ExifZero How it works
- Drop your images.
Any number of JPEG, PNG, WebP, GIF, HEIC, AVIF or TIFF files. They stay on your computer. - Read the report.
See which AI tool made the image, the prompt, C2PA credentials and every privacy-sensitive field. - Download the clean copy.
Metadata blocks are cut out without re-encoding, and the result is re-scanned to verify nothing is left.
What AI image generators hide in your files
Most AI tools write something about themselves into the image file. Some of it is a deliberate label, some is a convenience for re-creating the image — and some of it is more personal than people expect, such as the full prompt or the node graph of a private workflow.
| Source | Where it is stored | What it can reveal |
|---|---|---|
| ChatGPT / DALL·E, Adobe Firefly, Microsoft Designer, Google | C2PA manifest (JUMBF) | Generator, edit actions, signer certificate, source thumbnails |
| Midjourney, Meta AI, Google, many stock sites | XMP DigitalSourceType, description | “trainedAlgorithmicMedia” label, prompt, job id |
| Stable Diffusion WebUI (A1111, Forge) | PNG parameters text, JPEG/WebP EXIF comment | Prompt, negative prompt, seed, model, LoRAs |
| ComfyUI | PNG prompt and workflow text | Your entire workflow graph and file paths |
| NovelAI, InvokeAI, Fooocus | PNG text chunks | Prompt and all generation settings |
| Chinese AIGC services | XMP / EXIF AIGC field | Producer id and content id required by GB 45438-2025 |
What gets removed
- AI labels — C2PA Content Credentials, IPTC Digital Source Type, AIGC implicit labels.
- Generation data — prompts, seeds, models and workflows from Stable Diffusion, ComfyUI, NovelAI, InvokeAI and others.
- EXIF — GPS coordinates, camera and lens serial numbers, owner name, dates, software, and the embedded preview thumbnail.
- XMP and IPTC — creator names, captions, keywords, edit history, locations.
- Hidden extras — comments, vendor blocks, extra images (MPF depth maps) and data appended after the end of the image, such as motion-photo video.
What stays: the pixels, untouched, plus the color profile and rotation if you keep them ticked. Open the File structure tab on any image to see each block and whether it is kept or removed.
Why people clean image metadata
- Privacy. A phone photo can carry the exact coordinates of your home. Prompts and workflows can contain names, client work or ideas you do not want to publish.
- Smaller files. C2PA manifests and ComfyUI workflows often add 50–500 KB to an image.
- Consistent publishing. Different apps display stale or conflicting metadata. A clean file shows only what you add.
Use it responsibly. Removing a label does not make an AI image a photograph. If a platform, client, publisher or law requires you to disclose that content is AI-generated, keep doing so.
Frequently asked questions
Are my images uploaded to a server?
No. The page reads and rewrites the file inside your browser with JavaScript. You can disconnect from the internet after the page loads and it keeps working.
Does removing metadata reduce image quality?
Not for JPEG, PNG, WebP and GIF. Those files are cleaned losslessly: the metadata blocks are cut out and the compressed image data is copied byte for byte. HEIC, AVIF and TIFF are re-encoded to a high-quality JPEG because browsers cannot rewrite them block by block.
Which AI tags are removed?
C2PA Content Credentials (used by ChatGPT, Adobe Firefly, Google, Microsoft and others), the IPTC “Digital Source Type” field, Stable Diffusion / ComfyUI / NovelAI / InvokeAI generation parameters and prompts, AI tool names in EXIF and XMP, and any other EXIF, XMP, IPTC, comment or vendor block.
Will this remove invisible watermarks like SynthID?
No. Invisible watermarks are woven into the pixels, not stored as metadata, and this tool does not alter pixels. Platforms that read pixel watermarks can still recognise such images.
Why keep the color profile and rotation?
An ICC color profile tells viewers how to display colors; without it, wide-gamut photos can look washed out. The rotation flag makes phone photos stand upright. Neither identifies you, so both are kept by default. Untick the boxes to drop them too.
Is it legal to remove AI labels?
Removing metadata from your own files is legal in most places and is what most social networks do on upload anyway. But some platforms and jurisdictions require you to disclose AI-generated content regardless of metadata — for example TikTok, YouTube and Meta policies, the EU AI Act and China’s AIGC labelling rules. Cleaning a file does not change those obligations.