Censor faces in a photo
Hide who is in the picture, and anything else that should not be shared.
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How it works
Add your images
Drag and drop, paste, or pick files. They upload over an encrypted connection.
Pick a quality or a target size
Use the quality slider, or tell it exactly how many KB or MB you need.
Download
Save each file, or grab them all at once as a ZIP.
Before a photo goes into a listing, a report, a forum post or a group chat, there is often something in it that should not go with it: a stranger's face, a child, a car's number plate, an address on an envelope. This page opens the face tool set to pixelate. Faces are found and covered automatically, and anything else can be covered by dragging a rectangle over it.
Every covered area is listed as a box on the preview. Click one to uncover it if it was a false alarm, such as a face on a poster you do not mind showing. Use "Add an area" or drag on the picture for details the detector does not look for. Pixelation and blur are both available, with one slider for strength.
Automatic detection is a helper, not a guarantee. It looks only for faces, and it misses some: small, turned away, or partly covered. It does not look for plates, documents, screens, tattoos or house numbers at all. Those are yours to find. Read the picture the way a curious stranger would before you let it go.
What else gives a person away
A face is the obvious identifier, and seldom the only one. Go through the picture for name badges and lanyards, jerseys with names, distinctive tattoos, a monitor or phone screen with a visible name, letters and parcels with addresses, school logos on clothing, and vehicle plates. Reflections count too: a window or a pair of sunglasses can show the photographer.
Each of these can be hidden with a hand-drawn area. Make the area a little larger than the detail, since a covered patch that fits too tightly can leave the edges of the text readable.
Hidden data in the file
Censoring what is visible is half the job. Photos from phones usually carry invisible data: the time, the device and, when location services are on, the GPS position where the picture was taken. The file you download here has that data removed, because the picture is written afresh. Whatever you type around it is not: the file name, the caption and the place you post it remain yours to check.
Blur or blocks for censoring
For censoring, coarse pixelation is the safer default. It is obvious, it holds up when a platform recompresses the picture, and it cannot be mistaken for an out-of-focus area that might seem accidental. Choose blur when the picture should stay pleasant to look at, and set it strong. Whichever you pick, a setting that merely softens a face has not censored it.
Never rely on a thin black scribble or a semi-transparent sticker added in another app. Such overlays sometimes sit on top of pixels that are still present underneath. Here the hidden pixels themselves are replaced.
A short checklist before sharing
Open the downloaded file, not the preview, and view it at full size. Count the people in the picture and make sure each is either covered or meant to be seen. Look at the edges and the background. Check mirrors and screens. Then confirm you are attaching the censored file and not the original, which is the most common mistake of all.
Frequently asked questions
Can I censor things other than faces?
Yes. Drag a rectangle over anything: a plate, a document, a screen, a logo. Up to 100 areas fit on one picture.
Does the tool find number plates by itself?
No. Only faces are detected automatically. Other details are covered by hand.
Is the original face still somewhere in the file?
No. The covered pixels are replaced in the image itself, and the file is written without the original's metadata.
Can I use it for photos of children?
Yes, and it is a common use. Check carefully: children look down or turn away often, and such faces are the ones a detector misses.
Do you look at or keep the pictures?
No. They are processed automatically on our own servers and deleted after the result is returned. No other company receives them.
Can I censor a whole folder of pictures?
Yes. Add them together, review each one, and download everything as a ZIP.
Related tools
- Blur a face in a photoFaces are found for you. Choose which ones to hide, and download the picture.
- Pixelate a face in a photoThe mosaic look from news footage, applied to every face found in your picture.
- Remove metadata from an imageStrip the location, camera details and other hidden data before you share a photo.