Remove metadata from a photo: EXIF, GPS, and XMP.
One cleaner rebuilds the picture so the usual container blocks are not copied into the download. That covers camera EXIF, GPS, XMP, IPTC, and PNG text chunks this path re-encodes. It does not wipe a watermark drawn into the pixels.
Remove metadata from a photo: EXIF, GPS, and XMP?
One cleaner rebuilds the picture so the usual container blocks are not copied into the download. That covers camera EXIF, GPS, XMP, IPTC, and PNG text chunks this path re-encodes. It does not wipe a watermark drawn into the pixels.
C2PA: Coalition for Content Provenance and Authenticity; C2PA specification 2.4; Gmail Help: Send attachments with your Gmail message; WhatsApp Help: media and documents
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What each supported image loses
Container blocks left out:
- EXIF (Camera make, model, lens, exposure settings, serial numbers)
- GPS (Latitude, longitude, altitude, and location timestamps)
- XMP (Adobe Dublin Core, Photoshop editing history, creator credits)
- IPTC (DigitalSourceType, copyright notices, headline captions)
- PNG text chunks (tEXt, zTXt, iTXt containing software and draft notes)
- ICC profiles and custom vendor resource blocks
Still true after a clean:
- JPEG and WebP are canvas re-encodes at quality 0.95, not a byte-for-byte JPEG strip. PNG is lossless
- Pixel size stays. A burned-in date or logo stays with the pixels
- C2PA and other JUMBF blocks are dropped by the re-encode. Their absence does not prove a person took the photo
- HEIC, AVIF, and TIFF are not opened. MP4 and MOV are a different cleaner path, checked in engine fixtures only
How to remove metadata from a photo
Inspect EXIF, GPS, and XMP
Use the image metadata viewer on the original JPEG, PNG, or WebP. Note the fields you do not want in a shared copy.
Rebuild the picture locally
Open the Metadata Cleaner from the button above and drop the file. The original is not overwritten.
Download and read it again
Open the new file in the viewer. Container tags that the September 2026 image fixtures carried were absent after a passing clean.
Look at the picture
If a date, credit, or place name is visible in the image, the cleaner will not paint it out. That is the MR-JPG-008 limitation.
Cross-Format Benchmark Results
JPEG, PNG, and WebP fixtures MR-JPG-001, MR-PNG-002, and MR-WEBP-003 passed container removal in the September 2026 set. The published browser check was the JPEG cleaner on the homepage. MR-JPG-008 is PARTIAL because a date drawn on the pixels remained. The benchmark README also notes that the re-encode drops ICC and C2PA containers and does not remove pixel watermarks.
Inspect 2026 Metadata Removal BenchmarkFrequently Asked Questions
What is an image metadata remover?
On this site it is the Metadata Cleaner, opened for photos. It decodes a JPEG, PNG, or WebP and writes a new file without the original EXIF, GPS, XMP, and IPTC blocks.
How is this different from the EXIF remover and the GPS page?
Those pages explain one job each. All three open the same cleaner. Use the EXIF page for camera tags, the GPS page for location, and this page when you want the broader container clean.
Does it remove metadata without re-encoding?
No. JPEG and WebP go through canvas at quality 0.95. ExifStrip’s guide describes lossless JPEG presets. This cleaner does not. PNG is re-saved losslessly.
Can I clean a HEIC or a video here?
HEIC is not supported. The same cleaner accepts MP4 and MOV, and engine fixtures MR-MP4-005 and MR-MOV-006 passed container filtering. The published browser run did not include those video fixtures. The video metadata viewer only reads tags.
Is the image uploaded?
No. Processing stays in the browser. You download a new file.