ConvertUp / Guides / Why Are My Photos So Big?
Why Are My Photos So Big?
Modern phones take photos with 12 megapixels or more, which is far more detail than screens can show. A single photo is often 2 to 6 MB. Reducing the width and quality makes it much smaller with little visible change.
Megapixels
A 12-megapixel photo is about 4000 x 3000 pixels, which is 12 million pixels. A typical laptop screen shows around 2 million. Most of that detail never appears on screen.
Format and quality
Phones save photos in a high quality setting. Some phones also use formats such as HEIC. Screenshots are often PNG, which is big for pictures that contain photos or gradients.
What you can do
- Open the compress tool.
- Pick a max width of 1920 px.
- Set quality near 75 percent.
- Compare the sizes shown. Most photos drop by half or more, in our tests between 50 and 80 percent.
When to keep the big version
Keep originals for printing, editing or cropping heavily. Make small copies for sharing, email and websites.
Phone storage
Smaller copies help when you share, but they do not free space on your phone unless you delete the originals. Only do that if you have a backup you trust.