Blur faces in photos — without uploading them
Faces are found and hidden on your device: blur, pixelate, black-box or emoji, plus manual boxes for plates and text. Metadata stripped automatically. Free, no signup, works offline.
Drop a photo here — or click to browse, or paste with Ctrl+V
JPG · PNG · WebP — faces found and hidden on your device, never uploaded
How it works
- Drop a photo in, click to browse, or paste a screenshot with Ctrl+V.
- Faces are detected on your device in seconds — each gets a box.
- Adjust: pick blur, mosaic, black box or emoji; drag boxes over plates, names, labels.
- Download a flattened copy with all metadata stripped. Nothing was ever uploaded.
Detection runs Google’s BlazeFace model compiled to WebAssembly, served from this site and executed by your browser — there is no server-side “AI API” behind it. The scan covers the photo in overlapping tiles, so small faces in group shots get found, not just the big selfie up front. More on group photos.
Redaction that can’t be peeled back
The dangerous failure in this category isn’t a missing feature — it’s redaction that looks done but isn’t: blur so light it can be matched, “covered” text sitting on a removable layer, or an export that keeps the GPS coordinates of your home. BlurLocally flattens every export to a single image, uses downsampling effects that discard pixels rather than smear them, defaults to solid boxes for text (because pixelated text can be recovered), and re-encodes the file so metadata never carries over.
Why local-only matters for exactly these photos
Think about what people blur: strangers’ faces, their kids, their home, protest crowds, screenshots of private accounts. Those are the last images that should be uploaded to an unknown server for processing. BlurLocally is a static site — there is no upload endpoint, and the tool keeps working with your Wi-Fi off. Here’s how to verify that yourself, on this site or any other.
Frequently asked questions
How is this different from other face-blur tools?
Three ways. The photo never leaves your device — detection and blurring run in your browser, verifiable by using the tool offline. The effects are downsampling redactions that discard the original pixels instead of smearing them, so they can’t be reversed. And every download is re-encoded clean, stripping EXIF metadata including GPS location automatically.
Is it really free? What’s the catch?
It’s free — no account, no email, no watermark, no daily cap. Because your own device does the work, running the site costs almost nothing. If the site ever carries ads, they’ll sit outside the tool and will never see your photos: the no-upload architecture doesn’t change.
How good is the automatic face detection?
It runs Google’s BlazeFace model on your device, and this site scans the photo in overlapping tiles so small background faces get found too — most tools only scan the full frame. It still isn’t perfect: profiles, masks and tiny faces can slip through, which is why every page here tells you to review the boxes and why drawing a manual box takes two seconds.
Can a blurred or pixelated face be recovered?
Not from this tool at sensible strengths: both effects squeeze the region through a tiny raster, so the original pixels are gone from the exported file. Text is a different story — pixelated text has been publicly reversed (Depix, Unredacter), which is why the screenshot preset uses solid black boxes instead.
Does it remove the hidden location data from my photos?
Yes, automatically. Downloads are re-encoded from raw pixels, so EXIF metadata — GPS coordinates, camera model, timestamps — doesn’t carry over. The tool also tells you whether the photo you loaded actually contained GPS data.
Can I use it on my phone?
Yes — everything works in mobile browsers: camera-roll photos, drawing boxes by touch, and downloads. You can also install the site as an app (Add to Home Screen); it keeps working with no connection at all.