Does Reddit Remove EXIF Data From Images?

What Reddit says

Reddit has no help page that lists which photo metadata it removes. The closest official text is in the Reddit User Agreement. It says that you agree that Reddit "may remove metadata associated with Your Content". The word "may" is not a promise.

A Reddit app for moderators, called Safe Upload, points the same way. Its page says that photos can hold GPS location, device information and time stamps that people do not know about, and the app scans a photo and gives the user a clean copy before they post. A community developer built it. It is not a statement by Reddit about how Reddit handles uploads.

What the test found

In October 2026, Narqo posted test images to 11 platforms and read the copies that the platforms serve. The Reddit result:

The test was run on 2026-10-20 with one upload and one account. Reddit's full-size original is not public, so Narqo checked the gallery copy at 1080 pixels, which is the copy that viewers see. Narqo also found that every platform re-saved the image. None passed the original file through. That is probably why the metadata was gone: the new copy was made without it.

What may stay

• Images on other sites. If you post a link to an image on your own site, a cloud drive or another image host, Reddit does not process that file. Anyone who opens the link gets the original.
• The original file at Reddit. Reddit gets the file you upload. The test cannot show what Reddit reads or keeps before it makes the public copy.
• Videos and other post types. We found no test of video posts. A 2026 page by imgscrub says videos and some gallery posts have been less consistent. It gives no test data, so we cannot confirm it.
• The picture itself. A street sign, a shop front or a reflection can show where you are. Metadata removal does not change what you can see.

How to check what Reddit shows

1. Open a test photo in the WipePic EXIF viewer and note its GPS, date and camera fields.
2. Post it in a private place, for example your own profile or a test community that you moderate.
3. Open the image on Reddit at full size and save it to your computer.
4. Open the saved file in the EXIF viewer and look for GPS, camera and date fields.

The viewer runs in your browser. Your photos are not uploaded. Test with the same kind of post that you plan to make, for example a single image or a gallery.

How to remove the metadata before you post

1. Open WipePic and add your photos.
2. Select Remove Metadata. WipePic shows the metadata it found in each photo.
3. Save the cleaned photos. Several photos come as one ZIP file.
4. Upload the cleaned photos to Reddit.

WipePic does not re-encode the photo, so the pixels stay the same. It keeps the orientation and the color profile, and it removes the location, camera details, dates, author fields and AI labels. It does not blur faces or remove things that you can see in the picture. See also how to remove the location from a photo.

Sources

Narqo, "Which platforms strip image metadata? We tested 11", tested 2026-10-20 (narqo.com). Reddit User Agreement (redditinc.com). Safe Upload, Reddit for Developers, version 0.0.17, May 2026 (developers.reddit.com). imgscrub, "Does Reddit remove EXIF data?", 2026 (imgscrub.com). Checked on 2026-11-08. The test covers one upload, and Reddit can change its behavior without notice.