DS-160 Photo File Size
Direct answer: The U.S. Department of State's digital image requirements for DS-160: the photo must be JPEG, less than or equal to 240 kB, square (height equal to width), with dimensions between 600 × 600 and 1200 × 1200 pixels, and a compression ratio of 20:1 or less. The tool below is pre-loaded to produce a 600 × 600 JPEG under the limit — KBExact aims about 5% under the cap, at roughly 228 KB, so the counting difference between systems cannot push you over.
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The specification
| Document | Size window | Dimensions | Format | Official source | Checked |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| DS-160 (US visa) — Photo file | up to 240 KB | Square. Minimum 600 × 600 px, maximum 1200 × 1200 px. Compression ratio 20:1 or less. | JPEG | U.S. Department of State — Digital Image Requirements (travel.state.gov) · Standing requirements for DS-160 / DS-1648 | 2026-11-08 |
The DS-160 photo fails silently more than any other upload we know: the form simply refuses to proceed, or accepts the photo and the application is flagged later. The file-size and dimension rules above are the mechanical half of the requirements — the other half is composition (head centred, eyes open, plain light background, no shadows, taken within the last 6 months), which the State Department's photo pages describe in full and which no tool can judge for you. Meet the mechanical half exactly here, then check the composition half against the official photo examples before you submit.
Why 600 × 600 and not bigger? Any size inside the 600–1200 square range is acceptable, and the smallest compliant dimensions are the easiest to land under 240 kB at high quality. If your original is already inside the range and under the limit, the tool will tell you it is already compliant instead of re-encoding it for no reason.
Do not edit the photo itself beyond cropping and sizing: the State Department requires the image to reflect your current appearance. No filters, no background replacement, no retouching — crop and size only.
Resize to this spec
Questions
What is the DS-160 photo file size limit?
Less than or equal to 240 kB, JPEG format (U.S. Department of State, Digital Image Requirements, travel.state.gov).
What dimensions must a DS-160 photo be?
Square — height equal to width — with a minimum of 600 × 600 pixels and a maximum of 1200 × 1200 pixels.
What does the 20:1 compression rule mean?
The compressed file may not be smaller than one twentieth of the uncompressed image data. In practice, a genuine 600 × 600 photo at reasonable quality satisfies this automatically; heavy-handed recompression of an already-small file is what breaks it.
Where did you get these values?
From "Digital Image Requirements" on travel.state.gov, the U.S. Department of State's official site, read directly and checked on 2026-11-08.
Rejected anyway? Work through why portals reject files — the cause is usually the 1,000-vs-1,024 KB counting trap or dimensions, not the file size alone. See also all portal presets and how KBExact works.