Email Attachment Compressor — Free, No Upload

Q: Should I send WebP or JPEG attachments?

JPEG is the safer default for email. Some older Outlook installs, on-premise Exchange servers, and corporate webmail still hiccup on WebP attachments. WebP gives you 25–35% better quality at the same file size, so use it for known modern recipients (designers, web teams) — but for cross-org or family email, stick with JPEG.

How to

Compress images for an email attachment

Three steps. Compute the per-image budget, set it, and let the algorithm hit it.

Drop in every photo

Drop a single photo or an entire album onto Sukat — JPG, PNG, WebP, HEIC, AVIF, and GIF all work. iPhone HEIC photos go in directly, no separate convert step.

Set the per-image budget

Divide your recipient’s cap by the number of photos and shave 10–20% headroom for body and signature. 10 photos under 25 MB Gmail = ~2 MB each. Type that into Maximum File Size. Pick JPEG for maximum recipient compatibility.

Convert, ZIP, attach

Click Convert & Download. With multiple files, leave the Download as a single ZIP option checked — Windows, macOS, iOS, and Android all unpack ZIP natively, so the recipient never needs extra software.

When you need it

When email attachment compression matters

Email attachment caps haven’t budged in a decade, but phone cameras keep getting heavier. Anywhere a single full-resolution photo would bust the message, a per-image budget keeps everything inline.

Holiday-photo emails to family. 10 photos under a 25 MB Gmail cap = ~2.5 MB each. Parents and grandparents get the photos as real attachments inline, not a Drive link they have to navigate.
ID scans and document submissions. Passport, driver’s licence, utility-bill scans usually want to land at 300–500 KB per scan so a five-document packet fits comfortably under any inbox cap.
Event-photographer client deliveries. When the contract is “email proofs within 48 hours”, a per-image ZIP saves an upload-to-cloud round-trip. 30 proofs at 800 KB each = 24 MB, still inside Gmail.
Legal and healthcare case files. Many firms and clinics require the audit trail to stay inside email, not a third-party cloud link — pre-compress so the attachment goes through as the record.
Insurance-claim photo evidence. Adjusters open attachments; cloud links from strangers get filtered. A 1 MB-per-photo budget keeps a 15-photo damage report well under any cap.
Press-release supporting images. Journalists pulling from email want files they can drop straight into a CMS, not links that expire.
Hotel and metered Wi-Fi. Sending 10 × 800 KB attachments over a flaky connection is dramatically faster than uploading 10 × 4 MB originals to a cloud fallback.

Why Sukat

Built around a per-image budget you set

Generic compressors give you a quality slider and let you guess. Email needs the inverse: state the budget, find the highest quality that fits.

Hits any KB or MB target precisely

Pick the cap (25 MB Gmail, 20 MB Outlook, 5 MB Apple Mail), divide by photo count, and Sukat binary-searches for the highest quality that lands under that per-image budget — typically in seven re-encodes. No guessing, no “close enough.”

Batch the whole album at once

Drop 30 photos, set 800 KB, and Sukat compresses every file independently to the same target. Each photo gets its own binary search — the busy ones land at slightly lower quality, the simple ones at near-original — but every output respects the ceiling.

Single ZIP keeps the email tidy

The Download as a single ZIP option packages every compressed photo into one attachment. The recipient unpacks with the built-in unzipper on Windows, macOS, iOS, or Android — no extra software, no scattered downloads cluttering the message.

HEIC-aware for iPhone senders

iPhone cameras shoot HEIC by default, and many desktop email clients render HEIC poorly for non-Apple recipients. Sukat decodes HEIC in the browser and outputs a universally readable JPG — one step, no “Why is the photo broken on my screen?” reply.

Privacy by default

Compression runs entirely in your browser via the Canvas API. The photos themselves are often the reason you’re using email instead of a cloud link — pre-compressing locally keeps them in the email channel only. Verify by switching to airplane mode after the page loads.

Preserves dimensions where possible

Sukat reduces quality before touching pixel dimensions, so the recipient doesn’t open the attachment to a postage-stamp preview. Only if quality 1 still busts the budget does Sukat downscale — and the live preview shows the actual output size before you commit.

Questions

FAQ

What per-image budget should I pick for Gmail, Outlook, or Apple Mail?

Take the provider cap, subtract 10–20% for email body and signature, then divide by photo count. Gmail (25 MB): 2 MB per photo for 10 photos, 1 MB for 20, 400 KB for 50. Outlook (20 MB): ~1.6 MB for 10, 800 KB for 20. Apple Mail (typically 5 MB without Mail Drop): 400 KB per photo for 10. Most enterprise Exchange caps sit at 10–20 MB — check with IT if you’re unsure.

Does Sukat work with iPhone HEIC photos?

Yes. iPhone HEIC photos go directly into the drop zone — Sukat decodes them in the browser and outputs a universally readable JPG, WebP, or PNG. For sending to non-Apple recipients, JPG is the safe default. See Convert HEIC to JPG for the dedicated HEIC workflow.

Can I batch-compress a whole album in one go?

Yes. Drop every photo at once, set the per-image target, and check the Download as a single ZIP option. Sukat compresses each photo independently to the same ceiling and bundles everything into one attachment. Gmail, Outlook, and Apple Mail all accept ZIP without any extra software on the recipient side.

Will the recipient see the same quality I see?

Yes. Sukat’s output file is the file you attach — the recipient opens that exact byte sequence. Most email clients display attachments at native resolution without further re-compression, unlike chat apps. The only platform that re-compresses email images is some webmail previews, but the downloaded attachment is always the original you sent.

Should I send WebP or JPEG attachments?

JPEG is the safer default for email. Some older Outlook installs, on-premise Exchange servers, and corporate webmail still hiccup on WebP attachments. WebP gives you 25–35% better quality at the same file size, so use it for known modern recipients (designers, web teams) — but for cross-org or family email, stick with JPEG.

Should I attach inline or as a separate file?

For one or two photos, inline (drag into the body) gives the recipient a preview without opening anything — nice for vacation snapshots. For three or more, or for documents with formal recipients, attach as separate files or as a ZIP — inline images bloat the message body and some clients render them oddly.

Are my photos uploaded anywhere?

No. Compression runs entirely in your browser via the Canvas API. Your photos never reach a server — particularly important when the reason you’re using email instead of a cloud link is privacy. Verify by switching to airplane mode after the page loads; compression still works because there’s no network call.

Related tools

Other sizes & related tools

Compress Image to 1MB — standard per-photo budget for medium-size email galleries Compress Image to 500KB — tighter budget for 20-plus-photo emails Compress Image to 2MB — looser budget for 5–10 photo emails over Gmail Reduce Image Size in KB — pick any custom KB or MB ceiling Compress Image to 300KB — very tight budget for 30-plus-photo email albums Image Size Guide — full breakdown by platform and use case

Send photos by email without hitting the cap