What is EXIF metadata and why remove it?

EXIF is hidden data your camera or phone writes into every photo. It can include exact GPS coordinates, the date and time to the second, camera make, model and serial number, lens details, and exposure settings. None of it is visible in the picture, and all of it travels with the file.

Can someone find my address from a photo I posted?

If the file still carries GPS tags, yes. Anyone who downloads the original can read the latitude and longitude and put it on a map, which is how a photo of an item for sale reveals a home address. This tool highlights GPS tags in red and strips them completely.

Does removing metadata reduce image quality?

No, it is lossless. The tool works at byte level, cutting out the metadata blocks and leaving the compressed image data untouched, so no re-encoding happens. This is the important difference from re-saving a photo in an editor, which recompresses it and loses a little quality every time.

Is my photo uploaded during removal?

No. The file is parsed as a binary array in your browser using JavaScript, and the cleaned copy is assembled locally. Uploading a private photo to a cloud metadata remover would defeat the entire point of stripping it, so nothing is transmitted here.

Which formats are supported?

JPG and PNG. Both store metadata differently, so each is handled with its own parser rather than a shared one. For iPhone HEIC photos, convert them first with our HEIC to JPG tool and then clean the result.

What exactly is removed, and what is kept?

From JPG: the EXIF and XMP block, the IPTC and Photoshop block, C2PA content credentials, and user comments. From PNG: the tEXt, zTXt, iTXt, eXIf, tIME and C2PA chunks. Kept in both cases: the colour profile, so colours still render correctly, and the image data itself.

Do social platforms strip EXIF for me?

Some do on upload, but the exceptions are the ones that matter. Sending a photo by email, sharing it through a cloud drive, attaching it as a document in a chat app, or posting it to a classified marketplace all commonly preserve the full metadata.

What is C2PA and why strip it?

C2PA content credentials are a provenance record some cameras and AI image tools embed, describing how a file was made and edited. It is useful for authenticity and unwanted when it discloses your tooling or workflow, so it is removed alongside the rest.

EXIF Data Viewer & Remover

See what hidden data your photos carry — GPS location, camera, dates — and strip it all in one click, on your device.

Files never leave your deviceInstant — no upload waitFree, no sign-up

Choose a photo to inspect & strip EXIF or drag & drop100% private — inspects & strips GPS coordinates & camera metadata inside browser

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An EXIF remover strips the hidden metadata a camera writes into a photo — GPS coordinates, timestamps, device and lens details. This tool shows you what a file is carrying, flags location data, and hands back a cleaned copy with the image itself untouched. Everything happens in your browser.

What your photos are carrying

Every photo from a phone or camera contains a block of data describing how and where it was taken. It is genuinely useful when you are organising a library by date or checking which lens you used, and genuinely risky the moment the file leaves your control. The most sensitive field is GPS: precise coordinates for wherever the shutter fired. Camera serial numbers link separate photos to the same device. Timestamps record exactly when you were somewhere. All of it survives being emailed, uploaded to a drive, or attached to a listing.

Selling something online. A photo of an item for sale, taken at home, can carry your home coordinates to anyone who downloads it.
Photos of children. Location tags on pictures taken at home or at a school are worth removing before sharing anywhere public.
Journalism and sensitive reporting. Serial numbers and timestamps can identify a photographer or a source.
Checking what you received. The inspection view works both ways — read the metadata on a photo someone sent you.

Byte-level removal, not a re-save

Most tools that "remove metadata" simply open the photo and save it again, which discards the metadata as a side effect and recompresses the image in the process. Do that a few times and the quality visibly degrades. This tool instead parses the file structure and excises only the metadata blocks, leaving the compressed image data byte-for-byte identical. The cleaned photo is visually the same file, just lighter.

JPG and PNG store metadata in completely different structures, so each is handled separately.
Format	Removed	Preserved
JPG	EXIF and XMP, IPTC and Photoshop data, C2PA credentials, user comments	JFIF header, ICC colour profile, image data
PNG	tEXt, zTXt and iTXt text chunks, eXIf chunk, tIME timestamp, C2PA chunk	Colour profile chunks, image data chunks

Colour profiles are deliberately kept. They are technically metadata, but stripping them makes colours render incorrectly on wide-gamut displays, which is a visible downgrade for no privacy gain.

Where platforms strip metadata, and where they do not

It is often said that social networks handle this for you. Several do strip EXIF when you post, but relying on that is risky because the common sharing routes do not. Email attachments keep it. Cloud drive links keep it. Chat apps keep it when the photo is sent as a document rather than an image. Classified marketplaces and forums frequently keep it. And a platform that strips metadata from the version it displays may still hold the original. Cleaning the file before it leaves your device is the only approach that does not depend on someone else's implementation.

How to use it

Drop in a JPG or PNG. Nothing is uploaded.
Read the inspection table — camera details, timestamps, and any GPS tags highlighted in red.
Download the cleaned copy. The image is unchanged; only the metadata is gone.
Check the result if it matters: reopen the clean file here and confirm the table is empty.

What stripping metadata does not do

Being clear about the limits. Removing EXIF does not anonymise a photograph — the content is still the content, and a recognisable street, window view, or reflection identifies a location perfectly well without any coordinates. It does not remove a visible watermark, and it does not affect invisible statistical watermarks that some AI image generators embed in the pixels themselves. It also cannot undo sharing: once a file with metadata has been sent, cleaning your local copy does not retrieve it.

Related tools

For iPhone photos, convert with HEIC to JPG first, then clean the JPG. To see metadata without changing anything, the metadata viewer is the read-only version. Documents carry the same problem, which thePDF metadata remover handles. And before publishing, theimage compressor reduces the file size for the web.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is EXIF metadata and why remove it?
EXIF is hidden data your camera or phone writes into every photo. It can include exact GPS coordinates, the date and time to the second, camera make, model and serial number, lens details, and exposure settings. None of it is visible in the picture, and all of it travels with the file.
Can someone find my address from a photo I posted?
If the file still carries GPS tags, yes. Anyone who downloads the original can read the latitude and longitude and put it on a map, which is how a photo of an item for sale reveals a home address. This tool highlights GPS tags in red and strips them completely.
Does removing metadata reduce image quality?
No, it is lossless. The tool works at byte level, cutting out the metadata blocks and leaving the compressed image data untouched, so no re-encoding happens. This is the important difference from re-saving a photo in an editor, which recompresses it and loses a little quality every time.
Is my photo uploaded during removal?
No. The file is parsed as a binary array in your browser using JavaScript, and the cleaned copy is assembled locally. Uploading a private photo to a cloud metadata remover would defeat the entire point of stripping it, so nothing is transmitted here.
Which formats are supported?
JPG and PNG. Both store metadata differently, so each is handled with its own parser rather than a shared one. For iPhone HEIC photos, convert them first with our HEIC to JPG tool and then clean the result.
What exactly is removed, and what is kept?
From JPG: the EXIF and XMP block, the IPTC and Photoshop block, C2PA content credentials, and user comments. From PNG: the tEXt, zTXt, iTXt, eXIf, tIME and C2PA chunks. Kept in both cases: the colour profile, so colours still render correctly, and the image data itself.
Do social platforms strip EXIF for me?
Some do on upload, but the exceptions are the ones that matter. Sending a photo by email, sharing it through a cloud drive, attaching it as a document in a chat app, or posting it to a classified marketplace all commonly preserve the full metadata.
What is C2PA and why strip it?
C2PA content credentials are a provenance record some cameras and AI image tools embed, describing how a file was made and edited. It is useful for authenticity and unwanted when it discloses your tooling or workflow, so it is removed alongside the rest.