Metadata remover
It tells you what is in the file first, then takes it out. Nothing is uploaded.
What this looks for
Add a PNG, JPEG or WebP and recognised removable blocks are listed here by name and byte count, before anything is removed. It looks for EXIF, XMP, IPTC and Photoshop resource blocks, free-text comments, modification timestamps, and C2PA Content Credentials. Colour profiles are preserved to retain colour interpretation. Removing EXIF orientation can change how a photo is displayed; check the downloaded image.
A watermark encoded into the pixels themselves, such as SynthID, is a different mechanism and is not something this or any metadata tool can remove.
Drag images in, paste, or click to choose
A whole folder works too · Ctrl/Cmd+V pastes · on phone this opens your file picker · up to 60 MB per file
PNG, JPEG and WebP only. A photo straight off an iPhone is usually HEIC, which this does not read yet — share it, AirDrop it, or export it as JPEG first and the file picker will take it from there.
How the metadata remover reads a file
Every image format keeps its metadata in labelled blocks, and all three formats here can be walked without decoding a single pixel. A PNG is a run of chunks, each one carrying its length and a four-letter type. A JPEG is a run of marker segments, each starting FF and carrying its own length. A WebP is a RIFF container with four-character chunk ids. The tool follows those length fields to the end, lists the removable metadata blocks it recognises, then writes a new file out of the remaining blocks. The encoded image stream is copied across untouched, avoiding re-encoding and quality loss.
Where this metadata remover falls short
- It cannot remove a watermark that lives in the pixels. Google's SynthID and similar schemes encode their signal into the image content itself, where it survives cropping, resizing and re-compression. Metadata removal does nothing to it, and any tool claiming otherwise is worth doubting.
- PNG, JPEG and WebP only. AVIF, HEIC, TIFF and PDF are not handled, and a file it does not recognise is handed back untouched rather than guessed at.
- Colour profiles are preserved for colour interpretation. Encoded image data is not re-encoded, but removing EXIF orientation can change displayed rotation. Check the downloaded image.
Questions about the metadata remover
Is this metadata remover free?
Yes. Each PNG, JPEG or WebP can be up to 60 MB. Files are processed locally in your browser.
What counts as metadata here?
The tool recognises supported EXIF, XMP, IPTC and Photoshop resource blocks, comments, timestamps and C2PA containers. The report lists block types and byte counts, not every field inside them. Colour profiles and unrecognised data may remain.
Does removing metadata change the image itself?
The encoded image data is copied without re-encoding. Colour profiles are preserved, but removing EXIF orientation can change how a photo is rotated on screen. Open the downloaded copy and check its appearance.
Why keep the colour profile?
Because deleting it visibly changes the image. An ICC profile tells the display how to interpret the colour values, and a photo that loses it can shift noticeably, especially one shot in a wide gamut. An ICC profile tells the display how to interpret the colour values. A photo that loses it can shift noticeably, especially one shot in a wide gamut. The tool leaves it alone for this reason.
Is the file uploaded?
No. The file is read into memory in your tab and the new one is built there. There is no upload endpoint on this site to receive it, which is the point for a tool whose whole job is handling files you would rather not hand to a stranger.
How do I check it worked?
Add the cleaned file again to check for supported removable metadata. An empty result does not mean every possible metadata field is absent: preserved colour profiles or unrecognised blocks may remain. Use an independent viewer if you need a second check.
Why does the file barely get smaller?
Because metadata is small compared with the picture. A typical EXIF block is one to twenty kilobytes against a photograph of several megabytes, so the saving rounds to nothing. The exceptions are a large embedded preview thumbnail, which can run to tens of kilobytes, and a C2PA manifest, which in some pipelines carries its own thumbnail as well. If you came here to make a file smaller rather than quieter, the image compressor is the tool that does that.
Which formats are handled, and what happens to the rest?
PNG, JPEG and WebP. Those three cover the overwhelming majority of images that travel around the internet, and each one is walked using its own container rules rather than a shared guess. Anything else, including AVIF, HEIC, TIFF, GIF and PDF, is reported as an unsupported format and handed back exactly as it arrived. Refusing to touch a file the tool cannot read is deliberate: a byte-level edit made on a wrong assumption produces a corrupt file that still looks fine in a listing.
