Compress a PNG to 200 KB and keep the transparency
PNG is the format for logos, icons, screenshots, diagrams, and anything with a transparent background, but it's also the format most likely to blow past an upload limit. A full-color PNG stores every pixel exactly, so a single screenshot can weigh 2 to 5 MB. Website builders, marketplaces, forums, help desks, application portals, and email systems often cap images at around 200 KB. This tool gets a PNG under that limit while keeping it a real PNG, with transparency intact and edges sharp.
Everything runs in your browser. Images are never uploaded.
How to use it
- Choose one or more images, or drop them onto the box. PNG, WebP, GIF, JPG, BMP, and AVIF all work, and each result is saved as a PNG.
- Keep the 200 KB target, pick 100, 150, or 300 KB, or type your own.
- Leave What matters most on "Balanced" unless you need every original color or the exact original dimensions.
- Leave Dithering on Auto, or choose Off for screenshots, pixel art, and flat-color logos.
- Hold Hold to compare to check the result, then download one image or the whole batch as a ZIP.
How PNG compression works here
PNG has no quality slider like JPG. Its compression is always lossless, so the only ways to make a PNG smaller are to give it fewer pixels or fewer distinct colors. The tool tries these steps in order and stops as soon as the file fits:
- Lossless first. It re-saves the image with every original color. If that already fits, you get a pixel-perfect file.
- Reduce the colors. A standard PNG stores up to 16.7 million colors with 4 bytes per pixel. An 8-bit palette PNG stores up to 256 colors with 1 byte per pixel, which is often 60 to 80 percent smaller. The tool picks the 256 colors that best represent your image, including partly transparent ones, so soft shadows and anti-aliased edges survive. This is the same technique popular PNG compressors use.
- Resize only if needed. If 256 colors still don't fit, the image is scaled down just enough to reach the target, then fine-tuned so it lands close to the limit.
If an image already uses 256 or fewer exact colors, as many screenshots, icons, and logos do, the palette version is still lossless. The card says "lossless" whenever no pixel was changed.
Choosing a setting
| Setting | What it does | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Balanced | Uses full color if it fits, otherwise 256 colors, and resizes only as a last resort. | Almost everything |
| Every original color | Never reduces colors. Makes the image smaller in pixels until it fits. | Brand colors, medical or scientific images, files you'll edit later |
| Dimensions | Keeps the width and height and steps down from 256 colors toward 2 until the file fits. | Icons, diagrams, and forms that check pixel size |
Dithering
With a limited palette, smooth gradients can break into visible bands. Dithering mixes neighboring palette colors in a fine pattern so the eye sees a smooth blend. The catch is size: that fine pattern compresses poorly and can nearly double the file. On Auto, the tool dithers only when the image still fits at full size. Otherwise it skips dithering instead of making the image smaller. Choose Always for photos and gradients where banding bothers you, or Off for screenshots, text, and pixel art, where dithering just adds speckles.
What fits in 200 KB as a PNG?
| Kind of image | Typical result at 200 KB |
|---|---|
| Logo or icon with transparency | Full size, often lossless |
| Screenshot of an app or web page | Full size at 256 colors, often around 1920 px wide |
| Chart, diagram, or illustration | Full size, with few visible changes |
| Product photo on a transparent background | About 1,000 to 1,400 px at 256 colors |
| Full photo with no transparency | About 700 to 1,000 px. JPG would be much sharper at this size. |
These are rough figures. The tool encodes and measures every image instead of guessing.
PNG, JPG, or WebP?
- Keep PNG for transparency, sharp text and lines, screenshots, logos, and anything that must stay lossless.
- Use JPG for ordinary photos without transparency. A photo that needs 200 KB as a PNG can look better at 60 KB as a JPG.
- Use WebP on your own website when your platform supports it. It handles both photos and transparency in smaller files, but many forms and older apps still expect PNG or JPG.
Frequently asked questions
Does the compressed PNG keep its transparent background?
Yes. Fully transparent areas stay transparent, and partly transparent pixels, like soft shadows and smooth edges, get their own palette entries so they blend correctly on any background.
Is PNG compression lossless?
The PNG format itself is always lossless. Reducing the number of colors is a change to the image, though, so the result is lossless only when the image already had 256 colors or fewer, or when the full-color version fits. The card tells you which one you got.
Are my images uploaded?
No. Decoding, color reduction, and PNG encoding all happen inside your browser tab, and nothing is sent to a server.
My PNG is already under 200 KB. What happens?
It's kept exactly as is, unless you've set a pixel size or a longest-side limit it exceeds. Re-saving it wouldn't make it better.
Why is my screenshot speckled?
Dithering adds a fine dot pattern to smooth gradients, which looks noisy on flat areas and text. Set Dithering to Off and the screenshot will usually come out cleaner and smaller.
Does it remove metadata?
Yes. The new PNG contains only the image itself. Text chunks, color profiles, and camera data from the original aren't copied, which also saves a little space.
Why did my photo get much smaller in pixels?
Photos contain far more distinct colors and fine detail than PNG handles efficiently. If you don't need transparency, save photos as JPG instead, which keeps them much larger at the same file size.