Pixelate image online
Pixelate or blur part of a photo or screenshot, or the whole image at once. Set the block size in pixels, drag over faces, emails or access tokens, and export. Or use a solid redaction box when it has to be unrecoverable.
How it works
- 1
Load the screenshot
Paste it, drop it, or choose the file. The image stays in your browser tab.
- 2
Pick the effect and strength
Pixelate (X) makes mosaic blocks, Blur (B) softens, Redact (D) covers with solid black. Set Strength (block size in px), then drag over the area, or press “Whole image”.
- 3
Export the safe copy
Download a new PNG, JPG or WebP. The original pixels under the box are not in the exported file.
Pixelate vs blur vs redact: which to use
All three are baked into the exported pixels. They differ in how much of the original information survives.
| Effect | What it does | Good for | Safe for secrets? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pixelate (mosaic) | Averages each block of pixels into one colour | Faces, licence plates, background people, “censored” look | Not reliably: small blocks over text can be matched by guessing |
| Blur | Averages and then smooths the blocks, so there are no hard edges | Names, emails and UI you want to de-emphasise but keep the layout readable | Not reliably: same averaging, just softer |
| Redact (solid box) | Replaces the area with flat black | Passwords, API keys, card numbers, anything that must not leak | Yes: nothing of the original remains |
Rule of thumb for screenshots: the block size should be larger than the text height you are hiding. For 14–16 px UI text, use 20 px or more. For secrets, use Redact.
Hiding information safely
- For passwords, tokens and card numbers, use Redact. Blurred or pixelated text can sometimes be reconstructed (see the explainer below).
- Cover the whole field plus a margin, so text length and shape don’t give the value away.
- Use a larger size for pixelation. Bigger blocks carry less information than small ones.
- Check the URL bar, browser tabs, notification toasts and avatars: they leak names and internal URLs more often than the page itself.
- Crop instead of blurring when the sensitive part is at the edge. Removed pixels can’t leak.
Why pixelated text isn’t safe: try it
The canvas below hides a 4-digit PIN. The list checks six guesses by pixelating each one the same way and comparing the blocks, the idea behind the open-source tool Depix and Bishop Fox’s Unredacter.
Move the slider to see how well each guess matches.
Background: in 2020 Sipke Mellema published Depix, which reconstructs pixelated text by matching blocks against a rendered search image; in 2022 Bishop Fox released Unredacter, showing the same for pixelation in documents. The lesson both teach: a solid box is the only redaction that leaks nothing.