Can a passport photo be under 20 KB and still look clear?

At 200 × 230 px, yes. That is only 46,000 pixels, and a JPG of that size fits under 20 KB with the face still sharp. A full phone photo cannot get that small without being scaled down, and the compressor does that for you when it has to.

Why does the portal reject my 20 KB file?

Usually the file is slightly over because the portal counts 1 KB as 1,000 bytes. Set the target to 19 KB and try again. The other common cause is a minimum: many photo fields need at least 20 KB, so a file well under 20 KB fails there.

20 KB target

Get your photo or signature under 20 KB.

On Indian exam portals, 20 KB shows up in two opposite roles. For signatures it is the ceiling: the bank exams and the SSC exams cap the signature file at 20 KB. For photos it is often the floor. The same bank forms want a photo of at least 20 KB, so a photo squeezed down to 12 KB gets rejected for being too small.

The compressor below is set to 20 KB. It lowers JPG quality in steps, keeps the best quality that still fits, and scales the image down only when quality alone cannot get there. If your form also fixes the pixel size (most do), the exact-size pages linked further down resize and compress in one pass.

Target file size

Grayscale — recommended for scanned marksheets & certificates (much smaller, text stays sharp)

Drop your image here

photo, marksheet, or certificate

Choose file

Nothing is uploaded. Runs in your browser.

Your compressed file will appear here.

Exams that use this size

Signature capped at 20 KB

IBPS Clerk · 140 × 60 px, 10 to 20 KB
IBPS PO · 140 × 60 px, 10 to 20 KB
IBPS RRB Clerk · 140 × 60 px, 10 to 20 KB
IBPS RRB PO · 140 × 60 px, 10 to 20 KB
LIC AAO · 140 × 60 px, 10 to 20 KB
RBI Assistant · 140 × 60 px, 10 to 20 KB
SBI Clerk · 140 × 60 px, 10 to 20 KB
SBI PO · 140 × 60 px, 10 to 20 KB
SSC CGL · 140 × 60 px, 10 to 20 KB
SSC CHSL · 140 × 60 px, 10 to 20 KB
SSC CPO · 140 × 60 px, 10 to 20 KB
SSC GD Constable · 140 × 60 px, 10 to 20 KB
SSC JE · 140 × 60 px, 10 to 20 KB
SSC MTS · 140 × 60 px, 10 to 20 KB
SSC Selection Post · 140 × 60 px, 10 to 20 KB
SSC Stenographer · 140 × 60 px, 10 to 20 KB

Photo must be at least 20 KB

For these photos 20 KB is the minimum, so stay comfortably above it.

IBPS Clerk · 200 × 230 px, 20 to 50 KB
IBPS PO · 200 × 230 px, 20 to 50 KB
IBPS RRB Clerk · 200 × 230 px, 20 to 50 KB
IBPS RRB PO · 200 × 230 px, 20 to 50 KB
LIC AAO · 200 × 230 px, 20 to 50 KB
RBI Assistant · 200 × 230 px, 20 to 50 KB
SBI Clerk · 200 × 230 px, 20 to 50 KB
SBI PO · 200 × 230 px, 20 to 50 KB
SSC MTS · 200 × 230 px, 20 to 50 KB
UPSC CDS · 350 × 350 px, 20 to 200 KB
UPSC CSE · 350 × 350 px, 20 to 200 KB
UPSC NDA · 350 × 350 px, 20 to 200 KB

Specs come from each exam's latest notification. Open an exam page to see the source, and use its built-in resizer for that exam's exact preset.

Tips for this size

Crop tight around the ink before you compress a signature. Blank paper around it still costs bytes, and a phone scan of a signature is often 1 to 3 MB to begin with.
Type 19 into the KB box instead of 20. Some portals count a kilobyte as 1,000 bytes rather than 1,024, and a file our readout calls 20 KB can be a few hundred bytes over their limit.
Turn on grayscale for a signature. Black ink on white paper loses nothing visible, and the file gets much smaller.
Do not push a bank-form photo down to 20 KB when the notice says 20 to 50 KB. Land somewhere in the middle so a rounding difference cannot drop you under the minimum.

Other common sizes

Signature Resize Compress to 50 KB 200 × 230 px

Frequently asked questions

Can a passport photo be under 20 KB and still look clear?: At 200 × 230 px, yes. That is only 46,000 pixels, and a JPG of that size fits under 20 KB with the face still sharp. A full phone photo cannot get that small without being scaled down, and the compressor does that for you when it has to.
Why does the portal reject my 20 KB file?: Usually the file is slightly over because the portal counts 1 KB as 1,000 bytes. Set the target to 19 KB and try again. The other common cause is a minimum: many photo fields need at least 20 KB, so a file well under 20 KB fails there.