Compress an image to 20 KB
Hit a strict 20 KB limit for forms, ID photos or slow-loading pages.
- Private by defaultDeleted within an hour
- Super FastProcess in seconds
- No Sign-upStart instantly
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.
20 KB is a tight target, usually required by a government form, an old system, or a strict file-size rule somewhere. To get there, this tool first lowers quality, and if that alone isn't enough, it also shrinks the image's dimensions, since a picture with fewer pixels needs fewer bytes to describe.
Expect visible softness at this size unless the source photo is already small or simple. A tightly cropped headshot usually reaches 20 KB with less visible quality loss than a busy, detailed photo. If the result looks too soft, try starting from a smaller or more tightly cropped original.
Each attempt takes only a moment and needs no sign-up, so you can try a few crops or settings to see what actually reaches the limit; every result is deleted automatically within one hour. One more tip: converting a colour photo to a smaller, simpler crop before compressing often reaches 20 KB with noticeably less softness than compressing the full, uncropped frame.
How many pixels fit in 20 KB
As a rule of thumb, a JPEG that still looks clean needs about one bit for every pixel. 20 KB is 160,000 bits, so the budget is roughly 160,000 pixels: a picture of about 400 by 400, or a portrait of 350 by 450. A twelve-megapixel phone photo has seventy-five times that many pixels, which is why it cannot reach 20 KB on quality alone and has to be made smaller as well.
The exact figure depends on the content. A face against a plain wall needs far fewer bytes than a group photo taken under trees, because flat areas cost almost nothing.
Photos and signatures on application forms
Limits this small mostly come from online application forms for exams, public-sector jobs and admissions, where a photo is often capped at 20 to 50 KB and a scanned signature at 10 to 20 KB. Such forms usually ask for specific pixel dimensions as well. Read the instructions first and set the width and height in Resize before compressing, so the tool spends the 20 KB on exactly the size the form wants.
For a signature, scan or photograph it on clean white paper and crop close to the ink. A small black-on-white image fits in a few kilobytes with room to spare.
If the first result looks too soft
Softness at 20 KB nearly always means too many pixels are sharing too few bytes. Reduce the dimensions yourself to what the form or page needs, and the same 20 KB then goes into fewer pixels at a higher quality. Black and white is another lever: with the colour removed there is less to store, and for a signature or a document nothing is lost. Both controls sit in the same editor as the target size, so you can change one and see the new result straight away.
Frequently asked questions
Can every photo reach 20 KB?
Most can, but very large or detailed originals may need noticeable resizing to get there. The tool shows the smallest size it could reach if 20 KB truly isn't possible.
Will my photo look blurry at 20 KB?
Some softness is normal at this size. Cropping tightly to just the subject before compressing helps a lot.
What format should I use for a 20 KB target?
JPEG almost always compresses smaller than PNG for photos, so it's the better choice here.
Is 20 KB the same as 20 KiB?
This tool uses 1 KB = 1000 bytes, so the result is under the limit either way it's measured.
Can I go lower than 20 KB?
Yes. Choose Custom in the Target size menu and type any figure, 10 KB or 15 KB for instance. The same search runs for whatever number you enter.
Does the result stay under 20 KB after I download it?
Yes. The size shown is the size of the file on disk. Some systems display kibibytes, where the same file reads as about 19.5 KB, which is still under the limit.