Exam & application forms
Compress Photo to 20 KB
Preset and ready: drop a file and the output lands under 20 KB as JPEG — processed entirely in your browser.
Drop your image here or browse
JPEG, PNG, WebP — everything stays on your device
Why this exact limit matters
Twenty kilobytes is the number Indian exam forms keep coming back to. UPSC sets it as the minimum a photo must exceed; IBPS and SSC anchor their upload bands at 20–50 KB. Either way the portal checks bytes, not beauty — a photo that misses the band bounces at submit, often with no explanation of which limit it broke. This page is preset to land just under 20 KB so you clear the ceiling on the first attempt.
These portals enforce their limit at the byte level, so the only reliable approach is to work backwards from the number itself and let the encoder find the best quality that fits underneath it. 20 KB is one of the tightest limits you will meet online, and this page is preset to exactly that ceiling.
How to compress to 20 KB
- Drop your image into the box above — it stays on your device.
- Confirm the target: under 20 KB as JPEG.
- The MozJPEG encoder searches its quality range so the JPEG output lands just under your limit. Dimensions are left at their original size unless the target demands otherwise.
- Preview the result, compare it with the original if you want, and download — the filename carries its actual size.
Tip: Before you upload, check whether your form also specifies pixel dimensions — if it does, fill in the max width and height here so both constraints are satisfied in one pass.
Measured: what a 20 KB target really buys
We ran our own compressor on a 914 KB, 1500×1800 portrait-format JPEG — the kind of crop a phone editor produces — twice: once against a bare 20 KB target, once with the IBPS pixel spec filled in. Same file, same tool, two very different outcomes.
Source file
914 KB
1500×1800 JPEG
Bare 20 KB target
16.4 KB · q≈3
full resolution kept
With 200×230 spec
18.3 KB · q89
lands inside the band
Shrink factor
≈50×
both runs
The contrast is the lesson. With pixels unconstrained, the encoder has to grind quality down to squeeze a full-resolution image under 20 KB; with the form’s dimensions filled in, 20 KB is comfortable and quality stays high. If your form states pixel dimensions, always enter them — the preset pages linked in the table above do it for you.
Forms that actually use a 20 KB photo limit
| Form | Photo size rule | Dimensions | Format |
|---|---|---|---|
| UPSC (Civil Services, CDS & others) | 20–300 KB — 20 KB is the floor, not the ceiling | 350×350 to 1000×1000 px, square | JPG |
| IBPS PO & Clerk → | 20–50 KB | 200×230 px | JPG |
| SSC CGL | 20–50 KB | 275×354 px | JPG |
| SSC CHSL | 20–50 KB | 200×240 px | JPG |
| JEE Main (NTA) | 10–200 KB | 3.5×4.5 cm (≈413×531 px) | JPG |
| NEET UG (NTA) | 10–200 KB | 2.5×3.5 in (≈275×354 px) | JPG |
Specifications as published for the 2025–26 application cycles. Exam bodies revise them between cycles, so confirm against your notification PDF before uploading. Rows with a link open a page locked to that exact size-and-pixels combination.
Frequently asked questions
UPSC says 20 KB minimum — how do I make my photo bigger, not smaller?
Right: UPSC rejects files under 20 KB as well as over 300 KB. This tool aims just under the target you type, so for UPSC set a target inside the accepted band (100 KB is a safe pick) rather than 20 — the encoder maximizes quality up to that ceiling, and the result comfortably clears the floor.
My 20 KB file still fails IBPS or SSC validation — what else do they check?
Size is one of three gates. Those portals also require JPG format and fixed pixel dimensions (200×230 px for IBPS), and a 20 KB PNG at the wrong size fails all the same. The 200×230 preset page locks all three constraints at once.
Is 20 KB enough for the photo to print cleanly on an admit card?
Portals print these photos at passport size, and a 200×230 px JPEG at reasonable quality holds up at that size. What gets a photo flagged is blur from over-downscaling, not the KB number — one more reason to enter your form’s dimensions instead of shrinking blindly.
Does the KB limit include EXIF metadata?
The portal weighs the whole file, metadata included. Re-encoding here strips the original EXIF anyway — which also removes the GPS location your phone embedded — so the bytes you get are almost entirely image data.
Will a heavily compressed photo be rejected for being low quality?
Portals validate the file size and dimensions, not subjective quality. This tool keeps the best possible quality under your limit, and the comparison view lets you confirm the photo is still clearly recognizable before you download it.
How does the tool hit the exact JPEG size?
It encodes your image with the MozJPEG encoder several times, binary-searching the quality setting until the output lands just under your limit — then keeps that best result.
Is my image uploaded to a server?
No. All decoding and encoding runs locally in your browser via WebAssembly. There is no server-side pipeline, no storage, and no way for us to see your file.