Crop a Photo into a Circle
Cut a round profile picture or avatar out of any photo. Save it as a PNG or WebP with see-through corners, or as a JPG on the colour you choose.
How to crop an image into a circle
- Choose a JPEG, PNG or WebP photo. The cropper opens with the largest circle that fits, and everything outside it is shaded.
- Drag the circle over the face or object, and drag a corner handle or use Zoom to make it tighter.
- Keep PNG for transparent corners, choose WebP for a smaller file, or JPEG with a corner colour that matches where the picture goes.
- Press Download crop. The file name ends in "circle".
Why the corners are transparent
A round picture is still a square file. What makes it round is that the four corners hold nothing, and only PNG and WebP can store that. Put such a file on a dark slide or a coloured web page and you see a clean circle; put a JPEG there and you see a circle inside a white square, because JPEG has no transparency at all and paints the corners with some colour.
So this page starts at PNG even when you choose a JPEG photo, and when you switch to JPEG it asks for the corner colour instead of quietly using white. I checked the result pixel by pixel on my own photos: the corners came out fully transparent in PNG and WebP, the middle fully solid, and the JPEG corners exactly the colour I picked.
The same circle in three formats
| Photo | Circle | PNG | WebP 82% | JPEG 82% |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Clay figure, Metelkova, 1200 × 800 px | 800 × 800 px | 848.5 KB | 91.0 KB | 109.4 KB |
| Lake Jasna, 960 × 1200 px | 960 × 960 px | 1.2 MB | 133.5 KB | 138.6 KB |
| Red bicycle, Metelkova, 1200 × 800 px | 800 × 800 px | 1.2 MB | 156.2 KB | 167.4 KB |
The PNG keeps every pixel, so a photo gets heavy: from 7.6 to 9.3 times the size of the WebP. The WebP kept the see-through corners and was the smallest file every time, even a little smaller than the JPEG, which has to store the corners as solid colour. For a profile picture on a website I would use the WebP; for a document or a program that does not open WebP, the PNG.
Profile pictures and avatars
Most apps with round avatars cut the circle themselves. They ask for a square photo and show it through a round mask, so for those you upload the square: crop it with the 1:1 button of the Image Cropper, and the app throws away the same corners this page would. A round file is worth making where nothing does that for you: an email signature, the about page of a website, a slide, a printed name badge or a document.
In both cases the frame decides how the face sits. I leave a little room above the head and keep the eyes slightly above the middle of the circle, because a round crop takes more off the corners than you expect, and a chin or an ear placed near the edge ends up cut off.
When to pick a JPEG and its corner colour
Some upload forms take only JPEG. Then the corners need a colour, and the right one is the background the picture will sit on: white for most pages, the exact grey or blue of a slide template for a presentation. Click the corner colour box, pick the colour, and the next download uses it. The colour fills the corners only; the photo inside the circle is unchanged.
Tips for round pictures
- Choose a photo with space around the face; a tight portrait loses the ears in a circle.
- Use Zoom or a corner handle to make the circle smaller; the frame stays round.
- Pick WebP for a website, PNG for documents and older programs.
- Match the JPEG corner colour to the page or slide behind the picture.
- For apps that make the circle themselves, upload a square instead.
Privacy
Your image never leaves your device. Opening, cropping and saving all happen in your browser, so nothing is uploaded or stored, and you do not need an account. The saved file does not keep the original EXIF, GPS or XMP data.
Frequently asked questions
How do I crop a picture to a circle?
Choose the photo above; the cropper opens with the largest circle that fits. Move it over the part you want, make it smaller with Zoom if you like, then download a PNG or WebP with see-through corners.
Does the circle crop give a PNG with a transparent background?
Yes. Everything outside the circle is fully transparent in the PNG, and in the WebP too. Only a JPEG cannot hold transparency, so for JPEG you choose the colour that fills the four corners.
Should my profile picture be cropped into a circle?
Not for apps that show round avatars: they cut the circle from a square photo themselves. Upload a square there. Make a round file for places that show the whole image, such as an email signature, a website or a slide.
Can I use the round picture in Google Slides or PowerPoint?
Yes. Download it as PNG and insert it like any other picture. The corners are transparent, so the circle sits cleanly on any slide background, dark or coloured, with no white box around it.
How do I crop a picture into a circle on an iPhone?
Open this page in Safari, tap the box above and pick the photo from your library. Drag the circle with a finger, then tap Download crop; the round PNG is saved to the Files app with your other downloads.
Related tools and guides
- Image Cropper: Crop images to exact ratios or popular preset sizes.
- Instagram Photo Sizes, Cropped to the Pixel: Crop and resize a photo to the exact Instagram size for a square, portrait, landscape or story post. Sizes checked on 28 October 2026. Runs in your browser.
- Image Resizer: Resize images by pixels, percentage or longest side.
- Image Compressor: Reduce JPEG, PNG and WebP file sizes while keeping quality high.
- Metelkova Ljubljana: My Photos and Complete Visitor Guide: Where I photographed the clay figure from the table.
- I Built the Tools I Kept Looking For as a Photographer: Why the cropper works on your device and never sees your photos.