What the TinyPNG image compressor does
The TinyPNG image compressor is the web tool of Tinify. You drop images onto the page, they are uploaded to Tinify’s servers and compressed, and the smaller files are offered back for download. Its homepage lists JPEG XL, AVIF, WebP, JPG, PNG and animated PNG among the formats it compresses, and the same page converts images between AVIF, WebP, PNG and JPEG.
The name comes from its first job, shrinking PNG files, and PNG is still what many people use it for. Web designers run icons, screenshots and illustrations through it before publishing, and the TinyPNG WordPress plugin does the same automatically whenever an image is uploaded to a site.
How TinyPNG shrinks PNG files
TinyPNG describes its method as quantization: similar colors in the image are combined, so the picture needs fewer distinct colors and fewer bytes to store them. A 24-bit PNG can hold millions of colors; after quantization it becomes an 8-bit indexed image with a palette of at most 256, and each pixel simply points to one palette entry. Transparency is preserved.
For JPG, WebP and AVIF the approach differs, because those formats are already lossy, so the files are encoded again with settings chosen for each image. Tinify does not publish those settings. The tool picks them for you, which means there is nothing to adjust, but also no way to trade a little more quality for size or the other way round.
What the free TinyPNG plan allows
Without paying you can upload up to 20 images at a time, each up to 5 MB, and convert up to 3 images per session. According to the site, uploaded files are kept for at most 48 hours and then permanently deleted.
The 20-image cap applies per session rather than per month, so another batch can follow. The 5 MB cap matters more: photos straight from a modern phone or camera are often larger than that, and files over the limit are turned away instead of being compressed.
Web Pro, Web Ultra and the Tinify API
Web Pro removes the 20-image limit and raises the maximum file size to 75 MB. Web Ultra accepts files up to 150 MB and adds unlimited conversions and folder uploads. When Tinify introduced Web Ultra in December 2023, it listed Web Pro at 39 USD and Web Ultra at 149 USD per license per year; both are yearly plans, and the pricing page shows current prices.
Developers can use the Tinify API instead. The first 500 compressions each month are free with no payment details, the next 9,500 cost 0.009 USD each, and every compression beyond 10,000 costs 0.002 USD; prepaid credit bundles that never expire are also sold. The WordPress plugin runs on the same 500 free monthly credits, which Tinify says covers roughly 100 images a month on a regular WordPress site, since WordPress stores several sizes of every upload.
How this page compares with the TinyPNG image compressor
The compressor above uses the same core idea for PNG: it reduces the picture to a palette of up to 256 colors with UPNG.js, an open-source PNG encoder, and keeps transparency. JPG and WebP files are encoded again by your browser at the quality you pick. In our tests, PNG files shrank by 60 to 67 percent at 256 colors.
The biggest difference is where the work happens. Nothing is uploaded, so there is no 5 MB cap and no 20-file batch: you can add up to 100 images at a time, and file size is limited only by your device’s memory. You also get controls TinyPNG leaves out, including a quality slider, a PNG color count, a target file size such as 100 KB and a before-and-after view of every image.
When TinyPNG is the better choice
The TinyPNG image compressor tunes its settings for each image and writes formats this page does not, such as AVIF. If you want small files with no decisions at all, or you need AVIF output, it is a strong option.
It also fits into other workflows. The API and the WordPress plugin compress images automatically during a build or an upload, which a page in a browser tab cannot do, and Web Ultra accepts a whole folder in one go.
When a browser-based compressor is the better choice
Choose a local compressor when the images are private: screenshots of dashboards, client designs, scanned documents and family photos never leave your computer here, whereas TinyPNG has to upload them to its servers, even if only for 48 hours.
It is also the practical option for large camera files, for batches of more than 20, for upload forms that demand a file under a specific size, and for slow or unreliable connections, since nothing travels over the network once the page has loaded.
Getting the smallest files from either tool
Resize before you compress. A 4000-pixel photo shown 1200 pixels wide on a website carries more than ten times the pixels it needs, and no compressor can make up for that. Then choose the right format: JPG or WebP for photos, PNG for screenshots and graphics with flat colors or transparency.
Compress each image once, from the original. Running a JPG through a compressor again and again adds new artifacts every time, while starting from the full-quality file gives the best result at any size, so keep the originals in a separate folder.