How to Crop an Image into a Circle (Transparent PNG)
Circular avatars are everywhere — Slack, Discord, team pages, profile pictures. To get a real circle (not a square photo behind a circular mask), you need to crop the image into a circle and save it as a transparent PNG. Here's how to do it in seconds.
Use the calculator
Circle Crop
Step-by-step
- 1
Open Circle Crop
Use our Circle Crop tool. Everything runs in your browser — the photo never uploads.
- 2
Drop in your photo
Drag your image onto the upload area. The tool centers the largest circle that fits.
- 3
Add a border (optional)
Slide the border width up and pick a color if you want a ring around your avatar — handy for light icons on light backgrounds.
- 4
Crop
Click Circle Crop. The corners outside the circle become transparent.
- 5
Download as PNG
Save the PNG — the transparency is preserved so the circle drops cleanly onto any background.
💡 Tips
- Always save circle crops as PNG, never JPG — JPG can't store transparency and would fill the corners with white.
- For headshots, make sure your face is centered before cropping; the tool takes a centered square, so off-center subjects get clipped.
- Adding a 2-4px white or brand-colored border helps a circular avatar stand out against busy backgrounds.
FAQ
Why is my circle crop showing a white background?
You probably saved it as JPG. Re-export as PNG — JPG doesn't support transparency, so it fills the corners with white.
Can I crop a rectangular photo?
Yes. The tool takes the largest centered square from your image and crops the circle from that, so position your subject centrally.
Will the image lose quality?
No — cropping only removes pixels outside the circle. The pixels that remain are unchanged.