Why 30 KB is a common photo limit
Many online applications, such as competitive exams, public service recruitment, school admissions and some visa portals, ask for a passport-style photo or a scanned document of at most 30 KB. Phone cameras save pictures of 2–6 MB, so they are rejected straight away. This page opens our image compressor with a 30 KB target. It re-saves your picture as a JPG and searches for the highest quality that fits, lowering the pixel size only when quality alone isn't enough. At 30 KB a head-and-shoulders photo usually looks sharp on screen, with more detail than the stricter 10 or 20 KB limits allow. Compression happens in your browser; your photo is never uploaded.
Updated September 2026
How to reduce a photo to 30KB
- 1Choose your photo or scan. You can add several and do them together.
- 2The target size already reads 30 KB; type another number if your form's limit is different.
- 3Each picture shows “Working…” for a moment and then its new size.
- 4Download the file marked “under 30 KB”, or all of them as a ZIP.
Getting the photo right before the size
A file-size limit usually comes with other rules: a recent colour photo, face centred and looking straight ahead, a plain white or light background, and sometimes a fixed shape in pixels or centimetres. Meeting those first matters more than the size, because a clear, well-cropped photo compresses better too.
- Stand facing a window for soft, even light and avoid strong shadows.
- Use a plain wall as the background.
- Crop to head and shoulders; extra background wastes kilobytes.
Photo, signature or document?
- Photo of a person: 30 KB gives a clear result at typical form sizes.
- Signature: fits very easily; write with a dark pen on white paper.
- Scanned page: 30 KB is tight for a whole A4 page of small text. If the form accepts PDF, a PDF compressor may do better.
Common upload problems
If a portal still rejects the file, check the format it wants (most want JPG or JPEG), whether the limit is a minimum and a maximum, and whether it also checks the pixel size. Some older portals reject file names with spaces or special characters, so renaming the file to something like photo.jpg can help too.
Features
- Ready-made 30 KB target
- Highest JPG quality that fits
- Full resolution kept whenever possible
- Several photos at once, with ZIP download
- PNG, WebP and other images saved as JPG
- Private and free, no watermark
Frequently asked questions
How do I make my photo 30 KB on a phone?
Open this page in your phone's browser, tap Select images and pick the photo from your gallery. After a second or two, tap the download button next to the result; it is saved to your Downloads or Files.
The form needs a photo between 10 KB and 30 KB. Is that possible?
Yes. The result is at most 30 KB and, for a normal photo, usually well above 10 KB because the tool keeps as much quality as fits. Check the size shown under the result to be sure it is inside the range.
The form also asks for a size like 200 × 230 pixels. What should I do first?
Set the pixels first, then the file size. Use the Image Resizer (there is a ready-made 200 × 230 page) or Crop Image to get the exact width and height, then compress that picture here. Doing it in this order keeps the photo sharper.
Can I compress a signature to 30 KB?
Yes, and it is easy: a signature has little detail, so it usually fits at high quality. For a clean white background as well, use the signature page that resizes to 20 KB.
Why is my picture a bit blurry after compressing?
If the original is very large or very detailed, the tool had to reduce its pixel size to reach 30 KB. Cropping the photo to just your head and shoulders first leaves more of the 30 KB for your face.
Is my photo safe?
Yes. The image is processed by your own browser and is never sent to our servers, so ID photos and scans stay on your device.