Guide
Passport photo dimensions in pixels and KB
October 20, 2026 · passport · photo resize
Passport photo requirements are published in physical units (35×45 mm and so on), upload portals enforce pixel and byte amounts, and guides rarely connect the two. This page keeps both honest and in one place.
The physical sizes, for reference
- US passport: 2×2 inches (51×51 mm).
- UK / most Commonwealth passports and many visa photos: 35×45 mm.
- India (PSP applications): 35×45 mm, white background. (Non-Indian portals vary — always confirm.)
Translating millimetres into pixels
A scanner or printer talks in pixels per inch (ppi). The same 35×45 mm photo is:
| Physical size | at 300 ppi | at 600 ppi | at 1200 ppi |
|---|---|---|---|
| 35×45 mm (UK/India style) | 413×531 px | 826×1063 px | 1654×2126 px |
| 2×2 in (US style) | 600×600 px | 1200×1200 px | 2400×2400 px |
Practical read: 413×531 px at 300 ppi is the sweet spot for uploads and home printing. Scanning at 1200 ppi for a portal upload makes a 4 MB file for no visual benefit.
What KB a clean passport JPEG needs
A well-exposed, noise-free JPEG at 413×531 px lands — with no compression at all — around 150–400 KB. That means published “photo between 10 KB and 4 MB”-style bands fit a real scan comfortably. One more note for completeness: many online portal validators accept anything from 20 KB up; a crisp, high-quality passport JPEG at 100–300 KB fits almost every published band without hitting a floor that would reject an over-compressed image.
The honest compression note
Most passport JPEGs need no compression — they need a sensible scan at 300 ppi and a reasonable JPEG quality of about 85. If you end up with a 3 MB file anyway (phone photo of a printed copy, 1200 ppi scan), the fix is dimension-aware: scan or crop at 300–600 ppi rather than compressing a huge file downwards until it fits.
For the case where a cap is genuinely binding — a system that takes 413×531 only below 200 KB — run it through the 200 KB page: the compressor reports the measured output size and the state it honestly reached, and never silently flattens a transparent PNG or fabricates a size it did not achieve.