What Is Image Metadata?
Every photo you take with a phone or camera contains hidden data called EXIF (Exchangeable Image File Format) metadata. This data is embedded directly in the image file and can include your GPS coordinates, the exact date and time the photo was taken, your camera make and model, lens information, software used for editing, and even your name if set in camera settings.
Why Should You Remove It?
When you share photos online — on social media, forums, marketplaces, or via email — this hidden metadata goes with them. Anyone who downloads your image can extract your home location from GPS data, learn what equipment you use, or see when and where a photo was taken. Stripping metadata protects your privacy and security.
How to Use
- Upload images — Drag and drop files onto the upload area, or click to browse. You can add up to 50 images at once for batch processing.
- Review metadata — Each image shows detected metadata tags. GPS locations are flagged with a warning. Click "View details" to see the full metadata breakdown.
- Strip metadata — Click "Strip" on individual files or "Strip All" to clean every image at once. The tool re-encodes each image without any metadata.
- Download — Download cleaned images individually or use "Download All" to save everything. Clean files are named with a "-clean" suffix.
Supported Formats
- JPEG — Full EXIF, IPTC, XMP, and GPS metadata parsing and removal
- PNG — Text chunks (tEXt, iTXt, zTXt) and eXIf chunk detection and removal
- WebP — Metadata removal via re-encoding
What Gets Removed
- GPS coordinates and location data
- Camera make, model, and serial numbers
- Lens information
- Date and time stamps
- Software and editing history
- Artist name and copyright info
- XMP and IPTC metadata blocks
- ICC color profiles (APP2)
- Image comments
Frequently Asked Questions
What is EXIF metadata?
EXIF (Exchangeable Image File Format) metadata is hidden data embedded in photo files by cameras and phones. It can include GPS coordinates, the date and time a photo was taken, camera make and model, lens info, and even the photographer's name.
Why should I remove metadata from photos?
When you share photos online, metadata travels with them. Anyone who downloads your image can extract your home location from GPS data, learn what equipment you own, or see when and where the photo was taken. Stripping metadata protects your privacy.
Are my images uploaded to a server?
No. All processing happens entirely in your browser using the Canvas API. Your images are never sent to any server — nothing leaves your device.
What metadata gets removed?
The tool removes GPS coordinates, camera make and model, serial numbers, lens info, date and time stamps, software history, artist name, copyright info, XMP and IPTC blocks, ICC color profiles, and image comments.
What image formats are supported?
JPEG (full EXIF, IPTC, XMP, and GPS removal), PNG (text chunks and eXIf chunk removal), and WebP (metadata removal via re-encoding) are all supported.
Privacy First
All processing happens entirely in your browser. Your images are never uploaded to any server. Nothing leaves your device. The tool uses the Canvas API to re-draw each image from scratch, producing a clean copy with zero metadata.
From the build: there are two ways to strip metadata. The clever way is to parse the JPEG segment markers and surgically remove the APP1/APP2 chunks; the brute-force way is to re-draw the pixels through a Canvas and let the browser write a brand-new file with nothing in it. We chose brute force because it's format-agnostic — the same code path handles PNG text chunks and WebP metadata without us writing per-format parsers — and because "we cannot have missed a hidden tag" is a stronger guarantee than "we cleaned the tags we know about." The cost is a small quality hit on re-encode, which we surface honestly.