Crop Image

Cropping an image removes the parts you do not want and changes its shape to suit where it is going: a square Instagram post, a wide link preview, a LinkedIn banner or a product photo with less empty background. Our free crop tool lets you drag a crop box with handles, lock it to a common aspect ratio or a ready-made social media size, type exact pixel values, rotate in 90-degree steps and flip the picture before you save it as JPG, PNG or WebP. By default the crop keeps the original pixels, so nothing is resampled or softened, and the whole job happens in your browser without uploading the photo anywhere.

How to use the Crop image

1. 1 Add your imageDrop a JPG, PNG, WebP, GIF, BMP, SVG or AVIF file onto the tool, or choose it from your device. It opens straight away in the editor.
2. 2 Pick an aspect ratio or presetLeave it on Free to crop any shape, or choose a ratio such as 1:1, 4:5 or 16:9, or a fixed size such as Open Graph 1200 x 630 or Instagram portrait 1080 x 1350.
3. 3 Position the crop boxDrag the box to move it, drag a handle to resize, or drag across the picture to draw a new box. For fine control, type X, Y, width and height in pixels or nudge the box with the arrow keys.
4. 4 Rotate or flip if neededTurn the picture 90 degrees either way or flip it horizontally or vertically. The crop box resets to fit the new shape.
5. 5 Choose a format and savePick JPG, PNG or WebP, set the quality, decide whether to keep the original pixels or resize to the exact preset, then press Crop image and download the result.

Cropping, resizing and why the difference matters

Cropping and resizing are often mixed up, but they do different jobs. Cropping cuts away part of the picture: the pixels that remain are exactly the ones that were there before, so a crop never makes a photo less sharp. Resizing keeps the whole picture but changes how many pixels describe it, which shrinks or enlarges everything at once.

Most real tasks need both. If you want a 1200 x 630 link preview from a tall phone photo, you first need to crop to the right shape, otherwise the image will be squashed or the platform will crop it for you in the middle. Once the shape is right, you can resize to the exact size. This tool does the crop and, if you ask it to, the resize in one step. If you only need to change pixel dimensions without changing the shape, our Image Resizer is quicker.

Keeping the original pixels is the safest choice when you are not sure of the final size. A crop saved at full resolution can always be made smaller later without losing quality, but a crop that has been shrunk cannot be made larger again without looking soft.

Aspect ratios and social media sizes explained

An aspect ratio is the relationship between width and height. A 1:1 image is square, 16:9 is the wide shape of most screens and video, and 4:5 is slightly taller than square. Two images with the same ratio but different pixel sizes will look identical in shape, which is why platforms usually care more about the ratio than the exact number of pixels.

The presets cover the shapes small businesses use most. They follow the sizes each platform has recommended for some time, but networks do change their layouts, so check their current help pages if a campaign depends on an exact fit.

• Open Graph 1200 x 630: the image shown when a link is shared on Facebook, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, Slack and many other apps. Keep important text and faces away from the edges.
• Instagram square 1080 x 1080 and portrait 1080 x 1350: portrait (4:5) takes up more of the feed on a phone, which is why many brands use it for posts.
• Instagram story 1080 x 1920: the full-screen 9:16 shape also used for Reels, TikTok and YouTube Shorts covers.
• LinkedIn post 1200 x 627 and banner 1584 x 396: the banner is very wide and parts of it are covered by your profile photo, so leave space on the left.
• X post 1600 x 900 and header 1500 x 500: 16:9 shows in full in the timeline on most devices, while the header is a wide 3:1 strip.

Original pixels or exact preset size

When you choose a fixed-size preset, the tool offers two output options. Original pixels keeps every pixel inside the crop box, so the file has the right shape but may be larger than the preset, for example 3024 x 1588 rather than 1200 x 630. That is ideal if you plan to edit further or want the sharpest possible master copy.

Exactly 1200 x 630, or whichever preset you picked, resizes the crop to that size as it is saved. This gives you a file that is ready to upload with no further work and is usually much smaller in kilobytes. If the crop box is smaller than the preset, the tool warns you, because enlarging an image cannot add real detail and the result may look soft. In that case, try a larger crop or start from a higher-resolution original.

Precise control: handles, pixel inputs and the keyboard

Dragging is the fastest way to frame a picture, but some jobs need precision. The four boxes for X, Y, width and height show the crop area in real image pixels, measured from the top-left corner. Type a value and press Enter or move to the next box, and the crop updates. If a ratio is locked, changing the width also changes the height to match.

For people who prefer the keyboard, or who find small handles awkward, the crop box can be focused with the Tab key. The arrow keys then move it by one pixel, holding Shift moves it by ten, and holding Alt with an arrow key resizes it. The box always stays inside the picture, so you cannot accidentally crop outside the edges.

On phones and tablets, the same handles work with touch. Drag inside the box with one finger to move it and drag a round handle to resize. The page does not scroll while you are dragging inside the editor, which makes small adjustments easier.

Choosing JPG, PNG or WebP for the cropped image

JPG is the safe choice for photographs. Every device, email program and website builder accepts it, and a quality setting around 80 to 90 gives a good balance between file size and detail. JPG has no transparency, so any transparent areas in a PNG or WebP original are filled with white.

PNG is lossless, so it is the right choice for screenshots, logos, diagrams and anything with sharp text or flat colour. It keeps transparency but produces much larger files for photographs. WebP supports both lossy and lossless compression and transparency, and is usually smaller than JPG at similar quality. It is well supported by modern browsers and most website platforms, though some older desktop software and a few upload forms still expect JPG or PNG.

Saving a cropped image also removes the hidden metadata stored by cameras and phones, including GPS location and camera details, because the picture is redrawn from scratch. That is a small privacy bonus when you share photos taken at home or at a client's premises.

Privacy and limits of a browser-based cropper

Your photo is opened and cropped using the canvas feature built into your browser. It is not uploaded to our server or to any third party, so you can safely crop ID scans, product shots under embargo or pictures of staff and customers. Closing the tab discards everything.

Because the work happens on your device, very large images depend on your browser's memory. Most phones and computers handle photos up to around 50 megapixels comfortably, but some mobile browsers limit the size of a canvas, and an extremely large panorama may fail to open. If that happens, resize the original first and then crop it. Animated GIFs are cropped as a single still frame.

Examples you can copy

Open Graph / link preview   1200 x 630    (1.91:1)
Instagram square            1080 x 1080   (1:1)
Instagram portrait          1080 x 1350   (4:5)
Story / Reel / Short        1080 x 1920   (9:16)
LinkedIn post               1200 x 627
LinkedIn banner             1584 x 396    (4:1)
X post                      1600 x 900    (16:9)
X header                    1500 x 500    (3:1)

height = width / ratio

1.91:1 at 1200 wide  ->  1200 / 1.905 = 630
4:5 at 1080 wide     ->  1080 / 0.8   = 1350
16:9 at 1600 wide    ->  1600 / 1.778 = 900

Common mistakes to avoid

Frequently asked questions