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Crop Image into a Circle

Cut a perfect circle from any photo — transparent corners, exact pixel sizes for avatars and icons, saved as PNG.

How to crop a picture into a circle

Drop your photo onto the panel above — circle mode is already selected — drag the round selection over what you want to keep, and press Crop.

Sizing is either a preset or freehand. Profile at 400 px, Icon at 512 px, and Thumbnail at 150 px fix the output dimensions so all you have to decide is placement; dragging the corners instead sizes the circle to whatever you want. The result downloads as a PNG with the circular image on a fully transparent background.

The crop happens in your browser and the photo is never uploaded, which is worth stating plainly given what this tool mostly gets used on: pictures of people's faces.

Why the result is a PNG

A circular image is really a square image whose corners are see-through, and that requires a format with an alpha channel. Of the formats this site writes, PNG is the one every website, editor, and messenger accepts while carrying full transparency — so circle crops are always saved as PNG. A JPG version would fill the corners with a solid colour, which is exactly what you are trying to avoid.

Dropped somewhere that doesn't support transparency — some forums, older software — the corners render as white or black. That is the platform flattening the alpha channel, not a defect in the file.

Do you need a circular file?

Often you don't: most platforms that display round avatars — Slack, GitHub, LinkedIn, Instagram — take your square photo and mask it to a circle themselves. Upload a square crop there and it will look right. A genuinely circular file matters when the platform does not do the masking: website team pages, email signatures, presentation slides, printed materials, and custom designs.

The useful trick for avatar platforms is the opposite one: use this tool's circle preview to see what the platform's mask will keep, then upload the square original knowing nothing important gets clipped.

Which size preset

PresetOutputUse it for
Profile400 × 400 pxAvatars, team pages, email signatures
Icon512 × 512 pxApp icons, favicons-to-be, logos
Thumbnail150 × 150 pxComment avatars, small listings
FreeAny sizeSized by hand — pixels inside keep original resolution
The three presets fix the output dimensions so the only thing left to decide is where the circle sits.

Frequently asked questions

How do I crop a photo into a circle?

Drop the photo above, position the circle, and press Crop — the download is a PNG with transparent corners. No account, no watermark, and the image never leaves your device.

Can I get it as a JPG?

Not meaningfully — JPG has no transparency, so the corners would be filled with a solid colour and the image would read as a square again. If a form insists on JPG, upload the square crop instead and let the platform mask it. To convert other people's circular PNGs, the PNG to JPG converter flattens onto white.

Does the background become transparent too?

No. This is a shape crop, not background removal: everything inside the circle stays exactly as photographed, and everything outside it becomes transparent.

What size should a profile picture be?

400 × 400 px covers nearly every avatar slot — most platforms display between 32 and 200 px, and 400 leaves headroom for high-DPI screens. Use 512 px where the image doubles as an icon.

Why are the corners white on some sites?

The site flattened the PNG's transparency onto a background colour. The file itself is fine — check it against a dark and light background in any modern viewer.

Finish the job

Common follow-ups, one click from here. Your image stays on your device between tools.