File size limit

Compress an image to under 500 KB and pick the format that gets there

Half a megabyte is where the choice of format starts to matter. Quality alone will usually carry a phone photo under 500 KB, but the same picture as WebP tends to reach the target at a visibly higher quality than JPEG does. This page opens on the whole image with a 500 KB target: press Fit to get the best JPEG that fits, then switch the format to WebP and press Fit again. The two measured sizes tell you which format to keep, with no guesswork about compression ratios.

How to get a photo under 500 KB

Steps

Fit once, then try the other format

Press Fit with JPEG selected and note the quality and the size. Switch to WebP and press Fit again. Both runs are real encodes of your image, so the comparison is about this photo rather than about formats in general.

  • WebP normally reaches the same size at a higher quality than JPEG.
  • Keep JPEG if the destination does not accept WebP uploads.
  • The quality slider stays where the search left it, so a manual nudge is easy.

Understand what the search does

Fit halves the quality range on every step: it encodes the middle value, throws away the half that cannot work, and repeats. A hundred possible qualities are settled in about seven encodes, and the one it reports is the highest measured quality that stayed under the target.

  • A big image makes each encode slower, so the search takes a moment.
  • The target is inclusive: a file of exactly 500 KB fits.
  • Nothing is uploaded during the search; every encode runs in this browser.

When the format is not enough

If neither format fits, the dimensions are the reason. A 12-megapixel photo carries more detail than 500 KB can hold at any quality worth using. Switch to the crop workflow, set smaller dimensions, and compress the smaller image instead.

  • Halving both dimensions cuts the pixel count to a quarter.
  • For a photo destined for a web page, its displayed size is usually enough.
  • Cropy tells you the smallest file it could produce, so you know how far off you are.

Short answers

How do I compress a photo to under 500 KB?

Load it here and press Fit. Cropy searches for the highest quality whose file stays under 500 KB and applies it. If nothing fits, it says so and names the smallest file it reached.

Should I use JPEG or WebP?

Try both on this page: Fit with JPEG, then Fit with WebP, and compare the qualities they settled on. WebP is usually smaller, but only a destination that accepts WebP can take it.

Is 500 KB counted as 500,000 bytes?

Yes. Cropy uses decimal kilobytes, the same reading as the size shown in the footer. A service counting 512,000 bytes to the kilobyte will accept that file as well.

Will the photo lose visible quality?

That depends on its dimensions and content. The search keeps the highest quality that fits rather than a fixed low value, which is exactly the point: you see the number it settled on and can judge the preview yourself.