EXIF data viewer: see what your photo gives away
Drop in a photo and see the camera, the time it was taken and the exact GPS spot hidden inside it, with a traffic-light verdict on whether it is safe to post. Then remove it in one tap.
- Nothing is uploaded
- Works offline once loaded
- JPEG, HEIC, PNG, WebP
Drop a photo here
JPEG, HEIC, PNG, WebP, AVIF or TIFF. Read on this device, never uploaded.
You can also paste a copied image. Heads-up: some phone photo pickers remove location before a browser ever sees the file. If a photo you know is geotagged shows no GPS here, pick it through the Files app instead.
What a photo carries besides the picture
Every time a phone or camera saves a photo, it writes a block of data next to the pixels. The standard for that block is EXIF (Exchangeable Image File Format), maintained by Japan's camera industry body CIPA. Editing apps add more in two other formats, XMP and IPTC. None of it is visible when you look at the photo, but anyone who gets the original file can read it.
The viewer above groups what it finds by how much it reveals:
- Location: GPS latitude, longitude, altitude and sometimes the direction the camera was facing. Phones record this whenever location access is on for the camera app.
- Identity: the author or owner name, copyright line, and camera or lens serial numbers.
- Time: the moment the shutter fired, often with a time-zone offset.
- Device and software: make, model, lens, and every app that saved the file.
- Technical settings: aperture, shutter speed, ISO, focal length, flash. Harmless for privacy and useful for photographers.
Read the full breakdown in What is EXIF data?, including a diagram of where the metadata physically sits inside a JPEG.
Does it matter if I post the photo online?
It depends on where it goes. Large social networks such as Instagram, Facebook and X strip GPS from the public copy of an upload. Messaging apps, email attachments, cloud-drive share links, forums, marketplaces and "send as file" options often pass the original file along untouched, metadata and all. We keep a table of which apps strip and which keep it, with a way to test any app yourself.
Metadata isn't the only leak. A clean file can still show a house number, a school logo or a reflection. ExifProbe handles the hidden data; for the visible kind, crop or blur before you post.
The rest of the toolkit
Questions people ask
Is my photo uploaded anywhere?
No. ExifProbe reads the file with JavaScript inside your browser tab using the open-source exifr parser. The photo never leaves your device. The only optional network calls are the map (which receives coordinates) and the AI explainer (which receives the tag list as text, never the image).
How do I check if a photo has GPS location?
Drop the original file into the viewer. If it contains GPS coordinates, the top finding turns red and shows the latitude and longitude, with a button to open the spot on a map. If there is no GPS block, the scan says so.
Why does my iPhone photo show no location here when I know it has one?
iOS and some Android photo pickers can hand the browser a copy with location removed, especially when the photo is shared from the Photos app. Save the photo to the Files app first and pick it from there to check the true original.
Which file types can I read?
JPEG, HEIC/HEIF, PNG, WebP, AVIF and TIFF. Most camera RAW formats are TIFF-based and often read too, but the preview may not display.
What does the traffic light mean?
Red means the file reveals a location, a name, a serial number or written place names. Amber means it carries softer clues such as the capture time, device model or editing software. Green means nothing personal was found in the metadata.
Can metadata be faked?
Yes. EXIF is just text and numbers inside the file, and any EXIF editor can change dates, cameras or GPS. Treat metadata as a clue, not proof.