EXIF Viewer — Read Photo Metadata Without Uploading
See what a photo knows about itself — camera, settings, date taken, orientation — read from the file, on your own device.
or drag a photo here
What this tool does
It reads the metadata a photo carries and shows it as a plain list. EXIF is the block a camera writes into the file to record how the picture was taken — the make and model, the moment, the shutter speed, aperture, ISO and focal length — and often an orientation flag and a location. This viewer pulls out the common tags so you can see, for example, that a photo was taken on a particular phone at a particular second with a particular exposure.
What the fields mean
| Tag | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Make / Model | The camera or phone that took the photo. |
| Date taken | When the shutter fired, to the second. |
| Exposure time | Shutter speed, e.g. 1/250 second. |
| F-number | Aperture — smaller number, wider opening. |
| ISO | Sensor sensitivity; higher is noisier but works in dim light. |
| Focal length | How zoomed-in the shot was. |
| Orientation | How the image is meant to be rotated for display. |
Why checking EXIF is worth doing
Two good reasons. As a photographer or learner, the exposure fields are a free lesson in how a picture was made. As anyone about to share a file, the same metadata can carry a precise location and a timestamp — which is why many people check a photo before posting it, and why stripping the metadata is a common last step. Seeing what is in the file is the first part of deciding.
Read locally, never uploaded
The whole point of an EXIF viewer is often to inspect something private, so this one reads the file byte by byte in your browser and never sends it anywhere. The metadata is parsed on your machine and shown on the page; nothing is logged or transmitted.
Frequently asked questions
What is EXIF data?
Metadata a camera or phone stores inside a photo alongside the pixels: the camera make and model, the date and time it was taken, the exposure settings (shutter, aperture, ISO, focal length), and often an orientation flag and a GPS location. It is why you can learn how a photo was shot from the file alone.
Which photos carry it?
Nearly every JPEG straight from a camera or phone does. Editing or exporting can strip it — many image editors and social platforms remove EXIF on save or upload, both to shrink the file and for privacy. A photo with no EXIF is normal, not broken.
Why does the orientation matter?
Phones often store the picture in one rotation and add an EXIF "orientation" tag saying how to display it. Some viewers honour the tag and some ignore it, which is why the same photo looks upright in one app and sideways in another. The rotate tool can bake the rotation in so it is consistent everywhere.
Does this read GPS location?
The viewer shows the common tags it finds, including a GPS timestamp when present; it does not decode the full GPS coordinate block into a map. If you are checking whether a photo reveals where it was taken, assume a phone photo does and strip the metadata before sharing it.
Does it work on PNG or WebP?
EXIF is a JPEG/TIFF feature; a PNG or WebP usually has none, so the viewer will simply report that it found no metadata. That is expected — it is not an error.
Is my photo uploaded?
No. The file is read byte by byte in your browser to pull out the metadata and never leaves your device. That matters, because the very EXIF you are inspecting may contain a home location or a precise timestamp.
Go deeper
Longer explanations of the problems this tool solves:
Sources
- CIPA DC-008 — Exchangeable image file format (Exif) specification.
- MDN Web Docs — File API (reading a file as an ArrayBuffer).
Everything runs in your browser — your file never leaves your device.