DS-160 photo requirements: 600 to 1200 pixels, under 240 KB, and why an upload fails

The DS-160 photo upload is a small set of file rules: a square JPEG, between 600 and 1200 pixels each way, 240 KB or less. It is the digital half of the US visa photo, and this page is only about that half: what the file must be, how the numbers limit each other, and why a file that looks right is refused. The photograph itself (the white wall, the neutral face, no glasses) and the printed photos for an interview are in US visa photo requirements.

getPNG crops and places a photo you took at these sizes. It does not judge the photograph, and nothing here promises that yours will be accepted.

The table

The 600 x 600 size and the 240 KB limit are also in getPNG’s own table of ID photo sizes (src/content/passport.ts), which was read from the State Department’s pages on 17 September 2026. The 1200 x 1200 ceiling, the colour space and the 20:1 ratio come from the digital image requirements page, as set out in the US visa guide and checked in September 2026. The page gives no stated minimum file size. What follows derives one from the ratio and labels it as a derivation. For an embassy or consulate with its own instructions, those have the last word.

What the numbers add up to

The three limits look independent, but they are not. Each one narrows the others.

The compression ratio is a floor. A colour image holds three bytes per pixel before compression. A 600 x 600 photo is 360,000 pixels, so 1,080,000 bytes, and at 20:1 or less compressed it must be at least about 54,000 bytes. A smaller file means the compression is heavier than 20:1, which is the blocky, smeared look the rule is there to prevent.

The floor rises with the size. At 900 x 900 the same sum gives 2,430,000 bytes, so a floor of about 122 KB. At 1200 x 1200 it gives 4,320,000 bytes and a floor of about 216 KB. Set that against the ceiling of 240 KB and the permitted range for the largest image is 216 to 240 KB, a window of 24 KB. At 600 x 600 the range is 54 to 240 KB, a window of 186 KB.

The big image has little room. A 240 KB file at 1200 x 1200 has about 1.3 bits for every pixel. At 600 x 600 the same 240 KB has about 5.3 bits for every pixel, four times as many. Past a point, more pixels in a fixed number of bytes do not give a better photograph. They give a more heavily compressed one. This is the practical reason to choose 600 x 600: it sits comfortably inside the rule, and a Diversity Visa entry wants exactly that size anyway.

The arithmetic here is plain multiplication from the State Department figures, and the floors are derived, not published. Treat them as guidance for a sensible file, not as limits the portal quotes.

KB and the fuzzy edge of 240

The page says 240 KB and does not say whether it means 240,000 bytes or 240 x 1,024 = 245,760. Tools also differ in the unit they use, so the same file can show two numbers. You cannot know which one the portal applies, so leave room: aim for a file under about 235,000 bytes, which is under the limit either way. A JPEG of one face on a plain wall at 600 x 600 will usually be well below that, so the margin costs nothing.

Why a file that looks right is refused

None of these is a quoted error message. They are the causes that follow from the table, in the order they are worth checking.

1. The shape is one pixel out. A crop of 600 x 599 is not square. This happens when a photo is cropped by eye in an app that lets you drag the edges. A tool that fixes the crop to a square avoids it.
2. It is not really a JPEG. Renaming a .png or an iPhone .heic file to .jpg changes the name, not the contents. Open the file in a browser: if it will not show, or if its properties say another format, it was only renamed. getPNG reads HEIC and saves a real JPEG, as the guide to converting HEIC to JPG on Windows shows.
3. It was saved again after the check. Opening a file in an editor, a messaging app or a cloud folder and saving or sending it again can change the dimensions, the quality and the size. Upload the file you measured.
4. It is too small a file, not too large. People squeeze a file to be safe, then fall under the 20:1 floor. A 600 x 600 JPEG of 30 KB has been compressed harder than the rule allows.
5. The pixels are right and the size is wrong. A 1200 x 1200 photo from a phone saved at high quality is usually over 240 KB. Reducing the dimensions is the better fix than turning the quality down to the floor, because it removes pixels instead of detail. Compressing an image to an exact size explains how the quality setting trades against the size.
6. A screenshot of the photo. It takes the size of your screen, not the photo, and often carries interface edges. Start from the original file.
7. The metadata is large. A JPEG carries the camera, the date, sometimes the place and a thumbnail, and all of it counts towards the file size. getPNG’s EXIF remover lists what a file carries and copies the picture across without decoding it again, so the image data does not lose quality.
8. The picture, not the file. A portal can refuse a photo it cannot use, and a file check cannot tell you why. If the file passes every line in the table and is still refused, the cause is in the photograph: the wall, the shadow, the head size, glasses. That needs a new photo, not a new file.

Making the file

The simple route is to let one tool do the crop and the save, so that the shape, the dimensions and the size are right together:

1. Take the photo as described in how to take a passport photo at home: someone else holding the rear camera at eye level, a plain wall, even light from the front, no filters.
2. Open the passport photo maker, drop the original file in and choose US visa.
3. Place the crown and the chin inside the two bands. The crop is a fixed square, so it cannot come out one pixel off.
4. Save as JPG. For the US visa size the saved file is 600 x 600 pixels and kept at 240 KB or less.
5. Check the file with the steps above, and upload that file without opening it in anything else.

If the photograph is already cropped by somebody else and you are only trying to fit the file, do not enlarge it to reach 1200 pixels. A file made bigger than its source holds no more detail, only more bytes. See what AI upscaling can and cannot do for why more pixels do not recover a photograph.

The Diversity Visa version

A Diversity Visa entry is the same photograph with fewer options. It wants a JPEG of exactly 600 x 600 pixels, 240 KB or less, and square. There is no range of 600 to 1200 to choose from, so a file made for the DS-160 at 800 x 800 is the wrong file for the lottery. The details are in US visa photo requirements. If you do both, make the 600 x 600 file and use it for both.

What this page leaves out

It does not say what an embassy will do with your photo after it is uploaded. The Embassy in Poland notes, on its own visa photo page, that the system taking a photo does not guarantee the embassy can use it, and that acceptance is at the embassy’s discretion. That is the honest limit of any file check: the portal accepting the upload is not the same as the photograph being accepted.

It also does not cover green cards processed through USCIS, where self-submitted photos are no longer accepted (see the US visa guide), or another country’s visa. The sizes for twelve documents, each with the authority that publishes them, are in the passport photo requirements table, and the square format in general is in the 2x2 photo guide.

A visa photo is a picture of your face tied to an immigration file. getPNG makes the crop and the file inside your browser and sends nothing anywhere, which you can check yourself with the steps in checking that a site is not uploading your photos.

The steps, in short

1. Start from the original photo. Use the file the camera made, not a copy that came through a messaging app, which has already been shrunk and recompressed.
2. Crop it to a square at 600 x 600. Open getPNG's passport photo maker, choose US visa and place the crown and chin inside the bands. The saved file is 600 x 600 pixels.
3. Save as JPG and read the size. Check the saved file in Properties or Get Info: a .jpg, 600 x 600 pixels, comfortably under 240 KB and above about 54 KB.
4. Do not save it again. Every later save in another app can change the size, the format or the dimensions. Upload the file you checked.

Questions

What size is a DS-160 photo in pixels?

Square, at least 600 x 600 and at most 1200 x 1200 pixels. Height and width must be equal, so 600 x 599 is not a square and is the commonest reason a file with the right size on paper is refused. A Diversity Visa entry is stricter and wants exactly 600 x 600 (State Department, checked September 2026).

Is there a minimum file size for a DS-160 photo?

Not as a stated number. The rule is a compression ratio of 20:1 or less, and that works out as a floor: a 600 x 600 colour image is 1,080,000 bytes uncompressed, so 20:1 is about 54 KB. A file far below that has been squeezed too hard. The floor rises with the pixel count, to about 216 KB at 1200 x 1200.

Why is my DS-160 photo rejected when it is under 240 KB?

The limit is only one of the rules. Check the shape (exactly square), the format (a real JPEG, not a PNG or an iPhone HEIC file renamed to .jpg), the pixel size (600 to 1200 each way) and that the file is not too small. The portal can also refuse a photo it cannot use for reasons of the picture itself, such as the background or the head size, which a file check cannot show.

Is 240 KB 240,000 bytes or 245,760 bytes?

The State Department page says KB and does not say which. The safe answer is to aim under 235,000 bytes, which is under the limit whichever way it is counted. A 600 x 600 JPEG of a face on a plain wall lands well below that at ordinary quality.

Can getPNG make a DS-160 photo?

It crops and places a photo you took at 600 x 600 pixels, shows the head against the 50 to 69 percent band and saves a JPEG kept at 240 KB or less, all in your browser. It does not judge the photograph, and it never changes the background. The State Department and the embassy decide whether a photo is acceptable.