EXIF viewer
Drop a photo below to see what it quietly carries: GPS coordinates, the camera and its serial number, the software that touched it, and the exact moment it was taken. Then download a copy with all of it removed. The file is read in your browser and never uploaded.
Drop a photo here
or click to choose one. Nothing is uploaded.
What EXIF data usually contains
- GPS coordinates. Latitude, longitude, and often altitude, written by any phone with location access for the camera. This is the field worth caring about.
- Date and time. When the shutter fired, plus a separate UTC timestamp from the GPS satellite fix.
- Camera and lens. Make, model, lens, and on many bodies a unique serial number that links every photo you have ever published to the same camera.
- Owner and author fields. Some cameras are configured once with a name or copyright line and stamp it into every frame.
- Software history. The editor that last wrote the file, which can reveal that an image was processed and with what.
Why it matters
A single holiday photo posted publicly is harmless. A photo of a pet in a back garden, posted with GPS intact, gives a street address. The risk is not one image but the pattern across many: the same camera serial number ties accounts together, and repeated coordinates map out where somebody lives, works, and goes on a Tuesday morning.
Large social platforms usually strip metadata during upload, so the common exposure is not Instagram. It is the original file sent by email, shared in a cloud folder, attached to a marketplace listing, or handed over as a document. Those keep everything.
How to remove EXIF data
- Load the photo into the viewer above.
- Read what is actually there. Coordinates and serial numbers are flagged.
- Press Download a clean copy. The image is redrawn from its pixels, so no metadata block survives into the new file.
Stripping metadata does not touch what is visible in the picture. Street signs, house numbers, screens, name badges, and reflections are all still there, and reverse image search reads them fine. If the photo itself shows something private, cover it in the Redacted editor first. Everything exported from the editor already has its metadata stripped.
Supported files
JPEG carries a full EXIF block and gives the most complete result. PNG has no EXIF block, but can hold text chunks written by editors, and those are shown when present. Screenshots normally contain nothing, because no camera was involved.
Related
- Remove EXIF data from a photo
- Blur a license plate
- Redact a face in a photo
- Can redacted images be unredacted?
FAQ
What is EXIF data?
EXIF (Exchangeable Image File Format) is a block of information your camera writes inside the image file itself. It typically records the camera make and model, lens, exposure settings, the date and time the shot was taken, and on phones the GPS coordinates. It travels with the file, so it reaches anyone you send the photo to.
Does this EXIF viewer upload my photo?
No. The file is read in your browser with JavaScript and never leaves your device. There is no server, no account, and no log of what you opened. You can confirm it by loading the page, going offline, and checking a photo anyway.
Can EXIF data really show where a photo was taken?
Yes, if location services were on for the camera app. Phones write GPS latitude and longitude accurate to a few metres, and often altitude and a UTC timestamp too. That is precise enough to identify a home, a school, or a workplace from a single photo.
Do social networks remove EXIF data?
Most large platforms strip it when they re-encode an upload, but you should not rely on that. It does not apply to files sent through email, chat apps in document mode, cloud links, or file transfer services, and it does not help if someone downloads the original from you directly.
How do I remove EXIF data from a photo?
Load the photo above and use Download a clean copy. The image is re-encoded from its pixels, so every metadata block is dropped, including GPS, camera serial numbers and timestamps. The picture itself is unchanged apart from JPEG re-compression.
Why does my screenshot have no EXIF data?
Screenshots are generated by the operating system rather than a camera, so there is no camera or GPS block to write. PNG files can still carry text chunks added by editors, and this viewer shows those if they are present.