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Metadata cleaner
Remove Metadata From Photos
Strip the hidden data out of a photo and download a clean copy, without re-encoding a single pixel. Drop a file, see what it is carrying, and remove the EXIF, GPS, XMP and IPTC in one click. Nothing is uploaded, so a photo with your location in it never leaves your device.
Here is the difference that makes imgico worth using as an EXIF remover: it does not re-encode your image. Almost every other tool that claims to remove metadata redraws the photo onto a canvas and re-saves it, quietly re-compressing your picture and losing quality each time. imgico removes the metadata segments at the byte level and passes the image data through untouched, so the cleaned file is identical to the original, just without the hidden information.
You stay in control of what goes. The colour profile is kept by default so your colours do not shift, with an option to remove it too if you want a completely bare file. JPEG, PNG and WebP are cleaned without re-encoding. Formats that cannot be stripped that way in a browser are shown as view only instead of being silently re-saved, because a privacy tool that damages your photo is not worth trusting.
Want to inspect first, or answer a specific question? See the full EXIF and metadata viewer, or find out where a photo was taken from its GPS data before you clear it. Need to fix a date or add a GPS point rather than remove it? Use the EXIF editor. And if it's a PDF you need to clean, not a photo, the PDF metadata remover works the same way, in place, with nothing uploaded.
Why strip metadata before you post
A photo off a modern phone is not just a picture. It can carry the exact latitude and longitude of where you stood, down to a few metres, the make, model and sometimes serial of the device, and a timestamp accurate to the second. Post a few of those and the coordinates cluster around one address, night after night, which is your home. That is the real risk, and it is not hypothetical: researchers and stalkers have both used geotags to find people who thought they were sharing an anonymous photo.
Big platforms strip this for you on upload, but they are not the whole story. The moment you send a file directly, over email, in a chat as an attachment, on a forum that keeps originals, the metadata goes with it untouched. Photographers strip it for a different reason: to keep camera settings, client names, or an unreleased location out of a proof they send a customer. Either way the fix is the same, take the hidden data out before the file leaves your hands.
Does stripping metadata reduce quality?
Here it doesn't, and that is the whole reason this tool exists. Plenty of metadata removers, including some browser ones and a lot of quick online tools, secretly redraw your photo. They decode it, paint it onto a canvas, and re-encode a new JPEG. That new JPEG is re-compressed, so it is slightly softer and blockier than the original, and every round trip through a tool like that costs a bit more. You often can't see it on one pass. Do it three times and you can.
imgico works at the byte level instead. A JPEG, PNG or WebP stores its metadata in labelled segments that sit alongside the compressed image data, not inside it. The cleaner walks the file, drops the segments that hold EXIF, GPS, XMP, IPTC and comments, and copies the image data through byte for byte. Nothing is decoded, nothing is re-compressed. Drop the cleaned file back into the viewer and you can confirm both facts at once: the metadata is gone, and the pixels are identical to what you started with. The colour profile stays by default too, so your colours don't shift, unless you tick the box to remove it.
Byte for byte, the cleaned file is identical to the original, minus the hidden data. No canvas, no re-encode, no quality lost, no matter how many times you run it.
What each platform strips on upload
If you only ever post through the apps below, most of your metadata is already handled. The gaps are the interesting part, and they are where people get caught. Behaviour as tested through 2025 and into 2026:
| Platform | What happens to your metadata |
|---|---|
| Strips GPS, camera and timestamps from the downloadable file via its compression pipeline. Instagram still reads and keeps your original location on its own servers. | |
| Strips EXIF from the public file, and has since 2012. It reads the location first, though, for its own use. | |
| X (Twitter) | Strips metadata on a normal upload. The catch: posts pushed through scheduling tools and the API don't always get the same treatment, so a scheduled photo can arrive with GPS intact. |
| Re-encodes images on i.redd.it, which removes EXIF as a side effect. | |
| Discord | Strips EXIF from JPEGs sent inline through its CDN, but PNGs often come through with metadata intact, and XMP and IPTC tend to survive. Don't assume Discord cleaned it. |
| Strips metadata when you send a photo the normal way. Send the same image as a document to keep its quality and it keeps everything, GPS included, with no warning. |
The pattern worth remembering: platforms clean the version other people can download, the original file you attach, email or send as a document is on you. When in doubt, strip it yourself first and you never have to guess what a given app did.
Frequently asked questions
Does removing EXIF data reduce image quality?
Not with imgico. This is the difference that matters. Most tools that remove metadata redraw the photo onto a canvas and export it again, which re-compresses the pixels and throws away quality every time. imgico does not touch the image data at all. It removes the EXIF, GPS, XMP and IPTC segments at the byte level and copies the picture through untouched, so the cleaned file is pixel for pixel identical to the original. Drop the result back in and you will see the metadata is gone and the image is unchanged.
What metadata gets removed?
The tool strips the EXIF block (camera, lens, exposure, dates), GPS location, XMP (edit history and app data), IPTC (captions, copyright) and any embedded comments. For JPEG that means the Exif, XMP, IPTC and comment segments; for PNG the text and EXIF chunks; for WebP the EXIF and XMP chunks. The image data, and by default the colour profile, are left in place.
Why remove metadata from a photo?
Privacy, mostly. A photo straight off a phone can contain the exact GPS coordinates of where it was taken, the device serial, and a precise timestamp. Sharing it as a file, rather than through a platform that strips this, hands all of that to whoever receives it. Photographers also remove metadata to keep camera settings or client details private before sending proofs.
Does it keep the colour profile?
Yes, by default. The ICC colour profile controls how colours are displayed, so removing it can make an image look washed out or over-saturated on some screens. imgico keeps it unless you tick the option to remove it too, which is there for people who specifically want a completely bare file.
Is my photo uploaded to clean it?
No. The cleaning happens entirely in your browser. No image bytes are sent anywhere, so a photo with sensitive location data never has to leave your device to be cleaned. You can confirm it yourself by watching the network tab while you use the tool: nothing carrying your image goes out.
Which formats can be cleaned?
JPEG, PNG and WebP can be cleaned without re-encoding, because their metadata lives in segments that can be removed byte for byte. HEIC and some other formats cannot be stripped that way in a browser without re-saving the whole image, so imgico shows those as view only rather than quietly re-encoding and degrading your photo. To clean a HEIC file, export it to JPEG first.