How to reduce a JPG for email
A phone photo is often 3–5 MB, so a few of them fill Gmail's 25 MB limit. Shrink each JPG to a screen-friendly 1600 px and about 500 KB, still sharp on any phone or laptop, and send dozens in one email.
- Drop, paste or choose a photo. A sample image is loaded so you can see the result first.
- Pick a preset: 1600 px / 500 KB for viewing on screen, 1920 px for large monitors, 1800 px / 1.5 MB if the person may print it at 4×6.
- Check the before/after preview and the exact size.
- Download and attach it. With Gridloom Pro you can drop a whole set of photos and get them back in one ZIP.
Email attachment limits (at time of writing, October 2026)
| Service | Limit |
|---|---|
| Gmail (personal account) | 25 MB of attachments. Larger files are turned into a Google Drive link. Work and school accounts: set by the admin. |
| Outlook.com | 25 MB for the whole message, including text and inserted images. |
| Outlook desktop app, internet accounts | 20 MB per message |
| Outlook with Exchange (business email) | 10 MB per message by default; your IT team may set another limit. |
Sources: Gmail Help, “Send attachments with your Gmail message”; Microsoft Support, “Sending limits in Outlook.com” and “Reduce attachment size to send large files with Outlook”. Attachments are base64-encoded when they are sent, which makes them roughly a third bigger on the way, so leave some room under the limit.
How many photos fit in one email
| Each photo | Approx. size | Photos in about 18 MB |
|---|---|---|
| Original phone photo | 3–5 MB | 3–6 |
| Full resolution, under 1 MB | ≤ 1 MB | 18 |
| 1920 px, 800 KB preset | ≤ 800 KB | about 23 |
| 1600 px, 500 KB preset | ≤ 500 KB | about 36 |
In our test, a detailed 10.5 MP landscape (3.4 MB) became 1600×1143 px at JPEG quality 90 and 504,828 bytes with the 1600 px preset, and 1920×1372 px at quality 91 and 784,835 bytes with the 1920 px preset. At those qualities the difference from the original is hard to see on a phone or laptop screen.
How the compressor hits an exact size
The tool decodes your image in the browser, then re-encodes it with the browser's own JPEG, WebP or PNG encoder. For JPEG and WebP it runs a binary search on the quality setting — usually 6 to 10 test encodes — and keeps the highest quality whose file is at or under your target. If even a low quality (40%) is still too large, it reduces the pixel dimensions by the amount the byte count suggests, then searches quality again, so you get the largest picture that fits rather than a blocky one. PNG is lossless, so for PNG only the dimensions change. If your file is already under the target and you keep the same format, the original is returned untouched.
Everything happens on your device with the Canvas API; nothing is uploaded, and the re-encoded file does not carry the original EXIF metadata (camera, GPS).
Frequently asked questions
How do I reduce the size of a JPG to send by email?
Drop the photo here and keep the 1600 px / 500 KB preset. The tool resizes it to 1600 px on the long side, then searches JPEG quality so the file lands just under 500 KB. The new file has the same look on screen at a fraction of the size.
How many photos can I attach to one Gmail?
Personal Gmail allows 25 MB of attachments. Original phone photos at 3–5 MB each means only about 5. At 500 KB each, about 36 fit in 18 MB, which leaves room for encoding overhead.
Will the person I send it to see a blurry photo?
Not on a screen. 1600 px is wider than most phone screens and close to a laptop's, and at 500 KB the JPEG quality is usually around 90. Only choose a bigger preset if they plan to print or crop it.
Should I zip photos to make them smaller for email?
Zipping barely helps with JPGs, because they are already compressed; a ZIP of photos is almost the same size. Reducing the pixel size and JPEG quality is what actually shrinks them.
Does it remove location data from my photos?
Yes. The compressed file is a new encode without the original EXIF metadata, so GPS location and camera details are not sent along.
Are my images uploaded to a server?
No. Compression runs entirely in your browser using the Canvas API. The image never leaves your device, which also makes it safe for ID photos and signatures.
Is it free?
Yes. Compressing one image at a time is free with no signup and no watermark. Gridloom Pro adds batch compression of many images with a single ZIP download.