Bulk EXIF remover

A 15-file run, measured

We put 15 test files in one run on All metadata mode, with Pro switched on in a test browser: JPEG, PNG, WebP, and HEIC, some with GPS, some with XMP and IPTC, five carrying a C2PA manifest, one with a rotation flag, and one with a colour profile. The files are synthetic or come from open C2PA test sets; none is a real person’s photo.

• Input: 15 files, 20.8 MiB.
• Output: one ZIP of 17.6 MiB, banner “Cleaned. 15 files are in one ZIP”.
• Time: 3.4 seconds from the click to the ZIP in headless Chrome on a server CPU, including four HEIC decodes. A phone or an old laptop will be slower.
• ExifTool on the 15 outputs: no GPS, camera, XMP, IPTC, prompt, workflow, or JUMBF tags in any of them. The only metadata tag left was the Orientation of the file that had a rotation flag, on purpose.
• C2PA reader (c2pa-python 0.38): opened all five signed originals, found no manifest in any of the five outputs.

Two of the HEIC files differ only in metadata, and their cleaned JPEGs are byte-for-byte the same size (1,482,101 bytes): the same pixels and nothing else. JPEG, PNG, and WebP outputs decoded to the same pixels as their originals.

How to run a folder

1. Clean one file first and read the After list. This is the free step and it is the one that tells you whether your files have something unexpected.
2. Choose All metadata for a clean-for-sharing set. AI only is for when you want EXIF to stay.
3. Open the file picker inside the folder, select all the files (Ctrl or Cmd+A), or drag them in together.
4. Click Clean. With Pro it returns one ZIP named removeaimeta-batch-cleaned.zip and the banner counts how many files were cleaned and how many were skipped.

Honest comparison with a command line

If you are comfortable with a terminal, ExifTool does this for free. In our test exiftool -all= -tagsfromfile @ -Orientation -ICC_Profile -overwrite_original -r folder/ cleaned 20 JPEGs of about 0.5 MB in 0.38 seconds, keeping rotation and colour. Details and the commands are on ExifTool remove all metadata.

The reasons to use the browser instead are practical: nothing to install, a before-and-after report per file that you can read, C2PA and AI prompt chunks included, HEIC turned into a JPEG, and a skipped-files list when one file in the folder is broken. If none of that matters to you, the free command is a fine answer.

What a batch cannot do

• Videos, PDFs, and documents are not supported. They are skipped and named.
• Pixels are not touched, so invisible watermarks such as SynthID stay.
• HEIC outputs are JPEGs, a second lossy pass. If you need to keep HEIC, strip it with a desktop tool instead.
• We tested 15 files per run, not hundreds.

Related

For one format, see HEIC, PNG, and WebP. For a generator output folder, see ComfyUI. For client work with IPTC fields, see XMP and IPTC and delivery metadata. For a shop, see product images.

Questions

Is the batch really free?

One image is free so you can check the result. Cleaning many files at once and getting a ZIP is the Pro unlock, a one-time payment, not a subscription. The current price is on the pricing page. If you only need to do this once and are comfortable with a terminal, ExifTool does a folder for free, and this site documents the command.

Do my images get uploaded?

No image is uploaded. Each file is read and rewritten in your browser, and the ZIP is built there too. Only payment status and page analytics use the network.

What happens to a file it cannot read?

It is skipped, the rest still finish, and the banner names the skipped files (for example “Cleaned 3 of 4 files”). If every file is unreadable you get a message and no empty ZIP. Videos are not supported and are reported as skipped.

Can I mix formats?

Yes. In our 15-file test JPEG, PNG, WebP, and HEIC were in the same run. JPEG, PNG, and WebP come back in the same format. HEIC comes back as a JPEG because the browser cannot write HEIC.

Does it remove GPS from all of them?

In All metadata mode, yes: after the 15-file run ExifTool found no GPS, camera, XMP, IPTC, prompt, workflow, or C2PA data in any output. Check one file’s After list on your own set before you rely on it; AI only mode leaves EXIF and GPS in place.

How many files can I do at once?

We tested 15 files, about 21 MB, in one run. We have not tested hundreds of files in a single run, and a browser has memory limits, so for a very large library split it into several runs.

Does a rotated phone JPEG come back sideways?

No. For JPEG the tool keeps the Orientation tag and drops the rest of the EXIF, so a portrait photo still opens upright. HEIC is rotated into the pixels before it is converted.

Related guides

• ExifTool remove all metadata, tested
• Remove metadata from a HEIC photo
• Remove metadata from ComfyUI images
• All metadata-removal guides by file type and device
• Open the Remove AI metadata tool on the homepage if you want the general cleaner.
• Short Instagram upload workflow if you only need the four-step version.