Compress an image to 20 KB

Add the photo and download. With a target set, the compressor tries JPG quality levels from high to low and keeps the best one that lands under 20 KB. If even low quality is too big, it scales the picture down a little and tries again, which usually looks better than crushing quality on a large photo.

1. 01Crop the photo to just your head and shoulders, or the signature to just the ink, before you start.
2. 02Drop it on the tool. The 20 KB target is already set.
3. 03Download and check the size shown next to the result.
4. 04Upload it, and keep the original in case the portal asks for a different size.

Tight KB limits are common on recruitment and exam portals, for example India's SSC, UPSC, IBPS and state public service commissions, Nepal's Lok Sewa Aayog, and many university and scholarship forms. They usually ask for a recent photo and a scanned signature, each with its own limit. The numbers change from one notice to the next, so read the current advertisement rather than trusting a number you saw last year.

A phone photo is several megabytes and thousands of pixels wide. Squeezing that into 20 KB means very low quality. Cropping to the part the form actually needs removes most of the pixels, so the compressor can keep far more detail.

• Photo: head and shoulders on a plain background, face filling most of the frame.
• Signature: sign in dark ink on white paper, photograph it in daylight, and crop tightly around the ink.
• If the form gives pixel dimensions as well, resize to those first, then come back here.

Some portals reject files that are too small as well as too big, for example a range like 10–20 KB. Because the target search aims just under 20 KB rather than as small as possible, the result normally sits near the top of the range. If a form wants a lower ceiling, type that number into the target field instead.

This page aims at 20,000 bytes or less. Upload forms disagree on what 20 KB means: some count 20,000 bytes, others 20,480 (1 KB = 1,024 bytes). A file of 20,000 bytes or less passes either rule, so you can type the limit exactly as the form writes it. The result shows the exact byte count. Windows File Explorer counts in 1,024s, so the same file can read slightly smaller there.