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Crop an image into a circle

Make a round profile picture or circular cutout with a smooth edge and transparent corners.

Drop an image here

or paste with Ctrl+V. Your images stay on your device.

1.0×

Processed on your device. Nothing is uploaded, and there's no sign-up or watermark.

How to crop an image into a circle

  1. Drop an image onto the box above, click Choose images, or paste one with Ctrl+V (Cmd+V on a Mac).
  2. Drag the image to position it inside the circle. You can also nudge it with the arrow keys.
  3. Move the zoom slider (1× to 4×) until the face or subject fills the circle the way you want.
  4. Pick an output size (full resolution, 1024, 512 or 256 px), then download your circle PNG.

When a round image is useful

Many apps, including Discord, LinkedIn and WhatsApp, already show profile pictures as circles. A circle crop is still handy when you want to:

  • put a headshot on a slide, a team page or an “about” section without styling it yourself
  • add a round photo to your email signature
  • make stickers, badges or round labels
  • use the same framing for your profile picture on Discord, Slack, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, Zoom and the rest
  • see exactly what a round avatar will show before you upload it

How to get a good circle crop

A circle covers about 79% of the square around it, so the four corners of that square are cut away. Leave some room around the head or object so hair, ears or edges don’t get clipped.

For a headshot, zoom in until the face fills roughly half to two-thirds of the circle’s height, with a little space above the head. Once the photo is roughly in place, use the arrow keys for small, precise adjustments.

Keep the source size in mind as you zoom. At full resolution, the circle’s diameter is the shorter side of your photo divided by the zoom level, so a heavily zoomed crop of a small photo will be small too. Pick an output size at or below that number for the sharpest result.

The edge is anti-aliased: pixels along the curve fade smoothly into the transparent corners, so the circle looks clean on light and dark backgrounds instead of jagged.

A transparent PNG every time

The download is always a PNG with transparent corners, whatever format you started with (JPG, PNG, iPhone HEIC, WebP, AVIF, the first frame of a GIF, SVG or BMP). Because everything outside the circle is see-through, the image works on a white slide, a dark website header or a colored sticker sheet alike.

If a form only accepts JPG, run the result through the PNG to JPG converter; keep in mind the corners then become a solid color instead of transparent. For a black and white portrait, convert the photo with the grayscale tool first, then crop it here.

Questions and answers

Why is the result a PNG and not a JPG?

PNG can store transparency, so the corners outside the circle stay see-through and the picture sits cleanly on any background. JPG has no transparency, so the corners would have to be filled with a solid color.

What output size should I pick for a profile picture?

512 or 1024 px is plenty for a profile picture on most sites, since avatars are displayed small. Choose full resolution if you'll show the image large, for example on a slide or a printed badge.

Do I need a circle crop for Discord, LinkedIn or WhatsApp?

Not usually: those apps already display profile photos as circles, so a square photo works fine. A pre-cropped circle PNG is most useful where nothing rounds the image for you, such as slides, websites, email signatures and stickers.

Why does my circle look soft after zooming in?

Zooming crops away pixels: at full resolution, the circle's width is the shorter side of your photo divided by the zoom. At 4× on a photo whose short side is 2000 px, that leaves a 500 px circle, so pick 512 or 256 px rather than 1024 to avoid enlarging it.

Can I crop several images into circles at once?

No, circle crop works on one image at a time so you can position each one by hand. Add the next image once you've downloaded the first.

Is my photo uploaded to a server?

No. The crop is made in your browser, on your own device, so your photo never leaves it. There's no sign-up and no watermark.