Image Metadata Viewer guide
See what a photo reveals before you share it. Drop in a JPEG to read its EXIF metadata, including camera model, exposure settings, date taken, and GPS coordinates, plus dimensions, megapixels, and file size for any image.
What is hiding inside your photos
Every photo from a phone or camera carries more than pixels. The EXIF block, short for Exchangeable Image File Format, records the device make and model, the lens, shutter speed, aperture, ISO, focal length, whether the flash fired, how the camera was rotated, the exact date and time, the software that last edited the file, and, if location services were on, GPS latitude, longitude, and altitude.
Most of that is harmless and useful. Photographers use it to learn from their settings, and photo apps use the date and orientation to sort and rotate pictures. The GPS fields are the ones to worry about: coordinates in a photo of your front porch, your kid's school, or your car in the driveway are a home address in disguise.
How this viewer reads metadata
When you pick a file, the page reads its bytes with the browser's File API. Nothing is uploaded. For JPEGs, it scans the file's segments for the APP1 block tagged Exif, then walks the TIFF structure inside: the main image directory (IFD0), the Exif sub-directory with camera settings, and the GPS directory. Values are decoded from their raw types, such as rational numbers stored as numerator and denominator pairs.
GPS coordinates are stored as degrees, minutes, and seconds plus a hemisphere letter. The viewer converts them to decimal degrees with decimal = degrees + minutes ÷ 60 + seconds ÷ 3600, and makes the value negative for S or W. So 40° 44′ 54.36″ N, 73° 59′ 8.5″ W becomes 40.748433, −73.985694, which is Midtown Manhattan, near the Empire State Building.
Separately, the image is decoded by the browser to report its true pixel dimensions, megapixels, and simplified aspect ratio, which works for any format your browser supports.
Worked example: reading camera settings
A typical phone photo might show Exposure 1/120 s, F-number f/1.8, ISO 100, and Focal length 26 mm (35mm equivalent). In plain terms: a fast shutter that freezes casual motion, a wide aperture that lets in plenty of light, low sensor gain for minimal noise, and a standard wide-angle field of view. If a similar shot came out blurry at 1/15 s and ISO 1600, the metadata tells you why: the scene was dark, so the phone slowed the shutter and cranked up the gain.
Megapixels come from width × height ÷ 1,000,000. A 4032 × 3024 image, a common 12 MP phone resolution, is 12.19 megapixels with a 4:3 aspect ratio.
Where metadata survives, and where it does not
Large social networks generally strip EXIF, including location, from photos when you post them publicly. But plenty of channels pass the original file through untouched: email attachments, shared links from cloud drives, messaging apps when you send a photo as a file or original quality, many online marketplaces, and personal websites or blogs where you upload the original.
The safest habit is simple: check before you share originals, especially photos taken at home. On an iPhone, the share sheet has an Options button at the top where you can switch off Location for that share. Android camera apps have a location-tagging setting you can turn off entirely.
Removing metadata
Windows: right-click the file, choose Properties, open the Details tab, and click Remove Properties and Personal Information. You can remove everything or pick fields. macOS Preview shows location under Tools > Show Inspector and lets you remove it. On phones, disable location tagging in the camera settings to stop it at the source.
Any tool that re-encodes an image through a browser canvas, including the image resizer on this site, outputs a clean file with no EXIF, because canvas exports contain only pixels. That is a quick way to scrub a photo without installing anything.
Limits worth knowing
EXIF is read from JPEG files. PNG, WebP, and HEIC can also carry metadata in their own containers, which this viewer does not parse yet. Metadata is also easy to edit, so treat it as a clue rather than proof: dates can be wrong if the camera clock was never set, and anyone can rewrite GPS fields.
How we calculate: sources
Frequently asked questions
What is EXIF data?
Metadata that cameras and phones write into JPEG files: camera make and model, lens, shutter speed, aperture, ISO, date and time, orientation, and often GPS coordinates. It is defined by the EXIF standard maintained by CIPA and JEITA.
Can a photo reveal where it was taken?
Yes, if location tagging was on. Phones can store latitude and longitude accurate to a few meters. This viewer shows the coordinates and a map link, and warns you when a file contains them.
Do Instagram and Facebook remove EXIF data?
Major social networks generally strip location metadata from public uploads. Email attachments, cloud-drive links, messaging apps set to send original files, and many forums and marketplaces can keep it, so check before sending originals.
How do I remove location data from a photo?
On iPhone, tap Options in the share sheet and turn off Location before sending. On Windows, open the file's Properties, go to Details, and click Remove Properties and Personal Information. Resizing an image here also re-encodes it without EXIF.
Which formats does it read?
EXIF is read from JPEG files, which is what most cameras and phones produce when set to Most Compatible. Dimensions, file size, and type work for any image your browser can open, including PNG, WebP, and GIF.
Why does my iPhone photo show no metadata?
iPhones save HEIC by default, and many browsers other than Safari cannot open HEIC. Also, photos exported from some apps or downloaded from social media have already had their EXIF stripped.
Is the image uploaded?
Everything runs in your browser. Nothing you enter is uploaded to a server or stored by us.
Can EXIF data prove when a photo was taken?
Not on its own. The date comes from the device clock, which can be wrong, and EXIF fields are easy to edit. Investigators combine it with other evidence rather than relying on it alone.
Does taking a screenshot remove EXIF data?
Yes. A screenshot is a new image, so it does not carry the original photo's camera settings or GPS coordinates, though it records its own basic details depending on the device.