Image Metadata Stripper in the browser is not a generate
/free-tools/image-metadata-stripper never spends a credit. Do not pay a model to do an in-browser file job.
/free-tools/image-metadata-stripper never spends a credit. Do not pay a model to do an in-browser file job. See the EXIF, including GPS, then strip it by re-encoding locally. That is Canvas and the File API on your machine. It is not a model, not an upload, and not a line on what it costs.
Versely has no free generation tier. Every generate costs credits. The stripper is free because it never touches a model. Confusing those two is how a GPS tag becomes a billed still.
Strip is a file job
The tool reads the JPEG APP1 EXIF segment — including GPS — and shows you what is there. Re-encoding through canvas writes a new image with none of it. PNG text chunks are listed the same way. This is a new file, not a surgical edit of the original bytes. Nothing is sent to a server. It keeps working with the network off. That is the same guarantee as the rest of the free tools surface: no upload, no account, no watermark, nothing stored after you close the tab.
The canvas JPEG is a new compress, so you trade a little quality for a file that has no EXIF. Export as PNG if you need a lossless pixel copy (it will be larger). There is no lossless "just delete the APP1 segment" path here, because editing JPEG markers in place is how files get corrupted.
Most phones write GPS into JPEG EXIF. PNG usually has none; some cameras write an eXIf chunk, which this tool reads. A PNG converted from a JPEG by a tool that copied no metadata has already lost it — there is nothing left to strip.
What the re-encode actually does
You choose a file. The tab parses what it can see. You download a new bitmap. GPS, camera serial, timestamps in EXIF — gone from the download because they were never written into it. The original on disk is untouched. Keep it if you still need the location. The stripped download is the one you send.
This is not C2PA. This is not a redaction of pixels. Faces, street signs, and a house number in the photograph are still in the photograph. Stripping metadata does not anonymise a picture. It removes the sidecar a recipient could read without looking.
None of this is billed. The /cost hub is the map of credit formulas: per second, per thousand characters, per megapixel, per job. Metadata strip is not on that map because the arithmetic never runs on our hardware. A generate that "also happens to come out clean" is a generate. You already paid for invention. You did not need to pay to drop APP1. Unused credits roll over while a subscription is active — that sentence is about generates, not this tab.
Do not launder a strip through a model
The failure mode is "I need the GPS gone, so I will generate a copy of this photo." You will get a cousin of the still. Labels drift. Faces drift. You will have spent a credit formula from the cost hub on a job the canvas already does. You may also have made a likeness of the person who was in the original.
Use the stripper when you already like the pixels and only the sidecar is wrong. Use a generate when you do not have the pixels. The free-tools index is fifty-three of these jobs. Credits are for the ones that invent. If the picture itself is the leak — a recognisable interior, a badge — stripping EXIF will not save you. Crop or do not send it. The stripper is a metadata tool, not a privacy generator.
FAQ
Does the image metadata stripper use credits if I am logged in?
No. It never spends a credit. There is no account on the tool, and logging into Versely elsewhere does not meter a canvas draw. Generation is the thing that quotes a cost before you confirm.
Is the re-encoded JPEG identical to the original photo?
No. Canvas JPEG is a new compress, so you trade a little quality for a file that has no EXIF. Export as PNG if you need a lossless pixel copy. There is no in-place APP1 deletion here.
Do my files get uploaded?
No. The file is read into memory on your own machine, processed there, and offered back as a download. Nothing is sent to a server. That is also why it keeps working with the network off.
Why is this free if Versely has no free generation tier?
Because it is not generation. Free tools run on your device; they cost nothing to run. /cost is the catalogue of jobs that do cost credits. Do not mix the two to "save" a GPS tag.