Image Crop

Crop an image to a custom aspect ratio or pixel dimensions

Click to select or drop a file here

How it works

Image Crop — Crop an image to a custom aspect ratio or pixel dimensions. All processing happens in your browser — no upload, no signup, no email required. Free forever.

Last updated: 2026-05-06

Editor's note

We obsess over the crop preview because the moment of "is this the right crop?" should never require imagining the final image. Early on we shipped a version where the cut zone was just an outline — bright handles, light dashed border, the kind of thing every cropping UI gets away with. It was a disaster. People consistently kept too much background and threw away the subject's chin, because outlines lie about what survives. The eye reads the whole frame and assumes the whole frame is the output.

The dark mask over the discard area is the fix. It is heavier than it needs to be on purpose — your eye stops parsing the masked region as part of the image and you start composing on the bright square only. Five extra pixels of mask opacity cut our "why did it crop my head off" support emails to zero. Every UI choice here is downstream of that one lesson about what humans actually look at when they crop.

About Image Crop

Image Crop trims an image down to the part you actually want — perfect for fixing tilted horizons, removing distractions, or producing a square avatar from a wide photo. Cropping is one of the most common image edits and it shouldn't require launching a 2 GB design app every time.

It's the go-to for social media managers preparing posts at platform-specific aspect ratios, real estate agents trimming property photos, e-commerce sellers centring products, and anyone who just needs a clean profile picture from a group shot. Pick a ratio, drag the handles, download.

The cropping happens entirely on a canvas in your browser — the source image never leaves the device, which matters when the photo is personal, confidential, or under NDA.

How to use Image Crop

Upload an image by dropping it on the canvas or browsing for a file.
Pick an aspect ratio: Free, 1:1, 16:9, 4:3, 3:2, or 9:16 — your choice locks the crop box proportions.
Drag the crop box to reposition it; pull the bottom-right handle to resize it within the chosen ratio.
Use the live preview to confirm the framing — the dimmed area will be discarded.
Click Download to save the cropped image as a lossless PNG.

Common use cases

Cropping a 16:9 landscape into a 1:1 Instagram post without losing the subject.
Producing a 9:16 vertical from a horizontal shot for TikTok or Reels.
Trimming a product photo so it fills the frame edge-to-edge for a marketplace listing.
Cutting a clean headshot out of a group photo for a LinkedIn profile.
Removing a distracting watermark or timestamp from the corner of a screenshot.

Tips & common mistakes

Use the rule of thirds: position the subject's eyes (for portraits) or the horizon (for landscapes) on the upper third line for a more balanced composition.
Lock the ratio that matches your final destination before you crop — adjusting the ratio later means re-cropping.
Crop before resize. Cropping a 4000 px image, then resizing the cropped result, gives a sharper output than resizing first.
If you need to crop the same way across many photos (e.g. a product set), do them one after another at the same fixed ratio so the results feel cohesive.

Frequently asked questions

Is the crop done in the browser?

Yes. We use HTML canvas to render and crop the image entirely on your device — the source image is never uploaded.

Can I lock to a specific aspect ratio?

Pick from 1:1, 16:9, 4:3, 3:2 or 9:16. The handle on the bottom-right resizes the crop while keeping the chosen ratio. 'Free' lets width and height move independently.

Will the output be lossless?

We export to PNG by default, which is lossless. JPEGs that are cropped and re-encoded as PNG keep their original pixel data with no extra loss.

Can I crop to exact pixel dimensions?

The current UI uses aspect-ratio-locked dragging. For pixel-precise output, crop to roughly the right size and then run Image Resize on the result with the exact dimensions you need.

Why does my cropped JPG export as PNG?

PNG is lossless, so cropping a JPG and re-saving as PNG keeps every original pixel without an extra encoding pass. If you need JPG output, run Image Convert on the cropped PNG.

Is there an undo if I crop too tightly?

Re-upload the original to start over — your file is still on your device. The tool deliberately doesn't keep edits because it never sees a server.