Crop an image to a square
What this tool does
This page opens with the 1:1 ratio already locked, so the selection keeps a square shape while you drag it over the part of the photo you want.
Pre-set for you: 1:1 aspect ratio. You can change it before you drop a file.
This browser cannot crop images locally. It needs Web Workers with
OffscreenCanvas support, and we will not fall back to encoding on the
main thread because that would freeze the page. Please try a current version of
Chrome, Edge, Firefox or Safari.
How this works
You drag the selection over the image, then the crop is drawn and re-encoded inside a Web Worker in this browser tab. The original file is never modified and never uploaded — cropping produces a new file for you to download.
- Pick an aspect ratio to keep the selection to a fixed shape, or leave it free and drag any rectangle.
- Rotate in 90° steps and flip across or down if the photo is the wrong way round. Rotating by a quarter turn swaps the output's width and height.
- The crop is applied at full resolution — the selection is a view of the pixels, not a downscale of them.
- Nothing is stored: reloading the page discards everything, including the selection.
A square crop is usually about a destination rather than a preference: a profile picture that will be shown in a circle, a grid where every tile is the same shape, a marketplace listing that only accepts 1:1, a print in a square frame. This page starts with the 1:1 ratio locked, so the selection keeps a square shape while you drag it around the image.
Two things are worth separating, because they are often confused and only one of them is a crop. Cropping to a square decides which part of the picture survives — you are throwing away everything outside the selection. Resizing to 1080 × 1080 does not remove anything; it fits the whole image into a square box and leaves the extra space empty. If the goal is a file that is actually square, this is the tool you want; if the goal is a smaller version of the whole picture, resize instead.
The crop is applied to the full-resolution original, not to what you see on screen. The editor scales the photo down to fit the page, but the selection is translated back into original pixels, so cropping a 4000 pixel photograph to a square produces a 4000 pixel square rather than a screen-sized one. You are never limited by your window size.
A few practical notes:
- The rotation buttons work in quarter turns and flip across or down, and the rotation is applied to the full-resolution result. Free-angle straightening is not offered, so a slightly tilted horizon cannot be corrected here.
- The output format can be changed from WebP to JPEG or PNG. JPEG is the one to pick if the destination is a form that will not accept anything else, and PNG if the square needs transparency.
- Your original file is never modified. Cropping produces a new file to download, so you can crop differently as many times as you like.
One image at a time is deliberate: a crop is a judgement about one picture, and a batch that picked the same rectangle for fifty photos would mostly be wrong. Replacing the image is as simple as dropping another file.
Frequently asked questions
Does cropping to a square reduce the image quality?
The pixels you keep are untouched — the crop is taken from the full-resolution original. Only the re-encode on save affects the file, and choosing PNG or WebP avoids visible loss.
What is the difference between cropping to a square and resizing to 1080 × 1080?
Cropping removes the parts outside the selection and yields a genuinely square file. Resizing fits the whole image inside a square box, keeping its proportions, so a wide photo stays wide.
Can I crop several photos to squares at once?
Not in one pass, deliberately — each crop is a decision about one picture. For a batch of same-shaped outputs, resizing to a fixed box is the tool for the job.
How do I undo a crop?
Just drop the image again or press start over: the original file was never changed, so a fresh crop starts from the untouched source.
Crop Image with different settings
Drag a selection over the image, or lock the aspect ratio and let it snap. The crop is applied in your browser tab, so the parts you cut out never leave your device either.