Remove GPS location from a photo
Every phone photo carries a hidden tag with the coordinates where you stood — your home, your child's school, the hotel you are staying at right now. Drop a photo here and the tool rewrites only the metadata blocks: GPS, camera data and timestamps go, and the pixels stay byte-for-byte identical. Nothing is uploaded, nothing is re-encoded.
- Nothing is uploaded
- Lossless — pixels untouched
- GPS: removed
- Unlimited & free
Drop your photos here
or paste from the clipboard · ⌘V / Ctrl+V works too
JPG · PNG · WebP — lossless scrubbing · no file count limit
Scrub plan
Each row shows what the file contains before you download the clean copy. EXIF (including GPS), XMP and IPTC blocks are removed in one pass; the image data is not touched.
What is actually hiding inside your photo
A photo from any phone or camera is two things in one file: the image you see, and a metadata block called EXIF that you do not. The EXIF block is written the instant the shutter fires, and what phones record by default is more than most people expect. Want to see the actual records in your file before deciding? The EXIF viewer reads them out in place — GPS, camera, timestamps and all — without uploading anything either.
| Data | What it says about you | After this tool |
|---|---|---|
| GPS coordinates (latitude and longitude) | Where you stood, to within a few metres — home, work, school | Removed |
| Date and exact time | Your routines and movements over time | Removed |
| Device make, model and serial | Which phone you own; can tie photos to one device | Removed |
| Camera settings, software, thumbnails | Fingerprinting material; embedded originals can survive edits | Removed |
| XMP and IPTC blocks | Copies of location and description used by pro software | Removed |
| Orientation flag | Which way up the photo is displayed | Goes with EXIF — affected files are flagged, see the FAQ |
| The image itself | — | Kept byte-for-byte |
If the only thing you want is to remove location data, this is the right tool: sharing a photo with the coordinates still inside it is the exact case it exists for.
How the removal works — and why nothing else can change
Metadata lives in container segments that sit next to the compressed pixels, not inside them. This tool copies the image data through untouched and rewrites only those segments: the EXIF block (which carries the GPS coordinates), the XMP packet and the IPTC record. There is no decode step and no re-encode step, so the picture in the saved file is byte-for-byte identical to the one you dropped in — same sharpness, same colours, same file size minus the metadata.
You do not have to trust the promise, and you should not: after saving, open the file's properties on any operating system, or run it through any EXIF viewer — this site's or anyone else's. The location will be gone, and the image will compare identical to the original, byte for byte.
The honest caveat: the orientation flag
Portrait photos are often stored landscape with an EXIF flag that tells software to rotate them on display. That flag lives inside the EXIF block and leaves with it. Most modern apps cope; some do not, and a photo can end up lying on its side. The tool shows an ORIENTATION badge on every affected file so nothing surprises you. If a scrubbed photo does come out sideways, run it through HEIC to JPG or the compressor afterwards — both read the orientation and bake it into the actual pixels, so the photo stands upright everywhere. That second step re-encodes, but at that point you are changing the file on purpose.
When you actually need this
- Selling things on marketplaces. A photo of a bicycle in your driveway, posted with GPS intact, is an address. Buyers do not need it.
- Photos of children. School runs, sports days, birthdays — a coordinate plus a timestamp is information a stranger should not get from a shared photo.
- Travel photos posted while away. Coordinates that say “not home” add a physical dimension to a burglar's map. Post them after you are back, scrubbed.
- Documents and screenshots of your screen. A photo of a letter, an ID card or a screen also carries GPS. The visible content may be what you meant to share; the location is not.
- Anywhere the original file can be downloaded. Big social platforms usually strip EXIF on upload — but marketplaces, forums, classified sites, email attachments and shared cloud links frequently do not. If you do not know, scrub first.
One more thing a scrub cannot fix
Metadata removal only clears the hidden layer. What is visible in the frame still speaks: a house number, a street sign, a school badge on a uniform, a reflected face in a window. The strongest habit is framing with privacy in mind, and a light crop when the background gives away more than it should.
Related tools
Inspect what a photo reveals with the EXIF viewer; scrub and then add a title or copyright with the Metadata editor; convert the iPhone format with HEIC to JPG; tidy filenames with Batch rename; and shrink the result for the web with the compressor. Everything runs in your browser, with no upload.
Frequently asked questions
Does this really remove the GPS data?
Yes. GPS coordinates live in the EXIF metadata block of the file, not in the pixels, and this tool removes that block wholesale — along with the XMP and IPTC blocks where copies of the location can hide. What each file contained is shown per row before you download anything, and you can verify the result afterwards with the site's EXIF viewer or your operating system's file properties: the location will be gone.
Does the location in my photo track me after I've left a place?
Yes — that is the whole point of the field. The GPS record holds a latitude and a longitude that still describe the spot you were standing in weeks later, so anyone who receives the original file can drop it on a map and see where. The timestamp beside it extends the trail: two shots from the same morning place you twice. Scrubbing the metadata removes both, and the picture itself is untouched.
Is the removal lossless?
Yes — that is the point of this tool. Metadata lives in container segments that sit next to the pixels, not inside them, so only those segments are rewritten. The compressed image data is copied byte-for-byte: the picture is never decoded or re-encoded, its quality cannot change, and the file size moves by the size of the metadata itself — usually a few kilobytes.
The photo relied on the orientation flag — will it lie on its side afterwards?
Possibly, and it is only fair to warn you. Portrait photos are often stored landscape with an EXIF orientation flag that says rotate on display. The flag is part of the EXIF block and goes with it. Most modern apps detect and handle this, but if a photo ends up sideways, run it through the HEIC to JPG or compress tool afterwards — both apply the orientation to the actual pixels so the photo stays upright everywhere. The tool flags affected files with an ORIENTATION badge before you download.
Which social platforms strip location data anyway?
Most large platforms — Facebook, Instagram, X, WhatsApp — strip EXIF on upload, so the risk there is small. But marketplaces, forums, email, cloud links shared as files, and any site that lets people download the original usually do not. If you do not know which camp a destination is in, strip the data before it leaves your device.
What about iPhone HEIC photos?
Lossless metadata surgery is offered for JPG, PNG and WebP. HEIC files are passed through untouched rather than half-processed — a privacy tool must not hand you back a file that still contains what it claimed to remove. Convert the photo with the HEIC to JPG tool first, then scrub the JPG here; the conversion runs in your browser too.
Does taking a screenshot of the photo remove the location?
Yes — a screenshot has no EXIF of the original photo. But it also throws away image quality, and it does nothing about what is visible in the frame itself: a house number, a street sign or a school name identifies a location just as precisely as a coordinate.
Are my photos uploaded to a server?
No. This is a static site with no upload endpoint. The files are read and rewritten in your browser, on your own device — you can watch the network tab and confirm that nothing leaves it. That matters double here, because a photo sensitive enough to need scrubbing is sensitive enough not to send anywhere first.