Best Photo Metadata Removers Compared (2026)

How we compared

We looked at four things: where the tool processes your photos, which photo formats it handles, what limits it sets and what it costs. We took facts about other tools from their own sites and documents. The web tools in the table were checked on November 6, 2026, and ExifTool and mat2 again on November 8, 2026. A tool can change after those dates.

WipePic is our product. The same facts, with a source for each cell, are on the alternatives page. Where a page does not say something, we write unknown.

The tools side by side

Desktop and command-line tools

ExifTool is the reference. It reads and writes the most file types, handles whole folders and fits into scripts. It is also the engine under several other tools. The trade-off is the command line, and its own site says that deleting all metadata is not guaranteed to be complete in every format. See the ExifTool commands.

ExifCleaner puts ExifTool in a window. You drop files in, and it handles photos, video and PDF. Its README describes a local app with no network access and no telemetry. The builds are not code-signed, so your system warns on the first launch, and it has the same writer limits as ExifTool.

mat2 is a command-line tool. It never edits in place by default: it writes a new file such as photo.cleaned.jpg. Its README says that it may alter file data to remove more metadata, for example by compressing images again, and that a light mode (-L) removes only some metadata. It needs Python and several libraries. It also warns that an empty result from its show option does not prove that a file is clean.

Built-in options

Windows: right-click a photo, choose Properties > Details > Remove Properties and Personal Information, then create a copy with all possible properties removed. It removes what Windows lists for that file and nothing more. Read our Windows guide for the steps.

iPhone: in the Photos app, tap share, tap Options and turn off Location. This changes the shared copy and keeps the original unchanged, and it controls the location only. The Apple pages we read do not describe it as removing other metadata. See our iPhone guide.

Browser tools

WipePic cleans eight photo formats in your browser. It does not re-encode the image, so the pixels do not change, and it reads each cleaned file again and saves it only if no removable metadata is left. Several files download as one ZIP, and it works on a phone. It also removes AI labels and Content Credentials. Its limits: it is not open source yet, it has no per-field choice of what to keep, it does not handle video, PDF or Office files, and it cannot remove pixel watermarks such as Google SynthID.

StripShot, MetadataRemover.dev, AIMetadataRemover.io and PixSip also work in the browser, with free tiers that have caps, as the table shows. StripShot also has features that WipePic does not, such as video cleaning on its paid plans. MetadataRemover.dev says it works offline once the page has loaded. Our own dated comparison with StripShot is on the StripShot page.

ImageStripper uploads photos to its server. That may be fine for non-sensitive photos, but it is a different privacy trade-off, and you should know it before you pick it.

How to choose

• Many formats, video, RAW or scripts: ExifTool or ExifCleaner.
• No install, photos from a phone, a batch of up to 300: WipePic.
• One quick location removal on a phone or a PC: the built-in option.
• Sensitive photos and a web tool: run the upload test first.
• Whatever you pick: open the result in a viewer, such as the EXIF viewer, and look.

Sources

exiftool.org, ExifCleaner README, mat2 README, Apple Support, manage location metadata in Photos, stripshot.app, metadataremover.dev, aimetadataremover.io, pixsip.com and imagestripper.com. Details and exact cell sources are on the alternatives page. We did not run our own tests of ExifTool, mat2 or the built-in options for this page.