Blur or pixelate part of a photo
Hide faces, number plates and names before you share a picture. Pixelate, blur or black out any area; the download has its location data removed. The photo never leaves this device.
Open a photo, then drag over each face, plate or name to hide it.
Effect for new areas
Hiding text? A light blur on text can sometimes be undone, so for names, numbers and plates use Pixelate with big blocks (taller than the letters) or Fill.
Download
Privacy: the photo is processed in your browser and never uploaded. It is opened and changed inside this page with the browser's own canvas. Nothing is saved on this device after you close the tab, and the page keeps working in airplane mode once it has loaded.
How to blur or pixelate part of a photo
- Open the photo. Tap Choose a photo, drop the file on the box, or press Ctrl+V (⌘V on a Mac) after copying a screenshot. A phone photo is turned upright using its orientation tag.
- Mark what to hide. Box for plates and lines of text, Oval for faces, Brush for odd shapes such as a tattoo or a name on a shirt. Drag on the photo with a mouse or a finger; use + to zoom in on small details.
- Pick the effect. Pixelate is the default. Choose Blur for a softer look on faces, or Fill with a colour (black by default) to cover text completely. With an area selected, the effect and sliders change that area only.
- Fix the fit. Tap Select, then tap an area to drag it, pull a corner handle to resize it, or press Delete. Undo and Redo (Ctrl/⌘+Z, Shift+Ctrl/⌘+Z) step through every change.
- Download. JPG for photos (the quality slider trades size for detail) or PNG for screenshots. The file has the same width and height as the original and none of its metadata.
What it cannot do
- It does not find faces for you. You mark each face, plate or name yourself; nothing is detected automatically, so check the whole photo before you share it.
- Video is not supported. It works on one still image at a time (JPG, PNG, WebP, or any other picture your browser can open).
- Very large photos may fail on a phone. Above about 40 megapixels a phone browser can run out of memory. Some browsers, iPhone Safari among them, also cap how big a canvas may be; if the full size does not fit, the page says so and works on a smaller copy, and the download is then that smaller size.
- Areas are not kept. Close or reload the tab and the marked areas are gone; download first.
Pixelate, blur or fill: which hides what
| Effect | Good for | Watch out |
|---|---|---|
| Pixelate, big blocks | Faces, plates, names | Blocks smaller than the letters can leave text guessable |
| Blur | Faces and backgrounds, where a soft look matters | A light blur over text is the easiest of the three to undo |
| Fill | Text, card numbers, addresses, signatures | Nothing to undo: the pixels are replaced |
Sizes are in the photo's own pixels, so the same slider value hides the same amount at any zoom. A starting block size of about 1/60 of the photo's long side (67 px on a 4,000 px photo) turns a face into a handful of squares; a number plate in a wide street shot may need blocks as tall as its characters.
Questions
How do I blur a face in a photo on my phone?
On an iPhone or an Android phone, open this page in Safari or Chrome, tap Choose a photo and pick it from your library. Tap Oval, then drag a finger across the face; it is pixelated as soon as you lift your finger. Drag a corner handle to fit it, then tap Download. On Android the copy goes to Downloads; on iPhone it goes to Files, where Share → Save Image puts it in Photos.
How do I pixelate an image online for free?
Open the photo here, choose Box, Oval or Brush and mark the part to hide. Pixelate is the default; move Block size to make the squares bigger. There is no account, watermark or limit, and the pixelating runs on your own device rather than on an online server.
Can pixelated or blurred text be read back?
Sometimes. A light blur or small pixel blocks over text can be partly reversed: researchers have recovered pixelated numbers and words by trying candidate text until the pixelated result matches. Blocks bigger than the letters leave almost nothing to match, and a fill leaves nothing at all. For names, card numbers, addresses and plates use Fill, or Pixelate with blocks at least as tall as the text.
Does it remove location data from the photo?
Yes. The download is a new JPG or PNG drawn from the pixels, so none of the original file's metadata is copied: no GPS location, no camera or phone model, no date taken, no EXIF at all. The photo is turned upright first, so dropping the orientation tag does not leave it sideways. To strip metadata without changing any pixels, use the EXIF remover.
Is my photo uploaded?
No. The photo is opened and changed inside this page with the browser's own canvas. The page sends only an anonymous page-view count and two fixed event names (open and download), never the photo, its file name or its size.