Remove EXIF and other metadata from images
A photo straight from a phone usually records where and when it was taken, on which device, and with what settings. This tool reads that metadata, tells you precisely what it found, and then rebuilds the image from pixels alone so none of it reaches the file you download.
How to use the Remove EXIF Data
- Add the photos you are about to send, upload or publish.
- Read the table: it lists the metadata blocks found in each original, including whether GPS coordinates were present.
- Leave the format on Same as input unless you also want to convert.
- Download the cleaned files and use those instead of the originals.
What is actually in your photos
EXIF is a block of structured data that cameras and phones write into the file alongside the image. A typical smartphone JPG contains far more than people expect.
| Field | What it reveals |
|---|---|
| GPS latitude, longitude, altitude | The exact spot the photo was taken, often to a few metres |
| DateTimeOriginal | The date and time, to the second |
| Make and Model | Your phone or camera, sometimes with a serial number |
| Lens, ISO, aperture, shutter | The technical settings |
| Software | Which app last edited the image |
| Embedded thumbnail | A small copy of the image, which is not always updated when the main image is edited |
That last row has caught people out repeatedly: cropping a photo in some editors leaves the original, uncropped thumbnail inside the file. PNG files can carry similar information in text chunks and an eXIf chunk, and WebP has EXIF and XMP chunks of its own.
Who strips it and who does not
Large social networks generally remove EXIF when they re-encode your upload, so a photo posted to a big platform is usually clean. Plenty of other places are not: files attached to an email, uploaded to a forum, sent through a messaging app in document mode rather than photo mode, hosted on a small website, or shared in a cloud folder often arrive exactly as they left your phone. Assume metadata survives unless you know otherwise.
How this tool removes it
The image is decoded to raw pixels and re-encoded. Nothing but pixel values crosses that boundary, so no metadata block can survive — there is no list of tags to keep up with. The trade-off is that a JPG is compressed again, which is why the quality default is 92; at that level the change is not visible. If you want a guaranteed pixel-perfect result, choose PNG output, at the cost of a much larger file.
What else changes
Two side effects are worth knowing. The embedded ICC colour profile is dropped and the output is plain sRGB, so an image shot in Display P3 or Adobe RGB may look very slightly less saturated on a wide-gamut screen. And EXIF orientation is applied during decoding and then baked into the pixels, which means the photo stays the right way up even in software that ignores orientation flags — normally an improvement.
Frequently asked questions
How do I know the GPS data was really there?
The results table lists what was found in each original before it was removed, and flags GPS coordinates explicitly when the EXIF block contains them.
Does this change how the photo looks?
Only through re-compression. At the default quality of 92 the difference is not visible. Choose PNG output if you want the pixels untouched.
Do social networks not remove metadata already?
The large ones usually do when they re-encode uploads. Email attachments, forums, cloud folders and small websites often do not.
Can it remove metadata from HEIC or RAW files?
Not directly. Convert to JPG first, which by itself already drops the metadata, since the conversion is also a full re-encode.
Is any of this sent to a server?
No. The scan and the re-encode both run in your browser, which is the only sensible way to handle photos you are trying to keep private.
Privacy
This tool runs entirely inside your browser using WebAssembly and the Canvas/File APIs. Your files are never uploaded to ToolFlint or any third party; you can verify this in your browser's network tab or by switching to airplane mode after the page loads. Read how we process files.
Last updated 2026-09-23.