Google’s free Sqoosh tool takes the guesswork out of image compression

Large image files can slow down websites, clog up your inbox, and eat away at your storage, but my favorite image compression tool, Squoosh, makes fixing that surprisingly simple. Not only does it reduce your image files, but it also allows you to compare the before an after versions before you save the file.

If you’ve ever needed to shrink an image for a website, email, or cloud storage, you know that you usually tradeoff smaller file sizes for worse image quality. Squoosh makes that tradeoff much easier to understand. It’s a free web app from GoogleChromeLabs that compresses images right in your browser and lets you compare the original and compressed versions side by side with a draggable divider.

Just drag or paste an image onto the page and Squoosh automatically starts compression. You can resize the image, adjust compression settings, and convert it to modern formats such as WebP or AVIF. As you make changes, the preview updates in real time so you can use the divider to spot any loss in quality before saving. It also tells you exactly how much space you’ll save, which takes the guesswork out of the process.

I use it whenever I need to upload images to a website or send large photos by email. Cutting a file from several megabytes down to a few hundred kilobytes can really improve page load times, help your attachments send quicker, and stretch that cloud storage just a little further. And because everything happens in your browser, you don’t need to install anything or upload your photos to a server to make Squoosh work.

If you work with images even once in a while, Squoosh is one of those simple tools that’s worth bookmarking. I use it all of the time and for those who are visual like me, it takes the guesswork out of image compression.

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