Blur Image
Blur faces, license plates, screen contents, ID numbers — any sensitive area of an image. Click and drag to paint regions. Pick Gaussian or Pixelate. Runs in your browser, so the unblurred image never leaves your device.
Drop an image to blur faces, plates, or sensitive areas
Click + drag to paint blur regions · never uploaded
How to blur a face or license plate
Drop your image. Click and drag a rectangle over the face or plate. Add a second rectangle for the next one. Pick Gaussian (soft) or Pixelate (mosaic) for the redaction style, and tune the strength slider until the region is unreadable but the rest of the photo looks natural. Click Download to save a copy with the blurs baked in — there is no separate "layer" to remove.
Why a local blur tool matters
Image blur is used almost exclusively to hide sensitive content: faces of bystanders, license plates, screen contents in a screenshot, credit card numbers, ID documents, names visible in app UIs. Uploading the unblurred original to a third-party server to apply the blur is the worst possible workflow — you've leaked the very content you wanted to hide.
ToolChop blurs in your browser. The unblurred image never travels. DevTools → Network confirms no request fires when you drop an image or apply a blur.
Blur strength reference
- Face you want to obscure — 30+ px Gaussian or 25+ px pixelate
- License plate — 40+ px pixelate (highly recommended over Gaussian for plates)
- Readable screen text — 40+ px Gaussian or 40+ px pixelate
- Credit card number — strongest pixelate available; check the result by trying to read it back
- Signature — 30+ px Gaussian; signatures are easier to obscure than text
Frequently asked questions
How do I blur a face or license plate in a photo online?
Drop your image, click + drag on the area you want to hide (face, license plate, screen contents), and adjust the strength slider. Add as many blur regions as you need. Click Download to save the result with the blurs baked in. No account, no upload, no daily limit.
Does ToolChop upload my image?
No. The image is loaded into a canvas in your browser; the blur is applied locally; the result is exported locally. Your image never leaves your device. This matters more for blur than for almost any other tool — you're literally trying to hide sensitive content, so uploading the original is the exact opposite of what you want.
Why is the privacy story important for a blur tool?
Image blur is used almost exclusively to conceal sensitive information: faces of bystanders, license plates, screen contents in a screenshot, credit card numbers, ID documents, names in app UIs. Uploading the unblurred original to a third-party server to apply the blur is the worst possible workflow — you've leaked the very content you wanted to hide. ToolChop runs everything in your browser so the unblurred image never travels.
Can someone recover the original from a blurred image?
If the blur strength is high enough, no — Gaussian blur is mathematically irreversible at strong settings, and pixelate (mosaic) is even more destructive. Beware of weak blurs, though: light Gaussian blur on text can sometimes be partially recovered with sharpening, and recognizable face patterns can survive weak pixelation. Use the highest strength that still leaves your image usable.
Should I use Gaussian or Pixelate?
Gaussian is the standard 'soft blur' look — smooth, photographer-style. Best for faces in candid photos, soft censoring, and when the blur should look intentional but unobtrusive. Pixelate (mosaic) produces a chunky, obviously-redacted look — best for license plates, sensitive screen contents, credit card numbers, anywhere you want the redaction to be visually unmistakable.
How strong should the blur be?
For a face you want to obscure: at least 30 px Gaussian blur or 25 px pixelate at 1080p. For a license plate: 40+ px pixelate. For screen contents with readable text: 40+ px Gaussian or 40+ px pixelate. When in doubt, go stronger — you can always re-blur from the original, but you can't restore a too-weak blur.
Can I blur multiple areas at once?
Yes — click + drag adds a new rectangle each time. You can paint as many regions as you need; the page handles arbitrary numbers of blur rectangles. Use 'Clear regions' to start over.
Does the blur preserve the rest of the image?
Yes. Only the pixels inside your blur rectangles are modified. Everything outside is pixel-identical to the source image. This is unlike whole-image blur tools that re-encode the entire frame.
What is the difference between blur and pixelate?
Blur smooths neighboring pixels together using a Gaussian falloff — the boundary is soft. Pixelate downsamples a region to a coarse grid and upscales without smoothing — the boundary is a sharp mosaic of large pixels. Both are irreversible at strong settings; pixelate is more visually obvious.
Can I blur an animated GIF?
Only the first frame. ToolChop reads the image as a static frame for this tool. For a frame-by-frame blur of an animated GIF, the file would need to be decomposed and reassembled — a separate workflow.
Why does my blur look soft at the edges of my rectangle?
Gaussian blur is a convolution — pixels near the edge of the region pull from neighboring pixels outside the region. Edges are softer by definition. For a hard-edged mosaic redaction with no bleeding, switch to Pixelate mode.
Why use ToolChop instead of an online image blur tool that uploads my file?
Because the entire point of blurring is to hide content. Uploading the unblurred image to a third-party server defeats that goal — you've now leaked the original to whoever runs the service. ToolChop blurs in your browser. The unblurred image never leaves your device.