How to compress a photo for email
A photo for email should weigh a few hundred kilobytes, not several megabytes.
In short
Most email services refuse attachments above 20 to 25 MB in total, and many recipients’ servers accept less. Resize photos to about 2,000 pixels on the longest edge and compress them to a few hundred kilobytes each: they will look the same on any screen and arrive without trouble.
Key takeaways
- Gmail allows 25 MB of attachments, Outlook.com and iCloud Mail 20 MB.
- About 2,000 px on the longest edge is plenty for a screen.
- Resizing saves more than compressing.
The limits
- Gmail: 25 MB of attachments per message; beyond that it offers a Google Drive link.
- Outlook.com: 20 MB.
- iCloud Mail: 20 MB; larger files can be sent with Mail Drop.
These are the sender’s limits. The recipient’s server can be stricter, and a message close to the limit may bounce.
What size to aim for
A photo straight from a phone is often 3 to 8 MB and 4,000 pixels or more wide. A screen shows it perfectly at 2,000 pixels. At that size, a JPEG at good quality weighs 300 to 800 KB: ten photos fit comfortably in one email.
How to do it
- Resize to about 2,000 pixels on the longest edge.
- Compress under a limit — 500 KB is a good target — or at a quality around 80.
- Check the result at full size before sending.
On iPhone
When you attach photos in the Mail app, it offers Small, Medium, Large or Actual Size before sending. Medium is enough for most uses.
Image compressor
Shrink a photo to fit a size limit, and see the exact result before you download it.
Open the tool