What a photo can reveal
- Location: GPS coordinates accurate to a few metres, altitude and the direction the camera was facing. A photo taken at home shows where you live.
- Date and time of the shot, to the second.
- Device: the make and model, the lens and sometimes the camera’s serial number.
- Names: the author or owner written in by the camera or an editing app.
- A hidden thumbnail: a small copy of the original picture, which may still show what you cropped out.
- Attached data: the video of a “live” photo, a depth map, edit history, Content Credentials (C2PA) and, in AI-generated images, the prompt and generation settings.
Many social networks remove this data when you post, but messengers sending a file, email, cloud links and marketplaces often keep it.
How to view photo metadata
- Open PhotoBench and press Choose photos, drag them onto the page or paste with Ctrl+V. You can add up to 300 at once.
- The Metadata tab shows a summary of risks for each photo: location, serial number, names, date, hidden thumbnail, attached video.
- Open All tags to see every EXIF, XMP, IPTC and ICC field.
- If the photo has coordinates, press Show on the map to see where it was taken. The map loads only after you press the button, because the map server sees which area it shows. From there you can open the place in WhereBench.
PhotoBench reads JPEG, PNG, WebP, TIFF, HEIC, AVIF and GIF.
How to remove EXIF and location data
- Go to the Remove data tab.
- Choose All metadata to strip everything, or Only the location to keep the date and camera details but erase the GPS data and place names.
- Optionally tick Keep rotation, so the photo is not shown sideways, and Keep colour profile, so colours stay exact.
- Download the cleaned photos one by one, as a ZIP, or on a phone, share or save them straight to Photos.
For JPEG, PNG and WebP the data is cut out without re-compressing the image: the pixels stay exactly the same and there is no loss of quality. HEIC, AVIF, GIF, TIFF and BMP are saved again as JPEG or PNG. After cleaning, PhotoBench reads the new file again and confirms Checked: clean only if nothing sensitive is left.
How to compress and convert photos
The Compress tab makes photos smaller for email, websites or storage:
- Format: JPEG for compatibility, WebP for files typically 25–35% smaller at similar quality, AVIF for the smallest files, PNG for screenshots and graphics without loss.
- Quality and the longest side in pixels. For the web, 1600–2560 px is usually enough.
- Target file size: PhotoBench finds the highest quality that fits, for example under 1 MB for a form upload.
- Before and after: drag the slider across the photo to compare.
If your browser cannot encode WebP or AVIF itself, PhotoBench loads an open-source encoder once and does the work on your device. Metadata is never copied into converted files.
Privacy
Photos are opened by your browser and processed in memory. Nothing is uploaded, PhotoBench keeps no history and has no share links: photos are private. Only your settings are remembered. The map is drawn from OpenStreetMap tiles, and only after you ask for it; the WebP and AVIF encoders come from jsDelivr only when your browser lacks them.
Frequently asked questions
Does removing metadata reduce quality?
Not for JPEG, PNG and WebP: PhotoBench removes only the data blocks and leaves the image untouched. Other formats are saved again, at high quality.
Do Instagram, Facebook or Telegram remove location?
Big social networks usually strip location from public posts. A photo sent as a file in a messenger, by email or through a cloud link usually keeps everything.
How do I stop my phone adding location?
Turn off location access for the Camera app in the phone’s settings. On iPhone you can also turn off location in the share sheet’s options before sending a photo.
Can I open HEIC photos from an iPhone?
PhotoBench reads HEIC metadata in any browser. Showing and converting the picture itself works where the browser can decode HEIC, such as Safari.
Which format should I choose for a website?
WebP is supported everywhere today and is a safe default. AVIF gives smaller files but takes longer to encode.