Crop an image
Edited in your browser · the file is never uploaded
Crops an image by dragging a box over it, or to a fixed ratio, entirely in your browser. Cropping never resamples; the pixels inside the box are the original pixels, so nothing softens. Save as PNG to keep them exactly, or as JPEG for a much smaller file.
How to crop an image
Cropping is the one image edit that costs no quality at all. Resizing resamples; every output pixel is interpolated from several input ones, which is why an enlarged image looks soft. Cropping just discards the pixels outside the box and keeps the rest exactly as they were, so a crop of a sharp photo is still sharp. That is worth knowing because it means you should crop first and resize second, never the other way round: resizing to a target and then cropping throws away resolution you had.
The ratio presets exist because most places you post an image want a specific one, and a picture cropped to the wrong ratio gets cropped again by the platform: usually badly, and usually through someone’s face. 1:1 for most profile pictures, 16:9 for video thumbnails and slides, 9:16 for stories and short video, 4:3 for the classic camera frame.
A cropped file is not automatically a smaller file, which catches people out. PNG stores every kept pixel exactly, and a photograph stored that way is routinely two or three times the size of the JPEG it came from — you threw pixels away and the file grew. That is why the format is yours to pick here: JPEG costs one more compression pass, which you will not see on a photograph at high quality, and is the right answer for anything going back on the web. PNG is the right answer for a screenshot, a logo or anything with flat colour and hard edges. If the result still needs to be smaller than the format alone makes it, that is a separate job — compress it afterwards rather than cropping tighter to save bytes.
One thing to think about before cropping a photo you did not take: the crop removes pixels, not metadata. Location, camera and timestamp live in the EXIF block and survive most edits. This tool draws to a canvas, which drops EXIF as a side effect, so the saved file has no location in it. That is a genuine privacy improvement and worth knowing about, but do not rely on any tool to strip metadata unless it says so.
Questions
The crop itself does not. It discards the pixels outside the box and leaves the rest untouched, where resizing resamples every one of them. Saving as PNG keeps them exactly; saving as JPEG re-compresses once, which on a photograph you will not see.
Crop first. Resizing then cropping throws away resolution you already had.
1:1 for profile pictures, 16:9 for thumbnails and slides, 9:16 for stories, 4:3 for the classic camera frame.
Because it was saved as PNG, which stores every pixel exactly and suits photographs badly. Switch the format to JPEG, and if it still needs to be smaller, run the result through the image compressor.
As a side effect, yes. Drawing to a canvas drops EXIF, so the saved file has no GPS in it.
No. It is read into your browser, drawn to a canvas and read back. There is no server involved, which you can confirm by loading the page and then going offline.