Image Cropper
This free image cropper works in your browser with no upload, and it is one of the few that can crop a JPEG without recompressing it, so the pixels you keep stay identical. It also crops to a circle, to exact pixel sizes and to Instagram, YouTube, X and LinkedIn dimensions, and it straightens tilted horizons.
What does this image cropper do?
It crops a photo in your browser, and it answers the question most croppers never raise: will saving the crop make the photo worse?
- Lossless JPEG crop. For JPEG photos, the part you keep is copied as the original compressed data, never re-encoded. The kept pixels are identical to the original, and the file is not a generation worse. Big online editors don't offer this; it usually takes a desktop app or a command-line tool.
- Circle crop with a transparent background, for avatars, logos and stickers.
- Social media sizes that lock the ratio and save at the exact size: Instagram posts and stories, YouTube thumbnails, X headers and LinkedIn banners.
- Exact pixels. Type the position and size, or nudge with the arrow keys.
- Rotate, flip and straighten. The straighten slider zooms in just enough that no empty corners appear.
- No upload, no account, no watermark. A normal crop is saved without the GPS location and camera details phones hide in photos.
How do you crop an image?
- Drop a photo on the page, or press Try a sample photo to test with one made in your browser.
- Pick a ratio (Free, 1:1, 4:5, 16:9 and more), a size from Or a size for social media, or Circle under Shape.
- Drag the box to frame the shot and pull the handles to resize it. For exact numbers, type into the X, Y, W and H fields.
- With a JPEG, leave Lossless JPEG crop on to keep the original quality, or turn it off to rotate, straighten, make a circle or resize.
- Press Download cropped image. The file keeps your name with
-croppedadded.
Does cropping reduce image quality?
Cutting pixels away doesn't blur the ones left, but re-saving a JPEG does. A JPEG is compressed by throwing detail away, and a normal cropper decodes the photo, cuts it, then compresses it again. Each round loses a little more; the effect is called generation loss.
| Normal crop | Lossless JPEG crop | |
|---|---|---|
| How it saves | Decodes, crops, compresses again | Copies the original compressed blocks |
| Quality of the kept area | Slightly lower than the original | Identical to the original |
| Crop edge | Any pixel | Top-left corner snaps to the 8 or 16 px block grid |
| Rotate, circle, resize | Yes | No, those need new pixels |
| Output formats | JPEG, PNG, WebP | JPEG only |
The lossless engine here was tested against jpegtran, the reference tool from the libjpeg project: on baseline and progressive JPEGs, with every common chroma layout, the decoded crops came out pixel for pixel the same.
Which size for Instagram, YouTube, X and LinkedIn?
Checked against each platform's help pages in September 2026.
| Where | Size | Ratio |
|---|---|---|
| Instagram portrait post | 1080 × 1350 | 4:5 |
| Instagram square post | 1080 × 1080 | 1:1 |
| Story, Reel or TikTok | 1080 × 1920 | 9:16 |
| YouTube thumbnail | up to 3840 × 2160, at least 640 wide | 16:9 |
| X header | 1500 × 500 | 3:1 |
| LinkedIn profile banner | 1584 × 396 | 4:1 |
YouTube now recommends 3840 × 2160, not the 1280 × 720 most guides still quote, and the YouTube app rejects thumbnails over 2 MB. The cropper warns you about both.
What this cropper does not do
- It does not open HEIC. Most browsers outside Safari can't decode the iPhone format. Convert it first with the HEIC to JPG converter.
- It does not animate GIFs. An animated GIF is cropped to its first frame.
- It does not add detail. Saving a small crop at a large size enlarges it, and the page tells you when that happens.
- It does not make lossless PNG or WebP crops. Lossless cropping is a property of how JPEG stores blocks. PNG and WebP crops are re-saved, and PNG compression itself loses nothing.
- It has a size ceiling on phones. Safari on iPhone refuses to draw images over about 16.7 megapixels. The lossless JPEG crop is not affected, because it never draws the image.
Is my photo private?
Yes. The photo is read, cropped and saved inside your browser tab. There is no upload and no server copy, and closing the tab clears everything.
Frequently asked questions
Does cropping a photo reduce its quality?
Removing pixels does not blur the ones that remain, but saving the result usually does. Most croppers decode a JPEG and compress it again, and every new compression throws away a little more detail. The lossless JPEG crop here skips that step entirely, so the part you keep is byte for byte the original data.
How does lossless JPEG cropping work?
A JPEG is stored as small blocks, usually 8 or 16 pixels wide, that are compressed separately. Lossless cropping keeps the blocks inside your selection and discards the rest without decoding them. The only rule is that the top-left corner must sit on the block grid, so the crop snaps to it automatically.
How do I crop an image into a circle?
Pick Circle under Shape, or the Profile photo preset, then drag the circle over the face. The area outside the circle is saved as transparent, which needs PNG or WebP, because JPEG has no transparency. Social networks still show a round frame, so the circle is mostly for logos, avatars and stickers.
What size should a YouTube thumbnail be?
YouTube's help page now recommends 3840 by 2160 pixels in a 16:9 ratio, with a minimum width of 640 pixels. The file must stay under 2 MB when uploaded from the app and 50 MB from a computer. Many guides still say 1280 by 720, which is the older recommendation and still accepted.
What sizes do Instagram, X and LinkedIn images use?
Instagram portrait posts are 1080 by 1350 pixels, square posts 1080 by 1080, and stories and Reels 1080 by 1920. An X header is 1500 by 500, and a LinkedIn profile banner is 1584 by 396. Each is a preset here, so the crop box locks to the ratio and the file comes out at that exact size.
How do I crop an image to an exact pixel size?
Type the left edge, top edge, width and height into the X, Y, W and H fields. The crop box moves to match, and it stays inside the photo if a number would push it past the edge. The arrow keys nudge the box one pixel at a time, or ten pixels with Shift held down.
Can I straighten a crooked photo?
Yes. The Straighten slider rotates the photo up to 45 degrees either way, and the picture zooms in just enough that no empty corners appear. Double-click the slider to go back to zero. Rotating by a free angle always recompresses the image, so it is switched off while lossless cropping is on.
Is my photo uploaded anywhere?
No. The photo is opened, cropped and saved by your own browser, and no server ever receives it. A normal crop is saved without the camera details and GPS location that phones embed in photos. The lossless crop keeps only the rotation flag, so the picture stays upright, and drops the rest.
Why does my HEIC photo not open?
HEIC is the default iPhone photo format, and most browsers outside Safari cannot decode it. Convert it to JPG first, or change the iPhone setting under Settings, Camera, Formats to Most Compatible, which saves new photos as JPG. Photos shared by email or messaging apps are usually converted to JPG already.
Why does my cropped image look blurry?
Usually because the crop was smaller than the size it was saved at. A 500 pixel wide crop saved as a 1080 pixel Instagram post has to be enlarged, and enlarging cannot invent detail. The tool warns you when that happens. Crop a larger area, or start from a higher resolution photo.
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Built and tested by the ÆON Toolhub team. Last updated: September 29, 2026. How we test our tools