How bad is Google Photos compression anyway?

Google Photos has long provided one of the best deals on all photo storage. Back up your entire library for free as long as you can compress the images a bit. However, as of June 1st tomorrow, the deal is gone and we will eat through Google Storage (you may have to pay) regardless of whether the image is compressed or not.

As change was imminent, I was wondering how bad Google compression really was. Does compression keep my photos of high quality, as Google has been arguing for years? Or is the compression enough to degrade the photos and is it worth using more storage by switching to the original quality backup?

I ran some simple tests this morning to find out. I took photos and videos from the Pixel 5 (one of the few smartphones that still have free compressed storage), took photos from the Fuji X-T30, and uploaded them to two separate Google Photos accounts. One has compression turned on and maintains its original quality.

The results were mixed. In the case of photos, the compressed version was often indistinguishable from the uncompressed version. But when you lose resolution, the compression actually starts to appear.

This is what I found in some tests. Click the image to enlarge it.

Original quality photo. Compressed photo.

This is a picture of a cat pretzel I took recently. I magnified his hair, his eyes, and the book in the background, but I can’t find any difference. The photo taken with the Pixel 5 was originally 3.4MB, but has been compressed to 1.5MB.

Original quality photo. Compressed photo.

Last weekend I took this photo on the Yales campus with a Pixel 5s ultra wide camera. Both versions look great while they are full screen on my computer. In the compressed version you can also argue if there is a little more noise around the edges of the leaves, but if you need to search for image problems, it’s common to think that they don’t really matter ..

Space savings are less important here. With Google compression, the file size goes from 7.3MB to 5.7MB.

Original quality photo. Compressed photo.

This is a picture of a pretzel taken with a Fujifilm X-T30 this morning. I magnified his face, but I couldn’t find any difference if both were blown up as big as possible in Google Photos.

At first, this seemed like a successful Google Photos compression situation. The file size has been reduced from 12MB to just 662KB and the images look virtually the same.

But there is one very noticeable difference. Google limits the resolution of photos to 16 megapixels. This has significantly reduced the photo from the original 26-megapixel file saved by the camera. This is a magnified crop that shows how the details begin to disappear as block noise comes in.

Left: Original. Right: Compression.

Well, I’m not sure at this point if I need all 26 megapixels of this image. However, if you want to print this photo in a larger format, crop it in the future, or otherwise modify it, it’s a big advantage to keep these extra pixels.

Video still image. Left: Original. Right: Compression.

There’s essentially nothing wrong with 1080p video, but there’s a problem with how Google handles it. Unfortunately, with Google compression, all videos are compressed in 1080p.

When that happens, everything gets dirty, details disappear, and some colors lose pop. This is a very important downgrade in terms of quality. I can’t embed a Google Photos video here, so I’ve included a comparison of the screenshots above. Obviously, the text gets blurry at larger sizes, but you’ll see most of the differences.

I originally recorded this video on a Pixel 5 in 4K in February. It looks good enough on my non 4K computer screen. Road signs, faces, and falling snow all look sharp. However, the compressed version is like a mess that looks like it was recorded with a layer of grease on the camera lens.

Here, the data loss (or savings) is high. This 10 second clip is reduced from 55MB to just 6MB. No wonder it looks so bad.

I was still mostly impressed with the quality maintained after Google’s compression. For photos, the results are almost indistinguishable as long as the original file is less than 16 megapixels. But for video, there is no doubt that uncompression is the way to go. It’s a shame that Google doesn’t allow you to set different options for photos and videos.

The real downside is that compressing photos doesn’t always save a lot of space. Pushing thousands of new photos to the cloud each year will definitely add to that extra space. But if you have to pay anyway, especially if you’re uploading in high resolution, it may be worth keeping your photos, especially your videos, in the highest quality.

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