Is 500 KB big enough for a high-quality photo?

For anything shown on a screen, yes — it is roughly what a well-made 2400px photograph costs. For printing at full page size you want the original, not a compressed copy.

Several photos have to fit in one 500 KB email. What now?

Divide the allowance and give each picture its share — four photos at 120 KB each. Compressing them separately to the same small target beats compressing one to 500 KB and squeezing the rest.

Compress an image to 500 KB

500 KB is enough to keep a photograph looking like the original at any size a screen will show it.

Runs in your browser — nothing uploadedAlready set to 500 KB

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Where 500 KB comes from

Upload forms that allow a generous image but still have a limit.
Email attachments, where several photos have to share one allowance.
Print-adjacent uses — a photo going into a document rather than onto a web page.

What actually fits in 500 KB

Worked out from what this tool produces, not from a rule of thumb. Where a row says no, it says what to do instead.

What you have	Fits in 500 KB?	What it takes
A camera photo at full width	Yes	Often at 2400px and a high quality — close to indistinguishable
A detailed colour scan	Comfortably	Fine detail and colour both survive
A photograph with a lot of texture — foliage, crowds, fabric	Yes	Texture is the expensive kind of detail; expect a lower quality than a portrait would need
An image you intend to print at A4	Yes, but	500 KB is a screen budget. For print, start from the original

At this size the honest advice is to stop early. If the result comes back at 300 KB, there is nothing to gain by pushing it to 100 KB — the limit was 500 KB.

A PNG screenshot often beats a JPEG at this budget, because flat colour and sharp edges are what PNG is good at and what JPEG is worst at.

Questions

Is 500 KB big enough for a high-quality photo?: For anything shown on a screen, yes — it is roughly what a well-made 2400px photograph costs. For printing at full page size you want the original, not a compressed copy.
Several photos have to fit in one 500 KB email. What now?: Divide the allowance and give each picture its share — four photos at 120 KB each. Compressing them separately to the same small target beats compressing one to 500 KB and squeezing the rest.

A different limit?

20 KB 50 KB 100 KB 200 KB Compress Image — any size

Every one of these opens the same tool with a different number in the box. If the limit you were given is not here, open Compress Image and type it in.