I tested the metadata remover on JPG, PNG and WebP
Does the clean copy really hold nothing personal, and is the picture the same? Measured, not assumed.
Measured on 24 October 2026 · Last updated: October 2026
How I tested
I used the test photo described in the file-type comparison: one JPG, one PNG, one WebP, each with a location, a serial number, a name, a capture time and more. I opened the live remover in a browser, uploaded each file, downloaded the clean copy and read it back with a separate metadata reader. I also compared the decoded pixels before and after, byte for byte. This was on 24 October 2026.
The result
| Format | Personal tags before | Personal tags after | Size before | Size after | Pixels identical | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| JPG | 30 | 0 | 3,776,060 | 3,772,278 | yes | 0.3 s |
| PNG | 30 | 0 | 27,027,541 | 27,025,932 | yes | 1.9 s |
| WebP | 26 | 0 | 4,329,508 | 4,325,860 | yes | 0.3 s |
All three clean copies held no location, no serial number, no name, no capture time, no camera and no caption. The decoded picture was identical in all three, so nothing was re-compressed. The files got a little smaller, by 3,782, 1,609 and 3,648 bytes, which is the weight of the removed tags. The times include the upload from the same machine, so they say little about your connection. Larger files, and the 27 MB PNG, took longer than the other two.
What the tool told me
Before the download, the page listed what it found, for the JPG: the location as coordinates, the camera and model, the capture time, the editing program, an embedded name and the device serial number. Then it said how many tags were removed and what it kept: the orientation and the color profile. I read that as the right order, because you see the finding before you decide.
I then uploaded the clean JPG a second time. The page said the photo contained no personal metadata to begin with. That is the message I wanted to see, since it means the first pass left nothing for a second pass to find.
What did stay
Five small entries remained in the clean files: the orientation flag, the resolution fields and one positioning field. Plus the color profile, byte for byte. The next page explains why: why two tags stay.
What I did not test
- HEIC. I could not make a HEIC file here. The page accepts it; I have not measured it.
- Real phone photos. Mine is a generated picture with tags I wrote.
- One file per format. Three runs is a check, not a statistic.
- The picture itself. A street sign or a window reflection stays visible. No metadata remover can change that.