Compress Image to 250 KB
Shrink a photo, a scanned certificate or a screenshot until it fits an upload field that stops at 250 KB. The compressor aims just below the limit, so you keep as much detail as the cap allows instead of throwing most of it away.
Compress Image
or drop JPG, JPEG, JFIF … files here ·
Max 95 MB per file· Up to 20 files· Deleted after 30 minutes
Files are processed on our servers and deleted after 30 minutes.
Never shrink below this width when downscaling. 0 means no minimum.
Optionally set the dimensions before compressing. Forms that specify pixels as well as KB need both.
Pixels for the side you chose above.
The search for the target size will not go below this quality; it downscales instead.
4:2:0 halves color resolution and saves a lot on photos; 4:4:4 keeps sharp edges on text, logos and screenshots.
Lossy PNG quantises colors (like TinyPNG) and is far smaller; lossless keeps every pixel.
How to use this tool
- 1
Upload the image
Pick JPG, PNG, WebP, HEIC, GIF, BMP or TIFF files from your phone or computer. You can add up to 20 at once, 95 MB each.
- 2
Keep the 250 KB target
Target size is already 250 and Unit is KB. If the portal counts strictly, type 245 for a small safety margin. Output format stays the same as the input unless you change it.
- 3
Compress and check
Press Compress. Each file shows its new size before you download it, either one by one or as a ZIP.
Set to 250 KB, the compressor lowers quality step by step, checks the size after each try and stops at the highest quality that fits. Pixel dimensions shrink only when quality alone cannot get there.
Where a 250 KB file limit comes from
A 250 KB cap is common on upload forms built a decade or more ago: job and scholarship applications, university admission portals, membership cards, staff directories and some e-government services that ask for a photo plus a few document scans. The number is a round quarter of a megabyte, generous enough for a clear portrait and small enough that a server can store thousands of them cheaply.
The trouble is that today's phones write photos ten or twenty times larger. A 12 MP shot from a recent iPhone or Galaxy usually comes out between 2 and 5 MB, and a scan from a flatbed at 300 DPI can be larger still. The form then answers with a red message such as "File size must not exceed 250 KB" and no further help.
- 100 KB
Small ID photos, signature-plus-photo forms
- 200 KB
Many visa and exam photo fields
- 240 KB
US DS-160 photo limit
- 250 KB
This page's target
- 500 KB
Document scans, profile pictures
- 1 MB
Typical attachment cap on older forms
Reduce photo size to 250 KB while keeping detail
Most of the bytes in a phone photo go to detail you cannot see at upload size. The compressor first tries quality settings from high to low and stops at the first one under 250 KB; Lowest quality allowed (40 by default) keeps it from going so low that blocks appear. If even that floor is too large, it reduces the dimensions in small steps and tries again.
You can steer the result. Cropping away a busy background before compressing leaves more of the budget for the face or the text. Picking WebP or AVIF under Output format fits more detail into 250 KB than JPG does, but only use them when the portal lists those formats; most still accept only JPG, JPEG and PNG. For a full walk-through of the trade-offs, see how to reduce image size in KB.
What fits comfortably in 250 KB, and what does not
Fits with room to spare
- Passport-style portraits
- Phone photos for a profile
- Single-page text scans in grayscale
- Screenshots of forms or receipts
Fits, with some loss
- Landscape photos with foliage
- Color scans of certificates at 300 DPI
- Group photos at full width
Choose another target
- Multi-page documents: use a PDF
- Print-ready artwork: keep the original
- Images for zoomable product galleries
250 KB image compression questions
Will a 250 KB photo be accepted by the DS-160 visa form?
Not reliably. The US Department of State caps the DS-160 digital photo at 240 KB, which is 10 KB less than this page aims for. Set Target size to 230 for that form, or read the US visa photo requirements before uploading.
How sharp is a photo at 250 KB?
Sharp enough for screens and small prints. A typical phone photo compressed to 250 KB as a JPG keeps roughly 1600 to 2000 pixels on its long side, which fills a laptop screen without visible blocks.
Why did my PNG turn out much smaller than 250 KB?
Lossy PNG compression works by reducing the number of colors, and a screenshot with flat areas may need far less than 250 KB once that happens. The tool never pads a file to reach the target. If you need a file of at least a certain size, use increase image size in KB instead.
Can I get 250 KB without changing the pixel dimensions?
Usually, for photos up to about 2000 px wide. If a very large image cannot reach 250 KB through quality alone, the tool scales it down. Turn off Allow downscaling to forbid that, or set Minimum width to the smallest size the portal accepts.
Is 250 KB the same as 0.25 MB?
In decimal units, yes: 250,000 bytes. A system that counts in 1,024s treats 250 KB as 256,000 bytes and 0.25 MB as 262,144 bytes, so the two labels can mean slightly different limits. Staying a few KB under avoids the question.
What if the portal wants a 250 KB PDF, not an image?
Compress the scan here first, then convert it, or start from the PDF and use compress PDF to 250 KB, which sizes the finished document including the PDF wrapper.