Blur Image
Blur faces, license plates and sensitive details without uploading your photo. Paint or drag a rectangle over what to hide, pick blur or pixelate, and download the full-resolution result — everything happens in your browser.
Drop an image here
or drop anywhere on this page · Choose a file · 100 MB
Accepted: Image
How does Blur Image work?
Redaction is a compositing problem, not a filter problem. Blurring the whole photo would destroy it; the trick is to change only the marked regions and leave every other pixel byte-identical. This page copies each region's bounding box, applies the effect to the copy, clips it to the region's exact shape with a mask, and draws it back over the original.
How the blur stays clean at the edges
A Gaussian blur samples neighbouring pixels, so blurring a tight box would drag in transparent black from outside and leave a dark fringe. The page blurs a padded area around each region instead, then the mask trims the padding away. Edges come out soft with no halo.
How pixelation works
Pixelation shrinks the region down to block-sized cells and stretches it back with smoothing disabled, so each cell becomes one flat colour — the classic mosaic. Larger blocks hide more; smaller blocks keep a hint of shape. Brush strokes get the same treatment through the same mask, so a painted squiggle pixelates exactly where you painted.
The honest limits
A heavy blur or large mosaic is not reversible from the download — the original pixels are gone. But a light blur can sometimes be partially undone with sharpening tools, so for genuinely sensitive material use a strong radius or big blocks. And this page hides things; it does not remove metadata — strip EXIF separately if the file itself must not identify you.
Example input
photo.jpg — a picture with a face, plate or document to hide
Example output
photo-blurred.png — the same photo at full resolution with the marked regions blurred
What options and edge cases does Blur Image support?
| Parameter | Type | Default | Behaviour & edge cases |
|---|---|---|---|
| Brush | freehand | 80 px | Paint directly over what to hide. The stroke follows your pointer exactly, with round caps so a tap becomes a dot. |
| Rectangle | selection | — | Drag a box over a face, plate or document. Rectangles are exact and fast for anything roughly box-shaped. |
| Blur | Gaussian | 16 px radius | Soft blur with an adjustable radius. Higher values melt detail further; the mask keeps edges fringe-free. |
| Pixelate | mosaic | 24 px blocks | Classic mosaic with an adjustable block size. Bigger blocks hide more aggressively and read as intentional redaction. |
| Zoom | 0.25×–8× | fit | Scroll to zoom towards the cursor, drag with the Pan tool to move. Small text needs a close zoom for precise edges. |
| Export | PNG / JPG / WebP | PNG, full resolution | The finished image is rendered at your photo's original dimensions and encoded in this tab. PNG is lossless; JPG and WebP take a quality setting. |
| Privacy | local only | — | All processing runs in this tab. The page loads no models and makes no network requests for your photo — there is nothing to intercept because nothing is sent. |
Frequently asked questions
Is my photo uploaded anywhere?
No. The photo is decoded, edited and re-encoded entirely in your browser tab. Open DevTools on the Network panel while blurring: no image data is ever sent anywhere, because the page has no server endpoint to send it to.
Can the blur be reversed?
Not from the download — the blurred pixels replace the originals, so the file you save genuinely no longer contains the detail. But a light blur can sometimes be partially sharpened back, so for sensitive material use a strong radius or large mosaic blocks rather than the gentlest setting.
Should I choose blur or pixelate?
Blur looks natural and draws less attention — good for faces in otherwise normal photos. Pixelate reads as deliberate redaction and hides more aggressively at large block sizes — good for plates, documents and screenshots. Both are equally local; it is purely an aesthetic and strength choice.
How do I blur precisely around small text?
Zoom in first: scroll towards the text until it fills the view, then paint with a small brush or drag a tight rectangle. The preview renders the effect live, so you can see exactly what will be hidden before you export.
What format should I export?
PNG is lossless and the safest default — what you see is exactly what is saved. JPG is smaller for sharing but re-compresses the photo; WebP is smaller still and supported by every current browser. The export is always your photo's original dimensions regardless of format.
Does blurring remove location or camera data?
No — blurring changes pixels, not metadata. A photo's EXIF can still carry GPS coordinates, the camera model and timestamps. If the file itself must not identify you, strip EXIF with a dedicated tool before sharing.
Which related tools should I use next?
- Remove BackgroundRemove image backgrounds in your browser with AI. Transparent PNG, no upload.
- Crop ImageDrag or type a rectangle; the pixels kept are untouched.
- EXIF RemoverSee the camera, GPS position and serial number inside a photo, then strip all of it.
- Compress ImageHit a file size, or pick a quality and see the cost.