Tools / Picture to Pixel Art

Picture to Pixel Art

Turn any photo into pixel art in your browser, free.

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Picture to Pixel Art

Turn a photo into pixel art with square blocks and a reduced color palette.

Or drag your image here

JPG, PNG, WebP, HEIC and more. Max 20MB

No image?
Try one of these

Stock image 1
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Free Online Picture to Pixel Art

Your photo, rebuilt out of chunky pixels and a handful of colours.

Why use our Picture to Pixel Art tool?

Pixel art is as much about the palette as the pixel size. Cut both here and download a PNG, free, with no editor.

Built for the browser

Works right in your browser, free, with no software to install and no watermarks.

Palette you control

Keep the original colours or cut down to 24, 12 or 6 for a proper retro look.

Compare as you go

Flip between the original and the pixel version before you download.

Quality preserved

Cloudinary keeps your output crisp and true to the original.

Do it at scale

Process one file or thousands with our free API and turn a picture into pixel art automatically, with no manual steps.

Format versatility

Works with all major formats, so your result fits right into your workflow.

How to turn a picture into pixel art in 3 steps

Pixelate your picture in 3 simple steps. Upload it, pick a palette, and download.

Upload your picture

Drag and drop your photo into the browser, or upload it from your device.

Pick your palette

Keep every colour or cut to 24, 12 or 6 for a stronger retro look.

Download

Save your result, with no watermarks.

Go beyond pixel art

Play with retro and pixel effects using our free tools: Pixelate Image, 8-Bit Image Converter, Pixel Art Maker.

A woman and a golden retriever in the mountains. They're sitting, facing away from the camera while the dog noses the woman. They're surrounded by natural splendor including majestic mountains, puffy clouds, and evergreen-studded hills.
An un-cropped image overlaid with a cropping window showing how it would be cropped by Cloudinary.
An arrow pointing from the original asset to the cropped asset
A woman and a golden retriever in the mountains. They're sitting, facing away from the camera while the dog noses the woman. They're surrounded by natural splendor including majestic mountains, puffy clouds, and evergreen-studded hills.
The same asset cropped using the following settings: Aspect Ratio: 1:2. Crop Mode: Content-Aware.
Images
Videos
Crop Mode
Aspect Ratio
Original
18 MB

We’re showing a resized version of the original asset to avoid slow loading speeds. View the original.

The original asset:
JPEG
135 KB
WebP
135 KB
AVIF
90 KB
JPEG XL
94 KB
The image after being optimized using the following settings: Quality: Auto. Width: 1000px.
Original
18 MB

We’re showing a resized version of the original asset to avoid slow loading speeds. View the original.

The original asset:
JPEG
135 KB
WebP
135 KB
AVIF
90 KB
JPEG XL
94 KB
The image after being optimized using the following settings: Quality: Auto. Width: 1000px.
Images
Videos
Quality
Width
An un-cropped image overlaid with a croppingai window showing how it would be cropped by Cloudinary.
An arrow pointing from the original asset to the cropped asset
The same asset cropped using the following settings: Aspect Ratio: 1:1. Crop Mode: Content-Aware.
Images
Videos
Crop Mode
Aspect Ratio
The original image:
An arrow pointing from the original asset to the transformed asset.
The personalized image:
The original image:
The personalized image:
Product Photos
Backgrounds
Overlays
Duration
Full length video: Surfing Trip
An arrow pointing from the original video to the AI-generated preview.
Duration
A shorter video preview generated by Cloudinary's AI using the following settings: Duration: 15 seconds. Max Clips: 9. Min Clip Length: 1 second.
Videos
Duration
Max Clips
Min Clip Length
URL:
/ar_0.5,c_fill,g_auto,w_433/q_auto/f_auto/hiking_dog_mountain.jpg
cloudinary.image("hiking_dog_mountain.jpg", {transformation: [
  {aspect_ratio: "0.5", gravity: "auto", width: 433, crop: "fill"},
  {quality: "auto"},
  {fetch_format: "auto"}
  ]})
new CloudinaryImage("hiking_dog_mountain.jpg")
  .resize(
    fill()
      .width(433)
      .aspectRatio(0.5)
      .gravity(autoGravity())
  )
  .delivery(quality(auto()))
  .delivery(format(auto()));
new CloudinaryImage("hiking_dog_mountain.jpg")
  .resize(
    fill()
      .width(433)
      .aspectRatio(0.5)
      .gravity(autoGravity())
  )
  .delivery(quality(auto()))
  .delivery(format(auto()));
new CloudinaryImage("hiking_dog_mountain.jpg")
  .resize(
    fill()
      .width(433)
      .aspectRatio(0.5)
      .gravity(autoGravity())
  )
  .delivery(quality(auto()))
  .delivery(format(auto()));
new CloudinaryImage("hiking_dog_mountain.jpg")
  .resize(
    fill()
      .width(433)
      .aspectRatio(0.5)
      .gravity(autoGravity())
  )
  .delivery(quality(auto()))
  .delivery(format(auto()));
CloudinaryImage("hiking_dog_mountain.jpg").image(transformation=[
  {'aspect_ratio': "0.5", 'gravity': "auto", 'width': 433, 'crop': "fill"},
  {'quality': "auto"},
  {'fetch_format': "auto"}
  ])
(new ImageTag('hiking_dog_mountain.jpg'))
	->resize(Resize::fill()->width(433)
->aspectRatio(0.5)
	->gravity(
	Gravity::autoGravity())
	)
	->delivery(Delivery::quality(
	Quality::auto()))
	->delivery(Delivery::format(
	Format::auto()));
cloudinary.url().transformation(new Transformation()
  .aspectRatio("0.5").gravity("auto").width(433).crop("fill").chain()
  .quality("auto").chain()
  .fetchFormat("auto")).imageTag("hiking_dog_mountain.jpg");
cl_image_tag("hiking_dog_mountain.jpg", transformation: [
  {aspect_ratio: "0.5", gravity: "auto", width: 433, crop: "fill"},
  {quality: "auto"},
  {fetch_format: "auto"}
  ])
cloudinary.Api.UrlImgUp.Transform(new Transformation()
  .AspectRatio("0.5").Gravity("auto").Width(433).Crop("fill").Chain()
  .Quality("auto").Chain()
  .FetchFormat("auto")).BuildImageTag("hiking_dog_mountain.jpg")
cloudinary.image('hiking_dog_mountain.jpg').transformation(Transformation()
	.resize(Resize.fill().width(433)
.aspectRatio(0.5)
	.gravity(
	Gravity.autoGravity())
	)
	.delivery(Delivery.quality(
	Quality.auto()))
	.delivery(Delivery.format(
	Format.auto())));
imageView.cldSetImage(cloudinary.createUrl().setTransformation(CLDTransformation()
  .setAspectRatio("0.5").setGravity("auto").setWidth(433).setCrop("fill").chain()
  .setQuality("auto").chain()
  .setFetchFormat("auto")).generate("hiking_dog_mountain.jpg")!, cloudinary: cloudinary)
MediaManager.get().url().transformation(new Transformation()
  .aspectRatio("0.5").gravity("auto").width(433).crop("fill").chain()
  .quality("auto").chain()
  .fetchFormat("auto")).generate("hiking_dog_mountain.jpg");
cloudinary.image('hiking_dog_mountain.jpg').transformation(Transformation()
	.resize(Resize.fill().width(433)
.aspectRatio(0.5)
	.gravity(
	Gravity.autoGravity())
	)
	.delivery(Delivery.quality(
	Quality.auto()))
	.delivery(Delivery.format(
	Format.auto())));
cloudinary.image {
	publicId("hiking_dog_mountain.jpg")
	 resize(Resize.fill() { width(433)
 aspectRatio(0.5F)
	 gravity(
	Gravity.autoGravity())
	 })
	 delivery(Delivery.quality(
	Quality.auto()))
	 delivery(Delivery.format(
	Format.auto())) 
}.generate()
new CloudinaryImage("hiking_dog_mountain.jpg")
  .resize(
    fill()
      .width(433)
      .aspectRatio(0.5)
      .gravity(autoGravity())
  )
  .delivery(quality(auto()))
  .delivery(format(auto()));

Frequently Asked Questions

It rebuilds a photo out of large pixel blocks with a reduced colour palette, which is what actually makes something look like pixel art rather than just a blurry photo. Upload a picture, choose how many colours to keep, compare the two versions side by side and download a PNG. No editor, no plugin and no watermark.

Pixelating only makes the blocks bigger. Pixel art also cuts the palette, and that second step is what gives the result its retro character. In testing, a photo with 240,000 distinct colours came back with 8,387 and an average block of about 13 pixels. If all you want is to obscure a face or a number plate, Pixelate Image is the tool you actually want.

Twenty four colours keeps the photo readable and still looks stylised, which is the safe default. Twelve pushes it towards classic sixteen bit game art, where shapes matter more than detail. Six is as blunt as it gets and works best on simple subjects with strong shapes, such as a portrait against a plain background or a logo.

Yes, free online with no watermark and nothing to install. Upload your picture, pick a palette and download the PNG. PNG is the right format here because flat blocks of colour compress well without the smearing that JPEG introduces around hard edges.

Yes. Pixelation and palette reduction are both available through the Cloudinary API, so you can apply the same treatment across a library, generate retro variants of product shots, or build the effect into an app. Related effects include 8-Bit Image Converter and Color Splash.

Related tools: Esports Logo Maker · Color Splash · Pixelate Image

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