How to Crop an Image Online (Free, No Software)

To crop an image without installing any software, use PixelTools' free online crop tool. Upload your image, drag the crop handles to select the area you want to keep, and download the result. The cropped image is saved to your device — nothing is stored on a server. Supports JPG, PNG, and WebP.

Free crop lets you draw any rectangle shape over your image. Use this when you want to cut a specific region and don't need the output to match a particular dimension — for example, removing unwanted sky from a landscape or trimming whitespace from a product photo.

• 1:1 (square): Instagram posts, profile pictures, thumbnails
• 16:9 (widescreen): YouTube thumbnails, banner ads, presentation slides
• 4:3: Standard photo prints, older monitors
• 9:16 (portrait): Instagram Stories, TikTok, Reels

Fixing the aspect ratio ensures your crop won't look stretched or letterboxed when displayed.

Every social media platform has a preferred image ratio for different post types. Cropping to the right ratio before uploading prevents the platform from auto-cropping your image awkwardly:

• Instagram feed posts: 1:1 (square) or 4:5 (portrait) — 4:5 gets more screen real estate
• Instagram Stories / Reels: 9:16
• Twitter/X posts: 16:9
• LinkedIn posts: 1.91:1 or 1:1
• Facebook cover photo: approximately 2.7:1
• YouTube thumbnail: 16:9

Cropping with a fixed ratio means your image fills the frame cleanly rather than showing with white bars or getting truncated.

Cropping and resizing are different operations that are often confused:

Cropping removes parts of the image. The remaining pixels are unchanged — the content is just cut down to a smaller area. The resolution of the kept area is the same as the original.

Resizing keeps all the content but scales it to a different dimension. Everything is stretched or compressed proportionally (or not, if you don't constrain the ratio).

Typically, you'd crop first to frame the subject correctly, then resize if you need a specific pixel dimension — for example, crop a photo to 1:1, then resize to exactly 1080×1080 pixels for Instagram.

Both operating systems have built-in tools for cropping:

Mac — Preview: Open the image, click the toolbox icon to show the markup toolbar, select the rectangular selection tool, draw your crop area, then go to Tools → Crop (or press Cmd+K).

Windows — Photos app: Open the image, click the Edit icon, select Crop & rotate. Drag the handles or pick an aspect ratio from the dropdown.

Windows — Paint: Open the image, use the Select tool to draw your crop area, then click Crop in the toolbar.

For more control — especially with fixed aspect ratios or batch cropping — an online tool is faster than built-in apps.