up to ten photos at a time free (500 with the batch licence). Each is stripped separately, re-checked, and listed with what was removed; download them all as a ZIP with their original names.
Private by design
The image never leaves your device. It is decoded in your browser, processed in a background worker by open-source codecs compiled to WebAssembly (MozJPEG, libwebp, libavif and OxiPNG, via the jsquash project, plus pica for resizing) and handed back as a download. There is no upload, no account and no server copy to delete. You can confirm it in your browser's developer tools: the Network tab shows the page's own files and the codec files loading, and nothing carrying your image. After the first visit the tools work offline.