Compress Image to 1 MB

One megabyte is a common ceiling for email attachments in some systems, forum and community uploads, classified-ad and marketplace listings, and many application portals. A modern phone photo is often 3–8 MB, so it has to shrink, but 1 MB leaves plenty of room for a sharp picture. This tool lowers the JPEG quality first and only reduces the width and height when quality alone cannot reach the limit. It runs in your browser, so photos never leave your device.

How to use this tool

1. Add one or more photos or scans (JPG, PNG, WebP, HEIC that your browser opens, and others).
2. Keep the limit at 1 MB, or type the exact limit from the website; you can switch the unit to KB.
3. Optionally set a max width or height, or an exact pixel size.
4. Download the results and check the byte count shown for each file.

Formula

Find the highest quality q between 50% and 92% with size(q) ≤ 1,000,000 bytes (binary search, about 7 encodes). Only if 50% is still too big are both sides scaled by about 0.95 × √(limit ÷ size), and the search repeats.

"Safe for both" counts 1 MB as 1,000,000 bytes for the maximum, which also satisfies sites that mean 1,048,576 bytes. An image that is already a JPG under the limit is returned untouched. The note under each file shows the final pixel size and quality.

Example

Suppose a 4000 × 3000 px photo is still 1,500,000 bytes at 50% quality. Both sides are multiplied by 0.95 × √(1,000,000 ÷ 1,500,000) ≈ 0.776, giving 3103 × 2327 px, and the quality search runs again. A photo that fits at 70% quality keeps its full 4000 × 3000 px.

Keeping the full resolution

Quality is lowered before any pixels are removed, so many photos keep their original size. Photos with lots of fine detail — foliage, gravel, crowds — need more bytes and are more likely to be scaled. If the pixel count matters more than quality, choose "Keep the pixel size, lower the quality".