Compress Image to 120KB — Free, Fast & Private
One application that sets exactly this ceiling is the Chinese visa. The China visa photograph has a file-size band of 40–120 KB, a print size of 33×48 mm at 300 DPI and a pixel size of 390 × 567. The ceiling is what sends people looking for a compressor. The floor is what catches them out afterwards.
What fits in 120 KB — measured on this page
We dropped five real files on the compressor above and kept what it handed back. 5 of 5 came out under 120 KB; one was made smaller in pixels to get there, because past a point the bytes can only come from pixels.
| File | Before | After, on this page | Under 120 KB? |
|---|---|---|---|
| 12 MP phone photo | 4032 × 3024 px · 3.73 MB | 3226 × 2419 px · 105.5 KB | Yes |
| Portrait / headshot | 3264 × 4653 px · 2.25 MB | 3264 × 4653 px · 106.2 KB | Yes |
| Scanned handwritten page | 3349 × 4281 px · 2.17 MB | 3349 × 4281 px · 114.4 KB | Yes |
| Scanned signature | 2041 × 617 px · 109.1 KB | 2041 × 617 px · 102.1 KB | Yes |
| Screenshot (PNG) | 1280 × 800 px · 88.1 KB | 1280 × 800 px · 108.8 KB — larger than the original (PNG made into JPG) | Yes |
Measured 2026-10-06 in Chromium 145.0.7632.6 with this page’s own settings. The photos are public-domain and CC0 files from Wikimedia Commons; the screenshot is our own. Sizes read as the tool shows them (1 KB = 1,024 bytes); the target itself is 120,000 bytes, which is under 120 KB on either reading.
| Requirement | China visa photo |
|---|---|
| File size | 40–120 KB |
| Pixels | 390 × 567 at 300 DPI |
| Printed size | 33 × 48 mm |
| Source | Consular Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the P.R. China — via the China Visa Application Service Centre photo notice |
A band with two edges
Most upload limits are a single ceiling: stay under it and you are done. The China visa photo is different, because it also sets a minimum of 40 KB. A file squeezed below that floor is as wrong as one left above the ceiling, and the portal has no reason to tell you which mistake it is.
The two edges also invite two readings of “kilobyte”. MiniPx reads both edges the strict way. The ceiling counts 1 KB as 1,000 bytes, so 120 KB is 120,000 bytes — which is what this page’s compressor aims at. The floor counts 1 KB as 1,024 bytes, so 40 KB is 40 × 1,024 = 40,960 bytes. A file between 40,960 and 120,000 bytes is inside the band whichever reading a portal uses.
390 × 567, worked out
The pixel size is the print size at 300 DPI: 33 mm ÷ 25.4 × 300 rounds to 390, and 48 mm ÷ 25.4 × 300 rounds to 567. Multiply them and the photo is 221,130 pixels.
Now divide the band by that. The ceiling allows 120,000 ÷ 221,130 ≈ 0.54 bytes per pixel; the floor demands at least 40,960 ÷ 221,130 ≈ 0.19 bytes per pixel. For scale, the same photo stored with no compression at all — 3 bytes per colour pixel — would be 663,390 bytes. So the band asks for a JPEG that keeps a fair share of the detail but is clearly compressed, which is the territory where a face still looks like a face.
The arithmetic also tells you something practical: the band and the pixel size belong together. A photo at the right 390 × 567 has plenty of room under 120 KB. A full-resolution phone photo has many times the pixels, and fitting it under the ceiling means either very low quality or fewer pixels.
Getting a phone photo to the visa shape first
The China visa photo is a portrait rectangle: 33 ÷ 48 = 0.688, a little narrower than it is tall in the ratio of roughly two to three. A phone photo is usually a different shape, in portrait or landscape, and compressing it as it stands spends the 120 KB budget on wall, shoulders and ceiling that the consulate will never see.
So do it in this order. First crop to the 33:48 shape, with the head centred and room above it. Then, if you want the exact pixel size, resize to 390 × 567. Only then bring the file here. At that size the arithmetic above applies directly, and the compressor has to take very little out of the photo to fit under 120 KB — which is also why the result is more likely to sit comfortably above 40 KB than a full-size photo squeezed down would be.
Skip the crop and the tool still gets under 120 KB; it simply has to lower quality further or reduce the pixels to get there, and the face pays for the background.
What this compressor does, and what it will not do
The tool works downward. It lowers JPEG quality first, at full size; only if the lowest quality still misses 120 KB does it reduce the pixel dimensions, and when it does, it says so and shows you the new size. It never pads a file up to reach a minimum. A JPEG that already measures 120,000 bytes or less keeps its picture data (only metadata such as GPS is removed); a PNG converted to JPEG can come out larger than the PNG was, though still under 120 KB — the measured table shows one.
That last point is where the floor bites. If your photo is already small — a screenshot, a picture forwarded through a chat app, an image someone else already squeezed — it may sit below 40 KB before you start, and no compressor can lift it back into the band. Go back to the original camera file. Or use the China visa photo maker, which crops and sizes the photo to 390 × 567 and checks the result against both ends of the 40–120 KB band before you download it.
Whichever route you take, check the size shown next to your result. This page will tell you the file is at or under 120 KB; it is your job to confirm it is also over 40.
The photo, not just the file
A file inside the band is necessary and nowhere near sufficient. The requirements MiniPx records for the China visa photo read:
Background must be white or close to white, with no edge frame. Colour photo taken within the last 6 months. Full face front view with both ears visible, lips closed, neutral expression. Head 28–33 mm from chin to crown and 15–22 mm wide. Eyeglasses are allowed except thick-rimmed, tinted or glare glasses. No headgear except religious purposes. A printed copy must be on glossy finish photo paper, not matte or plain paper.
None of that is something compression can change. A non-white background, a frame around the edge, a tinted lens or a photo that is not recent fails however perfectly sized the file is. Get the photograph right first, then bring the file into the band.
Everything on this page runs in your browser — your photo is never uploaded to a server. Nothing here can guarantee a consulate accepts a photo; the tool tells you what the file measures. For other targets see the 100KB and 150KB pages, or the passport photo maker for other countries.