Remove EXIF data
For when you know what EXIF is and want it gone without a re-encode.
What this looks for
Add a PNG, JPEG or WebP and every metadata block in it is 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. The colour profile is left alone on purpose, because deleting it changes how the image looks and it says nothing about you.
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 photo library · up to 60 MB per file
Where EXIF data sits in each format, and what removing it takes out
EXIF is stored differently in each of the three formats, which is why a tool built for one of them misses it in the others. In a JPEG it is an APP1 segment whose payload begins with the bytes Exif and two nulls. In a PNG it is an eXIf chunk, standardised late enough that plenty of older tools ignore it. In a WebP it is a RIFF chunk with the four-character id EXIF, and the VP8X header carries a flag saying it is there. The tool handles all three, and in the WebP case it also clears that flag, because leaving it set points a strict decoder at a chunk that no longer exists.
What it cannot do
- EXIF is not the only thing in the file. XMP, IPTC and C2PA are separate blocks, and this tool lists and removes those too rather than pretending EXIF is the whole story.
- The ICC colour profile is deliberately kept. It is technically metadata, but it holds nothing about you and deleting it changes how the image renders.
- Statistical watermarks embedded in the pixels are unaffected. EXIF removal is a byte-level edit to a header block and cannot reach the image content.
Questions people actually ask
- Which EXIF fields are removed?
- All of them. The block is deleted whole rather than field by field, so there is no partial state where the camera model went but the GPS tag stayed. The listing reports the block and its size before it goes.
- Why did you keep the ICC profile?
- Because removing it changes the image. An ICC profile describes how to interpret the colour values, and a photo stripped of it can shift visibly. It contains nothing identifying, so there is no privacy argument for taking it out and a clear visual argument against.
- Does PNG even have EXIF?
- Yes, in an eXIf chunk added to the specification in 2017. It is genuinely common now, since phone cameras and editors write it, but plenty of older tools do not look for it and will report a PNG as clean when it is not.
- What happens to the embedded thumbnail?
- It goes with the block. EXIF often carries a small preview of the image, and that preview is sometimes the pre-edit version, which means a cropped photo can ship a thumbnail showing what you cropped out. Removing the block removes both.
- Why does a WebP need more than the chunk deleted?
- Because a WebP announces what it contains before it contains it. An extended WebP opens with a VP8X header carrying flag bits that say an EXIF chunk and an XMP chunk are present, and the RIFF header at the very front declares the total length of everything after it. Delete the EXIF chunk and leave those alone, and the file now claims a length it does not have and points at a chunk that is gone. This clears the flags and rewrites the length, which is why the result opens cleanly in a strict decoder rather than only in a forgiving one.
- Is stripping EXIF the same as anonymising a photo?
- No, and the gap is worth being clear about. EXIF removal takes out what the camera wrote down. It does nothing about what is visible in the frame, and a street sign, a window view or a reflection identifies a place perfectly well without any help from the file. It also does nothing about a watermark encoded into the pixels. Treat it as one step that closes one specific channel rather than as a guarantee.
