How to Remove Metadata in GIMP

To remove metadata in GIMP, export your image with File > Export As and, in the export dialog that appears after you click Export, untick Save Exif, Save XMP, Save IPTC, Save thumbnail and Save comment. Keep Save color profile ticked so colors stay correct. To make this the default for every export, change the Export Policies in Edit > Preferences > Image Import & Export.

Why GIMP keeps your photo's metadata

When GIMP opens a JPEG, PNG or WebP file, it reads the metadata blocks inside it (Exif, XMP and IPTC) and attaches them to the image you are editing. When you export, GIMP writes them into the new file, updating only technical values such as the pixel dimensions. Unless you change the defaults, that means a phone photo exported from GIMP still carries its GPSLatitude and GPSLongitude, the phone's Make and Model, the capture time in DateTimeOriginal, and any embedded thumbnail.

Editing the picture does not change this. Cropping out a house number, blurring a face or resizing for the web leaves the metadata untouched, because metadata is stored alongside the pixels, not in them. The export dialog is where you decide what goes out.

Remove metadata in GIMP when exporting a JPEG

These steps are for GIMP 3. GIMP 2.10 has the same options, with labels like "Save Exif data" instead of "Save Exif".

1. Open your image and finish your edits.
2. Choose File > Export As (Shift+Ctrl+E). Type a new file name ending in .jpg so you do not overwrite the original, and click Export.
3. The Export Image as JPEG dialog opens. Set the Quality you want.
4. In the metadata section at the bottom of the dialog, untick Save Exif, Save XMP, Save IPTC and Save thumbnail.
5. Untick Save comment, or clear the comment text box.
6. Leave Save color profile ticked.
7. Click Export.

What each checkbox controls:

The color profile is worth keeping because removing it can make photos from wide-gamut cameras and phones look dull. It describes a color space, not you. Our article on ICC color profiles explains why.

Remove metadata when exporting PNG and WebP

The PNG and WebP export dialogs include the metadata checkboxes too. Untick Save Exif, Save XMP, Save IPTC, Save thumbnail and, if present, Save comment in the same way.

The PNG dialog has a few extra options that write small data chunks:

• Save creation time (ticked by default) writes a tIME chunk with the moment you exported the file. It does not reveal where you were, but it is a timestamp; untick it if timing matters.
• Save resolution stores the print resolution (pixels per inch). It is harmless.
• Save background color stores a suggested background color. It is harmless.

PNG metadata works differently from JPEG metadata, with text chunks that some apps fill with surprising content. Our guide to PNG metadata covers the details, and the WebP metadata guide covers WebP's EXIF and XMP chunks.

Change GIMP's default export policies

Unticking boxes every time is easy to forget. GIMP lets you set what the export dialogs start with:

1. Open Edit > Preferences (on macOS, Preferences may be in the GIMP application menu instead).
2. Select Image Import & Export in the left column.
3. Under Export Policies, untick Export Exif metadata by default when available, Export XMP metadata by default when available and Export IPTC metadata by default when available.
4. Untick Export the image's thumbnail by default and Export the image's comment by default.
5. Keep Export the image's color profile by default ticked.
6. Click OK.

These labels come from the GIMP 3.0 manual; they may differ slightly in other versions. You can still tick the boxes in an individual export dialog when you want to keep metadata, for example in an archive copy.

If you also want to stop GIMP adding its default comment to new images, change or clear it under Preferences > Default Image > Comment.

View and edit metadata in GIMP

GIMP has two metadata tools under Image > Metadata:

• View Metadata lists the Exif, XMP and IPTC tags attached to the open image. Use it to see what you are about to export: look for Exif.GPSInfo entries, Exif.Image.Make, Exif.Image.Model and dates.
• Edit Metadata opens an editor with Description, IPTC, IPTC Extension, Categories, GPS and DICOM tabs. You can change titles, keywords, creator and copyright, then click Write Metadata. That only updates the image in GIMP; you still need to export.

The editor is useful for adding a copyright notice or fixing a caption, but it is not a removal tool. According to the GIMP documentation, Exif metadata cannot be edited there, and that is where most cameras and phones store GPS coordinates, the device model and serial numbers. To remove those, untick Save Exif at export.

If you want to keep your credit while dropping everything else, add your copyright in Edit Metadata, then export with Save Exif off but Save XMP and Save IPTC on. Before you do, check the IPTC tab for city, location and country fields, which some apps fill in automatically.

What GIMP adds or changes on its own

Even when you clean a file, GIMP's own settings shape what comes out:

• The default comment. New images get the comment "Created with GIMP" unless you change the default, and it is exported when Save comment is ticked.
• GIMP's XMP fields. When Save XMP is on, GIMP writes a few entries in its own namespace, including the GIMP version, a timestamp and the platform it ran on, such as Windows or Linux. Minor, but another reason to untick Save XMP.
• Rotation. When you open a photo with an EXIF orientation tag, GIMP asks whether to rotate it (the default "Metadata rotation policy" in Preferences). If you accept, the pixels themselves are rotated, so the exported file looks right even without metadata. Our guide on EXIF orientation explains why other tools can turn photos sideways.
• Color profile conversion. Depending on your color management settings, GIMP may keep the embedded profile or convert to its built-in sRGB profile on import. Either way, Save color profile makes sure the exported file describes its colors.

The quality cost of exporting from GIMP

GIMP is an editor, so every export encodes the image again from its pixels. For PNG this is lossless. For JPEG and lossy WebP, each export recompresses the image, and repeated round trips gradually soften detail and add artifacts. If you edited the photo anyway, this does not matter: you were going to export it. If you only opened GIMP to strip metadata from a finished JPEG, it is not the ideal tool.

For that case, a tool that deletes metadata blocks without decoding the image is better. ExifTool does this on the command line, and our free online metadata remover does it in the browser: it keeps the original JPEG, PNG or WebP data, removes EXIF, XMP, IPTC, comments and text chunks, and keeps only the color profile and orientation flag. Our article on removing metadata without losing quality explains the difference.

Check the exported file

Open the exported copy, not the image still open in GIMP, and inspect it. Reopening it in GIMP and choosing Image > Metadata > View Metadata is a quick check. For a complete view, use your operating system's file properties or ExifTool:

exiftool -a -G1 -s exported.jpg

A clean export shows no GPS, IFD0 camera tags, XMP or IPTC groups, only file information and the ICC_Profile group if you kept the color profile.

GIMP metadata checklist

1. Set the Export Policies in Preferences once, so exports start without Exif, XMP, IPTC, thumbnail and comment.
2. Keep the color profile option on.
3. Use Export As with a new file name; keep your original intact.
4. For PNG, decide whether you want the creation time chunk.
5. Check the exported file before you share it.
6. Look at the picture itself: a cropped-out street sign is gone, but a reflection or a screen in the background is not metadata and stays visible.