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Blur or Pixelate Part of an Image Online
The Tools Kit’s free Blur / Pixelate Image tool hides just the parts of a picture you choose: a face in a group photo, a license plate on a car, an address on a parcel, or an account number in a screenshot. Drag a rectangle over each area, pick a blocky pixelate mosaic or a soft blur, and download the edited image as a PNG.
The whole edit happens on a canvas in your browser. The unblurred original is never uploaded, which matters for a tool whose job is protecting private information.
How to Blur or Pixelate an Image
- 1
Upload your image
Click the upload area or drag a JPG, PNG or WebP photo or screenshot onto it. The image opens on a canvas at its full resolution, right in your browser.
- 2
Choose Pixelate or Blur
Pick Pixelate for a blocky mosaic or Blur for a soft Gaussian blur. Pixelate is selected by default.
- 3
Set the intensity
Move the Intensity slider anywhere from 4 to 40 (it starts at 16). Higher values make bigger pixel blocks or a stronger blur.
- 4
Drag over the area to hide
Click and drag a rectangle over a face, license plate, name or number. Repeat for as many areas as you need; Undo All Regions removes every selection.
- 5
Download the result
Click Download to save the edited image as a PNG at the same pixel size as the original.
The effect and intensity apply to all regions together, so changing either one redraws every rectangle you have already placed. If you only need part of the picture, trim it first with the image cropper so there is less to hide.
Pixelate vs Blur: Which Hides Detail Better?
Pixelate shrinks the selected area to a tiny grid, then stretches it back to full size with smoothing turned off, so every block becomes one flat color. The grid is the area’s width and height divided by the intensity, rounded to whole blocks. A 240 by 300 pixel face at the default intensity of 16 becomes a 15 by 19 grid of 285 blocks, still enough to suggest a face shape. At 40 the same area becomes a 6 by 8 grid of just 48 blocks, and individual features are gone.
Blur applies the browser’s Gaussian blur filter with the intensity as the radius in pixels. To avoid a hard edge, the blurred copy is drawn over your selection plus an extra margin equal to the intensity on every side: a 200 by 100 pixel selection at 16 is covered by a 232 by 132 pixel blurred patch that fades softly at its outer edge. Leave a little room around nearby details you want to keep sharp.
For privacy, a coarse pixelation is the more reliable choice because it discards more information. A blur looks nicer for casual photos, such as softening a stranger in the background, but low settings can leave outlines and large text readable.
Choosing the Right Intensity for Your Image Size
The intensity is measured in the image’s own pixels, not on-screen pixels. The tool edits the full-resolution image, while the preview is scaled down to fit the page. On a 1,000-pixel-wide screenshot, 16-pixel blocks are clearly visible; on a 4,000-pixel-wide phone photo the same blocks are a quarter as large relative to the picture and can leave a face recognizable. Use 30 to 40 for high-resolution photos, or shrink the photo first with the image resizer so the settings go further.
Text needs extra care. Researchers have shown that small-block pixelation of text can sometimes be reversed by matching block colors against rendered characters. For passwords, card numbers or ID numbers, use the maximum intensity so each block is larger than a single character, and check the preview before you download.
What the Downloaded File Contains
The download is a PNG exported straight from the canvas at the original width and height. The pixels inside each region are overwritten, with no hidden layer or undo history that could restore them. A canvas export also carries no camera metadata, so GPS coordinates and capture times are left behind; to remove that data from a photo without changing anything else, use the EXIF remover.
Because PNG is lossless, a blurred phone photo can come out several times larger than the JPG you started with. Convert it with the PNG to JPG converter or shrink it with the image compressor before emailing or uploading it.
Common uses
- Blurring faces of children, bystanders or coworkers before posting a photo
- Pixelating a license plate, house number or street sign in a picture
- Hiding email addresses, names and account numbers in a screenshot for a bug report
- Redacting a signature or ID number on a photographed document
- Softening a distracting background detail in an otherwise finished photo
To redact a page of a PDF, export it with PDF to PNG, pixelate the sensitive parts here, then rebuild the document with Image to PDF. If you are sharing your own photos and want to mark them rather than hide anything, the image watermark tool adds a text overlay. Find more editors and converters among The Tools Kit’s image tools.
Image blurring terms explained
| Term | What it means here |
|---|---|
| Pixelate (mosaic) | Replaces the selected area with large single-color blocks, each roughly as wide as the intensity value in pixels |
| Gaussian blur | Smears each pixel with its neighbors; here the intensity is the blur radius in pixels passed to the browser’s blur filter |
| Intensity | The 4-40 slider value: block size for Pixelate, blur radius for Blur, measured in the image’s own pixels |
| Region | One rectangle you drag on the image; every region uses the current effect and intensity |
| Redaction | Permanently obscuring sensitive content before sharing; the downloaded PNG contains only the edited pixels |
| EXIF metadata | Hidden camera, date and GPS data stored inside a photo file; a canvas export does not copy it |
Frequently Asked Questions
Upload the image, choose Blur or Pixelate, set the intensity from 4 to 40, then click and drag a rectangle over the part you want to hide. Add as many rectangles as you need and click Download to save the result as a PNG. There is no sign-up, watermark or usage limit.
No. The image is loaded into a canvas in your browser and the effect is applied there, so the unedited original never leaves your device. Only the edited copy is saved, and only when you click Download.
Both hide a face well at high settings. Pixelate at a large block size, such as 30 to 40, throws away most detail and gives an obviously edited mosaic look, which makes it the safer choice for privacy. Blur looks softer and more natural, but a light blur can leave shapes recognizable, so use a high intensity.
Only with large blocks. Small-block pixelation of text has been partially reversed by researchers because each block still carries an average of the letters beneath it. For short sensitive text, use an intensity near 40 so each block is bigger than a character, or crop the information out entirely.
In Pixelate mode it is the approximate block size in image pixels: a 240 by 300 pixel area at 16 becomes a 15 by 19 grid of 285 blocks, and at 40 it becomes a 6 by 8 grid of 48 blocks. In Blur mode it is the blur radius in pixels, and the blur also extends that many pixels beyond each edge of your selection.
No. The effect and intensity apply to every region at once, and changing either one instantly redraws all existing regions with the new setting. To combine effects, download the image after the first pass, then upload that file and apply the second effect.
Not individually. Regions cannot be moved, resized or removed one at a time. Undo All Regions clears every selection and returns to the original image so you can redraw them.
JPG, PNG and WebP are supported, and other image formats your browser can display will usually open too. The download is always a PNG at the original width and height, named with a blurred_ prefix in front of the original file name.
The result is saved as a lossless PNG, and a photo stored as PNG is often several times larger than the same photo as a JPG. If size matters, convert it back to JPG or run it through an image compressor after editing.
No. The download is exported from a canvas, which copies only the pixels, so camera EXIF data such as GPS coordinates and capture time is not included in the PNG.
The pixels inside each region are overwritten in the downloaded file, so there is no hidden layer to remove. Pixelate replaces them completely; Blur paints a blurred copy over them that blends slightly with the original right at the selection border. What remains is the blurred or pixelated version, and weak settings can still leave clues, so use a high intensity for anything genuinely sensitive.
Reviewed by Raja Jahangir · Last reviewed: October 2, 2026
How do you blur or pixelate part of an image?
To blur or pixelate part of an image, upload a JPG, PNG, or WebP, choose Pixelate or Blur, set the intensity from 4 to 40, then click and drag a rectangle over the area such as a face or licence plate. Several regions can be added, Undo All Regions clears them, and the result downloads as a PNG.
Is pixelating or blurring better for hiding a face?
Pixelating is generally the safer choice. Pixelation at a high block size such as 30 or 40 replaces the region with a coarse grid that discards most detail, whereas a light Gaussian blur can sometimes be partially reversed. Whichever effect you use, the download is a flattened PNG, so the original pixels are not recoverable from the file.