Indian passport photo size: 4.5 × 3.5 cm, and no pixel rule at all

The specification, quoted, in seven rows

These are the sentences as they appear on the passport office's own pages, not a photo studio's summary of them. The last column is the day I read each page; the address in the middle column is the exact page, so you can check the wording yourself before you print anything.

Seven rows, four of them from the application form's own instruction booklet. Full addresses: passportindia.gov.in/AppOnlineProject/pdf/ApplicationformInstructionBooklet-V3.0.pdf, passportindia.gov.in/psp/FaqServicesAvailable, passportindia.gov.in/AppOnlineProject/pdf/GUIDELINES FOR CAPTURING PHOTOGRAPHS FOR MINORS_v2.1.pdf, eoibelgrade.gov.in/eoibl_pages/ODA. Rules change; the date is there so you know how old this reading is.

So why does every other page say 2 × 2 inches?

Because 51 × 51 mm is a real Indian government number — it is just not the application form's number. It appears in the passport FAQ published by the Indian Embassy in Belgrade, in a paragraph that also asks for a "professional grade" print and a face covering 70–80% of the frame. That square is the shape Indian missions abroad ask for, and it is the number that got copied across the web.

The practical difference is not small. A 51 × 51 mm square at 300 DPI is 600 × 600 pixels — 360,000 pixels. A 35 × 45 mm rectangle at the same 300 DPI is 413 × 531 — 219,303 pixels. The square carries 64% more pixels, and, as the measured table shows, a square crop also costs more bytes per pixel. If you prepare a 600 × 600 square and the counter wants 35 × 45 mm, you have not made a bigger photo, you have made a photo that has to be cropped before it fits the box.

My reading: for anything submitted on the application form — including at a District Passport Cell, a Speed Post Centre or a Citizen Service Centre — use 4.5 × 3.5 cm, because that is the box printed on the paper you are pasting onto. Use the square only when the page you are looking at asks for a square.

Nine encodes: 20 KB, 50 KB and 100 KB at both pixel sizes

The passport office never asks for a file size, but plenty of other portals do, and the question "will 20 KB hold a passport photo" is worth answering with measurements rather than arithmetic. Three pixel sizes, three byte targets, one photograph. "Kept" is the share of the source's pixels that survived; anything under 100% means the compressor decided the pixel count had to give, because holding it would have pushed quality below its 40% floor.

Nine encodes, measured 21 October 2026, Chrome 155.0.8059.80, Windows 11, format JPG. Source files: 87,118 bytes at 413 × 531, 334,341 bytes at 827 × 1063, 158,214 bytes at 600 × 600, each saved at JPEG quality 92 first. "100 KB" here means 102,400 bytes.

Two rows are worth stopping on. At 413 × 531, the size the form actually prints, a 20 KB ceiling costs quality and nothing else: the output is the same 413 × 531 pixels at 49%. That is a soft-looking photo but a correctly sized one, and 49% JPEG is not the mess it sounds like at this pixel count. At 827 × 1063, the same 20 KB takes the picture down to 466 × 599 — 31.8% of its pixels — because at the 0.073 bytes per pixel this encoder spends at the 40% floor, 879,101 pixels would need roughly 64,500 bytes, three times the budget.

The 100 KB row at 413 × 531 is not an encode at all. The source file was already 87,118 bytes, so the tool passed it through untouched and said so. That is the useful answer for this particular size: 100 KB is not a constraint on a 300 DPI passport photo — it is 15,282 bytes of headroom you never spend. If your portal says 100 KB, you are not being squeezed at 35 × 45 mm; if it says 20 KB, you are.

The two 40% rows also make a like-for-like comparison possible, since quality is pinned for both. 20,480 bytes over 279,134 output pixels is 0.073 bytes per pixel for the portrait crop; 20,435 bytes over 238,144 is 0.086 for the square. The square costs 17% more per pixel, which is why 600 × 600 lost a third of its pixels at 20 KB while 413 × 531 lost none.

100 KB is 102,400 bytes — and the form may mean 100,000

Every output above was checked against 102,400, which is what this tool means by 100 KB. Two of the nine came in above 100,000: 102,312 bytes for 600 × 600 and 101,666 for 827 × 1063. Both are correct files by the 102,400 reading and both would be rejected by a form that writes "100 KB" and enforces 100,000 bytes — the decimal reading that most upload widgets actually implement.

The gap is 2.4%, and it costs almost nothing to clear: aim below the number on the form. I re-ran the same three source files at a 97 KB target, which is 99,328 bytes in this tool's arithmetic.

Three rows, same session. 97 KB = 99,328 bytes. Both re-encoded files now sit under 100,000 bytes and keep every pixel; quality fell by two points at 600 × 600 (87% → 85%) and by one at 827 × 1063 (65% → 64%).

Note what the 97 KB run did not do: it did not touch the 413 × 531 file, which is still 87,118 bytes. At the passport office's own size the byte target is not the lever — quality is. The lever only appears once you go to 600 DPI or to a square.

What to do, depending on what the page in front of you says

1. Filling the passport application form and pasting a print. 4.5 cm × 3.5 cm, colour, plain white background, dark clothing, no signature, on photographic paper. At 300 DPI that is 413 × 531 pixels; at 600 DPI, 827 × 1063. Do not send a computer print — the booklet says it will not be accepted.
2. Going to a Passport Seva Kendra with an applicant over 4. Bring no photo. It is captured there, along with fingerprints. The booklet says so in as many words.
3. Going with a child under 4. Bring one, at 45 mm × 35 mm, face filling 80–85% of the frame, white background. This is the one case where the print is yours to produce.
4. A portal asks for 20 KB. Prepare at 413 × 531 and accept 49% quality, or prepare at 600 DPI and accept 466 × 599. The first keeps the print size, the second keeps the sharpness. Do not do both — you cannot have both at 20 KB.
5. A portal asks for 100 KB. At 413 × 531 you already fit with 15,282 bytes to spare; at 600 DPI or square, compress and expect 65% and 87% respectively, dimensions intact.
6. The number is written "100 KB" but the form counts decimal. Set 97 KB. Measured above: 98,573 and 98,127 bytes, both under 100,000, both full size.

Questions this page gets asked

What size is an Indian passport photo in pixels?

There is no official pixel figure — the specification is in centimetres only. The conversion is 413 × 531 at 300 DPI and 827 × 1063 at 600 DPI, and both are mine, not the passport office's. Use 413 × 531 if a print shop is going to put it on paper at 35 × 45 mm; use 827 × 1063 if the file will be inspected at full size on a screen.

Is an Indian passport photo 2 × 2 inches?

Not on the application form. The form's booklet says 4.5 cm × 3.5 cm. The 51 × 51 mm square is on the Indian Embassy in Belgrade's passport FAQ, and it is the shape Indian missions and the visa portal use. If the page you are reading says 2 × 2 inches, check whether it is a mission-abroad page before you crop.

Do I need to carry a photo to the Passport Seva Kendra?

Over 4 years old, no — the photograph is captured at the PSK or POPSK, and the booklet states a photograph is not required for applications submitted there. Under 4, yes: the FAQ says minor applicants below 4 must carry a passport size photograph, at 45 mm × 35 mm with the face filling 80–85% of the frame.

Can an Indian passport photo be 20 KB?

The passport form takes a print, not a file, so the question belongs to whatever portal is asking. Measured at the form's own size: 413 × 531 came back at 20,479 bytes, dimensions intact, 49% quality. At 600 DPI the same 20 KB target returned 466 × 599 — still larger than 413 × 531, so it still prints at 35 × 45 mm, but you have thrown away 68% of the pixels.

Why is my 100 KB passport photo rejected?

Because 100 KB is 102,400 bytes here and 100,000 bytes on many forms. The two files that landed at 102,312 and 101,666 bytes pass the first test and fail the second. Re-run at 97 KB and they come back at 98,127 and 98,573 bytes with every pixel kept.

All figures measured on 21 October 2026 with Chrome 155.0.8059.80 on Windows 11, using this site's compressor and one landscape photograph (Bachalpsee_reflection.jpg, Wikimedia Commons) at 4000 × 6000, centre-cropped to 413 × 531, 827 × 1063 and 600 × 600, resized with Lanczos and saved at JPEG quality 92. One photograph: sample points, not a distribution — a different picture will sit either side of 0.073 bytes per pixel at the 40% floor. The pixel sizes are a 300/600 DPI conversion of the official 35 × 45 mm, not a published requirement; the official pages named in the table were read on the same day and they do change, so check the wording again before you print. If your byte target is 20 KB rather than 100 KB, the pixel budget for that is measured across five content types on the 20 KB page — it is the page to read when a form gives you almost no room at all. If it is 50 KB, the 50 KB page measures the same photograph from seven starting resolutions and shows where the pixel ceiling lands. If it is 100 KB and the question is what the budget buys at the sizes passport and visa forms name, the JPG at 100 KB page has that table, including the forms where 100 KB is too small a file rather than too large. And if your file is a PNG — a scanned form rather than a photograph — the PNG at 100 KB page explains why a PNG often cannot reach a tight byte target at all, which matters before you spend an hour trying.