Compress images on your Mac and make photos smaller
Shrink a JPEG, PNG, HEIC or WebP without losing the quality you care about. Do one photo or a whole folder, watch the MB drop, keep the format. Fully offline, no upload limit.
$29 once, updates included. No account, no subscription, works offline. Need 2, 5 or 10 Macs?
How to compress an image on your Mac
- 1
Drop your photos in
Drag one image, a hundred, or a whole folder into Picmal.
- 2
Pick the quality
Move the slider to trade file size against quality. 80-85% is the usual sweet spot.
- 3
Compress
Click Compress. Your smaller files are ready, in the same format.
Real control over size and quality
Quality slider
For JPG, WebP and AVIF you set the quality and see the trade-off. 80-85% usually cuts the file 60-70% with nothing you'd notice on screen.
Lossless where it matters
PNG and TIFF get smaller without throwing away a single pixel. Right for screenshots, logos and diagrams.
Whole folders at once
Drag in hundreds of images or a nested folder and apply one setting to all of them. No uploading one file at a time.
Nothing leaves your Mac
Compression runs locally. No upload, no queue, no file-size cap, and your photos never touch someone else's server.
When you actually need this
Phone and camera photos are enormous now. A single shot off an iPhone can be 5 MB, a RAW file ten times that. Most of the time you just need it small enough to send, upload, or store.
It won't fit in an email
Most providers cap attachments around 25 MB. Drop the quality until the photos fit, then send. A folder of holiday shots goes from 200 MB to 40 MB in one pass.
The upload form rejects it
Job applications, insurance claims and government portals love a 2 MB limit. Shrink the file instead of re-taking the photo.
Your website is slow
Unoptimized images are the usual reason. Compress them before upload, and pair it with the right format for the job.
Reclaiming disk space
A photo folder eating your SSD compresses down hard, especially screenshots and scans, and you keep every file where it is.
Compressing isn't the same as converting
It's an easy thing to mix up. Converting changes the format, so a HEIC becomes a JPG and a PNG becomes a WebP. Compressing keeps the format and shrinks the file. A 6 MB JPG comes out a 1.5 MB JPG. Same format, same extension, smaller on disk.
Most of the time, compressing is what you actually want. You're not trying to make a file openable somewhere new, you're trying to make it lighter for email, for a website, or just to claw back disk space. This page stays in that lane: drop images in, they come out smaller, in the format they started in.
If you do need a different format, that's the image converter for Mac. You can also do both in one pass, so a folder of PNGs becomes WebP and drops in quality at the same time.
Compress a specific format
Pick your format for the specifics: what gets thrown away, what stays, and how small it typically gets.
Related guides and tools
Guide: how to reduce image file size on Mac
Five practical ways to reduce image file sizes on your Mac: resize, compress, convert to a modern format, or strip metadata. With actual before and after numbers.
Guide: shrink your whole photo library on Mac
Five free ways to shrink a Photos library on a Mac: the built-in Duplicates album, iCloud storage settings, compressing screenshots, and archiving RAW. What I actually did to go from 74GB to 28GB.
The best image formats for the web, all 7 compared
JPEG, PNG, WebP, AVIF, SVG and more. Which image format to use for the web, when, and why, with clear picks for speed, quality, and file size.
Estimate a file size before you compress
Punch in the dimensions and the quality, see roughly what the file will weigh before you touch it.
Change the dimensions instead: resize images on Mac
Fewer pixels saves more than any slider. Resize by size, by percentage, or down to a target.
Need to shrink video instead? Compress video on Mac
The same job for MP4, MOV and MKV. Pick the quality, get a file that fits.
What people are
saying about Picmal
"It's a Mac-assed Mac App. Focused, customizable, flexible, well designed and super fast. 10+ times a day I need to convert a file for use on a website. Picmal makes that process a joy. My favorite conversion is taking a multipage PDF and converting each page to an individual image with one click (something even Preview can't do)."
"Wonderfully simple app! I struggled with converting my images from one format to another constantly with online free tools. Picmal makes it effortless. Worth the money to avoid the hassle for sure!"
"I use Picmal to convert images. It works perfectly. I can just leave the Picmal window open on my desktop. Whenever I want to convert an image, I drag the file onto the window and click “convert”—and seconds later, the converted file is in the appropriate folder with the suffix “converted.” It couldn’t be easier or more hassle-free!"
"Working on a presentation and had to convert and resize a lot of images. Picmal did them all in a flash."
"I feel Picmal is one of the apps that I would categorize as essential. There are many features that distinguish the app from other web converters such as Folder Watching and Clipboard Optimization."
"Clean and easy to use. Perfect for quickly converting images without unnecessary extras."
"Everything works as expected - great app!"
"You did a great job here! I like how easy Picmal is to use, and the frequent upgrades show that you are very committed to improving this beautiful software."
"I f* love this app. Just so you know. Keep building!"
"I like the interface. I like the batch processing. I like the fact in the I can set default conversions. I like your program a lot."
"I like the quality of the image processing. It also supports all the important image files. But it still needs some work regarding both the UI and the UX design of it."
"I love how Picmal's made compressing videos a frictionless, easy and straightforward."
"It's simple to use and does everything I need it to do. Hell, it does much more than I need and the developer keeps adding features :)"
"I love the app! I use it 4-5 days a week for audio and image conversion as I tag and add missing album artwork to my library of 70,000 songs. After that is done, I would like to try it out with my Blu-ray collection on Plex. I truly appreciate the hard work that goes into creating and frequently updating an app such as this. All the best!"
"The program is very simple and practical, and its options are clear."
"Thoughtful, polished, and constantly improving. Alberto genuinely listens to feedback, and it shows in Picmal. Easy 5 stars."
"Picmal is simple and fast but also integrates complex workloads if needed."
"Picmal is complete. The quality is good, and it does exactly what I need."
"Easy to use, automation & batch processing. AVIF & Webp support"
"keep up the great work! Very cool tool you've built here."
"Simple and powerful is a combination that is hard to get right. Picmal nails it! I find image presets particularly useful. Set it up and then just drag and drop to resize and convert."
"Me ha sosprendido la compresion que realiza el programa y si apreciar la calidad."
"The easy going workflow"
"I just sent a few samples through to check everything, and I am very pleased with the results. Everything worked correctly and above all it was easy and not unduly complicated."
Pay once and you're all set
Already own Picmal? Add more Macs
How many Macs?
2 Macs is $10 more
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Convert, compress and edit images, video, audio and PDFs
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Everything runs on your Mac, nothing gets uploaded
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Use it on 1 Mac
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Command line tool, Raycast extension and watched folders
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Free updates forever, no subscription
14-day refund after you buy, no questions asked. Needs macOS 15 or later.
More than 10 Macs? Email me.
How does the license work?
You pay once and keep it. No renewals, no subscriptions. Your license activates on the number of Macs you bought it for, and you can move it to another Mac whenever you want. Prices are in USD, tax is added at checkout, and you pay through Stripe.
I bought Picmal and now I need more Macs. Can I upgrade?
Yes, and you only pay the difference. Going from 1 Mac to 2 is $10, 2 to 5 is $50, 5 to 10 is $60, and every other jump works the same way. Enter your license key here and the same key covers more Macs. The offer never expires, so starting small is never the wrong call.
What happens if I get a new Mac?
Open Picmal on your old Mac, go to Picmal → Register license to deactivate, then activate on the new one. Takes about ten seconds.
Do you offer student or country discounts?
Yes. I want Picmal to be affordable wherever you are. Students and educators get 40% off: verify your school email on the education page and the code lands in your inbox. If the price is steep for your country, checkout already adjusts it for you. If it still doesn't work, email support@picmal.app and tell me where you are, and I'll send a code.
Frequently Asked Questions
Something not covered here? Write to support@picmal.app
How do I make an image smaller on my Mac?
Open Picmal, drag the image in (or a whole folder), pick a quality level, and click Compress. The file comes out smaller in the same format, saved next to the original or wherever you choose. Everything runs on your Mac.
How do I make a JPEG smaller on Mac without losing quality?
Set the quality to around 80-85%. That usually cuts a photo by 60-70% with no difference you would notice on screen. Picmal shows you the result before you commit, so you can nudge the slider until the size and the look are both right.
How many MB can Picmal cut off a photo?
It depends on the photo and the setting, but 30-80% is normal. A 6 MB JPEG off a camera often lands around 1.5 MB. Screenshots and PNG graphics compress losslessly, so they get smaller with no change to a single pixel.
Does compressing a photo lose quality?
Only if you ask it to. JPG, WebP and AVIF are lossy, so you choose the trade-off with a slider. PNG and TIFF are lossless: smaller file, identical image. That makes lossless the right pick for screenshots, logos and diagrams.
Can I compress an image without changing its format?
Yes, and that is the default. A JPG stays a JPG, just smaller. Compressing and converting are separate things, and Picmal can do either one or both in the same pass.
Can I compress a folder of photos at once?
Yes. Drop in hundreds of images or a nested folder and apply one setting to all of them. No uploading files one at a time to a website.
Which image formats can Picmal compress?
JPG, PNG, HEIC, WebP, AVIF, GIF, TIFF, SVG and PDF. You can keep the original format or switch it while compressing.
Are my photos uploaded anywhere?
No. Compression runs entirely on your Mac. No upload, no queue, no file-size cap, and your photos never touch anyone else's server. It's a one-time $29, not a subscription.