> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://cloudinary.com/documentation/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Optimize by default settings


> **INFO**: The optimize by default settings are being gradually rolled out to account plans that use the [image impressions](developer_onboarding_faq_image_impressions) and/or [video seconds](developer_onboarding_faq_video_seconds) metric. If your plan uses either of these metrics and you'd like to enable the optimize by default settings for your product environment, [contact support](https://support.cloudinary.com/hc/en-us/requests/new).

Cloudinary performs various default optimizations when delivering media assets. You can control these for your product environment in **Settings > Optimization** and override them through transformation parameters.

In addition to the options mentioned on this page, there are other default optimizations for [images](image_optimization#default_optimizations) and [videos](video_optimization#default_optimizations).

> **NOTES**:
>
> * Each of the default optimizations affect only the **delivered** image or video. The original file remains unchanged.

> * Default optimizations count towards your usage, even though the delivery URL does not appear to be different from delivering an original asset. To deliver an original asset without incurring a transformation cost when you have any of the **Optimize by default** settings enabled, use the `original` flag (`fl_original` in URLs).

> * If your account plan uses only the **image impressions** metric and not **video seconds**, your videos will not be optimized by default. Similarly, if your account plan uses only the **video seconds** metric and not **image impressions**, your images will not be optimized by default.

> * The optimize by default settings are not supported together with [strict transformations](control_access_to_media#strict_transformations), so if your solution relies on strict transformations, don't enable these settings.

## Default automatic format

The **Automatic format** setting in the **Optimize by default** section applies automatic format selection to all [images](image_optimization#automatic_format_selection_f_auto) and/or [videos](video_optimization#automatic_format_selection_f_auto) delivered from your product environment, depending on your selection, regardless of whether other transformations are also applied. 

![Default image format setting](https://cloudinary-res.cloudinary.com/image/upload/bo_1px_solid_gray/f_auto/q_auto/v1683798132/docs/optimization/automatic_format.png "thumb: c_scale,w_500,dpr_2.0, width: 500, popup: true")

> **NOTE**:
>
> If your account plan uses the **image impressions** metric and not **video seconds**, the video setting is disabled, and vice versa.

This determines the best format in which to deliver each of your images and videos.

As this counts as a transformation, [default image quality](image_optimization#default_image_quality) or [default video quality](video_optimization#default_video_quality) is also invoked.

To override this setting, in order to deliver an original image or video, use the `original` flag (`fl_original` in URLs).  This flag does not count as a transformation and does not invoke default image/video quality.

To override this setting, in order to deliver a particular format, set the [format parameter](transformation_reference#f_format) in your transformation (`f_` in URLs).

* Enabling default automatic format may significantly increase your transformation usage, although it should also reduce your bandwidth usage.
* This setting is ignored if there is a named transformation or format parameter in the delivery URL.

## Default image width

By selecting **Limit maximum image width**, any images that are delivered with no other resizing transformations are automatically downscaled if they exceed the width settings for mobile or desktop.

![Default image width setting](https://cloudinary-res.cloudinary.com/image/upload/bo_1px_solid_gray/f_auto/q_auto/v1683798132/docs/optimization/limit_image_width.png "thumb: c_scale,w_500,dpr_2.0, width: 500, popup: true")

The default maximum width is 828 pixels for smartphone devices and 1920 pixels for other devices, including desktops, laptops and tablets, but you can change these in the settings.

![Responsive width conceptual diagram](https://cloudinary-res.cloudinary.com/image/upload/f_auto/q_auto/v1683803712/docs/optimization/responsive-width.png "thumb: c_scale,w_500,dpr_2.0, width: 550, popup: true")

As this counts as a transformation, [default image quality](image_optimization#default_image_quality) is also invoked.

To override this setting, in order to deliver an original image, use the `original` flag (`fl_original` in URLs).  This flag does not count as a transformation and does not invoke default image quality.

* Enabling default image width may significantly increase your transformation usage, although it should also reduce your bandwidth usage.
* This setting is ignored if there is a named transformation or any parameter that alters the size of the image in the delivery URL.
* Images are only downscaled, never upscaled.