How to make a 50 KB photo — the banking and railway standard
50 KB is the standard for banking and railway forms — and at 200 x 230 px this budget is comfortably enough, so heavy compression isn't needed.
JPG, PNG, WebP · up to 50 files at once · nothing is uploaded
50 KB photo specification
| Requirement | Value |
|---|---|
| IBPS PO, Clerk and RRB | Photograph 20-50 KB, JPG/JPEG, 200 x 230 px preferred |
| SBI PO and Clerk | Photograph 20-50 KB, plus a left thumb impression also at 20-50 KB |
| RRB NTPC | Photograph 20-50 KB scanned at 100 DPI from a 35 x 45 mm studio print |
| OTR (pariksha.nic.in) | Photo image not more than 50 KB; signature image not more than 30 KB |
| UP D.El.Ed. | Photograph 10-50 KB JPG at 3.5 x 4.5 cm |
| Thumb impression | 240 x 240 px at 200 DPI, 20-50 KB for IBPS and SBI |
Source: Guidelines for scanning and Upload of Documents — CRP PO/MT-XV (IBPS) (CRP PO/MT-XV, June 2025 cycle). checked on 2026-09-06.
The most comfortable target in Indian forms
Every banking recruiter uses the same window. The IBPS PO guidelines set 20-50 KB at 200 x 230 px, SBI repeats it, and the RRB NTPC notification uses the same 20-50 KB for a 35 x 45 mm studio print scanned at 100 DPI. Because 200 x 230 px is only 46,000 pixels, 50 KB is plenty — a well-cropped photo often lands at 30 KB without any effort.
Where people still get it wrong
Two mistakes recur. The first is compressing a full-resolution photo down to 45 KB without resizing, which produces a large, mushy image that passes the size check and fails the clarity one. The second is forgetting the 20 KB floor: a heavily compressed 14 KB file is refused by the same portal.
Related uploads with the same budget
IBPS and SBI use 20-50 KB again for the left thumb impression, at 240 x 240 px scanned at 200 DPI. The One Time Registration guidelines used by several national portals also cap the photo at 50 KB while limiting the signature to 30 KB. So one export at this size covers more forms than you might expect.
How it works
- Crop the photograph to the 200 x 230 px box your portal prefers.
- Export as JPG at high quality first and check the size — it is often already inside 20-50 KB.
- If it exceeds 50 KB, reduce quality in small steps rather than resizing further.
- If it falls under 20 KB, raise quality or pad the file up to clear the floor.
- Scan the thumb impression separately at 240 x 240 px if your form asks for one.
- Keep the exported file — the same image is reused across banking applications in one cycle.