Frequently asked questions

No. Pinchy compresses images with your own device, inside your browser. They are never sent to our servers or anyone else’s.

This isn’t just a promise: the site’s security settings stop the page from sending your files anywhere. You can check by opening your browser’s network panel while you compress.

For every image, Pinchy tries different quality levels and compares each one with your original using a visual similarity score (SSIM). It keeps the smallest file that still meets the bar for the preset you picked.

It looks most closely at the detailed parts of the picture, like edges and text, because that’s where compression shows first.

Balanced is the default: noticeably smaller files that look the same at normal viewing size. Looks identical keeps differences invisible even up close. Smallest squeezes hardest, for when size matters more than the finest detail.

Auto works out what each image is and picks the format that suits it. Photos become AVIF or WebP. Logos, icons and screenshots stay sharp as lossless or reduced-colour PNG or WebP, whichever is smaller. Animated GIFs stay animated, as GIF or WebP, whichever is smaller.

If AVIF turns out to be slow on your device, Pinchy switches to WebP for the rest of your visit.

Some places still only accept JPEG and PNG: older software, some upload portals and some messaging apps. With Max compatibility on, Auto picks JPEG for photos and PNG for everything else, and keeps animated GIFs as GIFs.

Yes. Open More settings and enter a size in Fit under. Pinchy finds the best quality that fits. If the image can’t get that small, it tells you, and offers to shrink the dimensions until it fits.

Photos often carry hidden details: where they were taken (GPS), the camera or phone model, the date and other settings. With this on (the default), Pinchy removes all of it, including from the images inside PDFs and Office files. Turn it off to keep it in JPEG, PNG and WebP files.

Sometimes an image is already as small as it can sensibly get. When re-saving would make it bigger, Pinchy gives you back the original instead. If you asked for location and camera data to be removed, it’s removed from the original too, without touching the picture.

Images: JPEG, PNG, WebP, AVIF and GIF. HEIC photos from iPhones work in Safari; other browsers can’t open them yet.

Documents: PDF, PowerPoint (.pptx), Word (.docx) and Excel (.xlsx). Older .ppt, .doc and .xls files aren’t supported.

Use the Convert folders, below the Compress ones. Pick the type you have (JPEG, PNG, WebP, AVIF or GIF), then what it should become. The Compress folders always keep each image in its own format; Auto picks a format for you.

You can also download any single image in another format from its download button.

Yes. Compressing them keeps every frame, and so does converting between GIF and WebP. JPEG, PNG and AVIF are still images here, so converting an animation to one of those keeps only the first frame, and Pinchy tells you when that happens.

Yes, in the Documents folders. What makes these files big is almost always the pictures inside, so Pinchy recompresses those, the same way it does any image, and scales down any bigger than 4K. Text, layout, fonts and links stay exactly as they are.

Scans and decks full of photos often shrink by half or more. Text-only PDFs barely shrink, because there’s almost nothing in them to squeeze. Password-protected PDFs can’t be opened, and embedded video and audio stay as they are.

Not on how many: add as many files as you like, or whole folders. Each image can be up to 50 MB and each document up to 200 MB. Images over 64 megapixels are scaled down to fit in your browser’s memory, and Pinchy tells you when it does.

Yes, all of it: compressing, converting, documents, Saliency mode, brand palettes and whole folders from your computer, with any number of files. There’s no paid version, no account and no watermarks.

Yes. After your first visit, Pinchy keeps itself on your device, so it works without a connection. The PDF tools and Saliency mode’s AI models download the first time you use them, then work offline too.