Pixelate image
Hide a face, a plate or an account number by pixelating, blurring or blacking out a region. The pixels are replaced in the exported file, not covered.
About this tool
Pixelating or blurring part of an image hides what is underneath: a face, a licence plate, a house number, an account balance in a screenshot, an email address in a shared document.
Drag a box over the area, choose pixelation or blur and how strong it should be, and the region is destroyed in the exported file — the obscured pixels are replaced, not covered by an overlay, so there is nothing to peel back.
One caveat worth knowing: light pixelation of text can sometimes be reversed by software that tries every possible rendering and compares. For anything sensitive, use a large block size or a solid fill rather than a gentle blur.
How to use it
- 1
Upload your image
Add the photo or screenshot containing something you want hidden.
- 2
Drag over the area
Draw a box over each region to obscure. Add as many as you need.
- 3
Choose the effect and strength
Pixelate, blur or fill with a solid block, then set how aggressive it is.
- 4
Download the redacted image
The exported file contains the obscured pixels permanently.
Frequently asked questions
How do I blur a face in a photo?
Drag a box over the face and pick blur or pixelate. Use a strength high enough that no features remain distinguishable in the preview, then download; the original pixels are not present in the exported file.
Can pixelation be reversed?
For photographs, a strong pixelation is not practically reversible. For text, weak pixelation can sometimes be undone by brute-force comparison against candidate renderings. Redacting text is safer with a solid fill or a very large block size.
Does the original image stay in the downloaded file?
No. The effect is drawn into the canvas before export, so the downloaded file contains only the obscured pixels. This is different from drawing a black rectangle in an editor that keeps layers.
Should I also remove metadata?
Yes, if you are sharing publicly. Blurring a house number does not remove the GPS coordinates stored in the file. Run the result through the Remove EXIF Data tool.
Last reviewed by the Kobra IMG team.