Inspect the full EXIF metadata in any photo — camera, lens, exposure settings, timestamp and GPS location. Free, and it runs entirely in your browser, so the image is never uploaded.
View image metadata instantly in your browser with imgbox, a free EXIF viewer that reveals the hidden data stored inside your photos. See camera settings, GPS location, timestamps, and technical details from any JPEG, PNG, HEIC, or TIFF file without uploading anything. All metadata extraction happens 100% client-side using WebAssembly and Canvas, so your images never leave your device.
Image metadata is a block of information embedded inside a photo file that describes how, when, and where the image was created. When you take a picture with a phone or camera, the device automatically writes dozens of fields into the file alongside the actual pixels. This viewer decodes that block and presents it in a readable list so you can inspect every tag your camera recorded.
The most common metadata standard is EXIF (Exchangeable Image File Format), but photos can also carry IPTC captions, XMP editing history, and ICC color profiles. Understanding what is stored helps you decide what to keep and what to remove before sharing.
EXIF is the technical fingerprint of a photo. Photographers use it to study which settings produced a good shot, forensic analysts use it to verify authenticity, and everyday users check it to confirm when a picture was taken. Each tag is a small key-value pair, and a single photo can contain more than a hundred of them.
GPS data is a special subset of EXIF. If location services were enabled when you took the photo, the file stores the exact latitude and longitude, sometimes accurate to a few meters. This is convenient for organizing travel albums, but it can also expose where you live, work, or spend your time to anyone who receives the file.
Metadata is grouped into fields, and they carry very different levels of risk. Location and timestamps are the ones worth checking before you share a photo publicly.
This tool shows every field present in your image. If you want them gone rather than just visible, the metadata remover strips them.
| Field group | What it contains | Privacy risk |
|---|---|---|
| GPS | Latitude, longitude, altitude | High — pinpoints where the photo was taken |
| Date and time | Original capture timestamp | Medium — places you somewhere at a time |
| Camera | Make, model, serial number | Medium — links separate photos to one device |
| Embedded thumbnail | A small preview of the original | Medium — can survive cropping and show what you removed |
| Author and copyright | Name, contact details | Medium — often your real name |
| Lens and exposure | Focal length, aperture, ISO, shutter speed | Low — technical only |
| Software | Editing application and version | Low |
Source: CIPA DC-008 — Exif specification
Most people do not realize that a casual photo can broadcast their home address. A picture taken in your living room and posted online can carry the precise coordinates of your house. Viewing the metadata first lets you see exactly what a photo would reveal before you send it to anyone.
This matters for parents posting pictures of children, for anyone selling items on marketplaces, and for people who value personal safety. Checking metadata is the first step; once you know what is embedded, you can decide whether to strip it.
Beyond privacy, metadata inspection has many practical uses. Photographers review settings to learn from their best and worst shots. Sellers and journalists verify that an image is genuine and unedited. Designers check the color profile and resolution before using an asset in a layout.
Because this tool runs entirely in your browser, you can inspect sensitive or confidential images without the risk of them being stored on a remote server.
Many online EXIF viewers require you to upload your photo to their servers, which means a copy of your private image, complete with its GPS location, now lives on a machine you do not control. imgbox takes the opposite approach: the file is read directly in your browser using WebAssembly and the Canvas API.
Your image is never uploaded, there is no account to create, no watermark, and no usage limits. Once the page has loaded, it even works offline. This makes it safe to inspect confidential, personal, or work-related images that should never touch the cloud.
It might. If location services were on when the photo was taken, the file stores GPS coordinates in its EXIF data. Load the image into this viewer to see instantly whether latitude and longitude are present, along with the exact spot the photo was captured.
Open the View Image Metadata tool, drop your photo onto the page, and the EXIF fields appear immediately. You will see camera make and model, exposure settings, date taken, and any GPS location, all read locally in your browser.
With imgbox it is, because nothing is uploaded. The image is processed entirely in your browser using WebAssembly and Canvas, so your photo and its location data never leave your device. Many other online viewers upload your file to a server, which is not private.
EXIF data typically includes the camera make and model, lens, aperture, shutter speed, ISO, focal length, orientation, the date and time the photo was taken, the software used to edit it, and, if enabled, GPS coordinates.
Yes, if the photo contains GPS data. The tool displays the stored latitude, longitude, and often the altitude and direction the camera was pointing. If no GPS fields appear, location was not recorded or has already been removed.
Screenshots usually contain minimal metadata and no GPS. Many social platforms strip EXIF on upload, but images you receive directly, download, or share as files often keep the original camera data, so it is worth checking each file.
You can inspect common formats that store metadata, including JPEG, TIFF, HEIC, and PNG. JPEG and HEIC from phones and cameras carry the richest EXIF and GPS data, while PNG typically stores less.
No. This tool only reads and displays the metadata. Your original image is untouched. If you want to actually strip the data, use the Remove Image Metadata tool, which creates a clean copy.
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