View the EXIF data and location in a photo

How to use it#

1. Drop a JPG, PNG, WebP, HEIC, or AVIF onto the box above, or click it to choose one.
2. Read the summary first: it says in plain words what the file gives away.
3. Look through the sections below it, from location and dates to the camera settings. View on map opens the GPS position on a map.
4. Copy everything as text, or download a copy of the photo with the metadata removed.

What EXIF data can tell you about a photo#

EXIF is the block of data a camera or phone writes into a photo as it takes it. The part photographers care about is the exposure: shutter speed, aperture, ISO, focal length, whether the flash fired, and the lens used. Those are the numbers to look at when a picture came out blurred or dark and you want to know why, or when you want to see how someone else got a shot.

The rest describes the circumstances. The date and time are recorded to the second, the make and model of the camera or phone are named, and with location on, the GPS position is there too. Editing software adds its own record in a format called XMP, sometimes with a history of every save, and newsrooms add IPTC captions and credits. All of it is shown here, each fact once, even when a file repeats it in several places.

A PNG rarely has EXIF, but it can hold text chunks, which programs fill with an author, a description, or the name of the software that saved it. Some AI image generators write the prompt and settings there, and the viewer shows each one in full, with a copy button beside it. A file can also carry content credentials, a signed record some cameras and AI tools attach to say how the picture was made. The viewer says when one is there and how large it is, but does not read or verify it.

Finding where a photo was taken#

When a phone has location turned on for its camera, it records the latitude and longitude of every photo, usually accurate to a few metres outdoors and much less exact indoors. Many phones add the altitude and the compass direction the camera was facing. The coordinates are shown as decimal degrees, the form a map search box takes, and in degrees, minutes, and seconds.

View on map opens the position on OpenStreetMap in a new tab. Nothing is sent anywhere until you press it; reading the photo happens entirely on this page. A photo with no location section has no GPS data in it, which is normal for screenshots, for photos from a camera without GPS, and for photos saved from most social apps, which strip it.

Why the embedded thumbnail is worth a look#

Many cameras save a small preview of the photo inside its EXIF data, so a file browser can show it quickly. Some editing programs change the picture and leave that preview as it was. A photo cropped to hide something, or edited to remove it, can still carry the original, uncropped version in its thumbnail, and when a file has one it is shown here beside the rest.

When the date or place looks wrong#

EXIF dates are written in the camera clock’s local time, and older cameras record no time zone at all, so a photo taken abroad can look hours out. Newer phones add the time zone offset, which is shown beside the date when it is there. A camera whose clock was never set will stamp every photo with a date years in the past, which the EXIF editor can put right one photo at a time, or the batch date changer for a whole set.

A location can be out by a street or more when the phone had a weak signal, usually indoors or among tall buildings, and some phones record the accuracy they managed, which appears as Position accuracy. Metadata can also be edited after the fact, so it is a strong clue about where a photo came from rather than proof.