Quick answer
Instagram's location tag is something you add yourself when you share. EXIF data is information your camera wrote inside the photo file, such as GPS coordinates. They are unrelated. We found no statement from Instagram or Meta saying whether it removes EXIF from uploaded photos or from photos sent in direct messages. The safe default is to clean the photo first.
What Instagram says it does
- On adding a location, the Help Center tells you to click Add location, type your location, select it from the suggestions, then click Share. It says that when people tap the location, they can see your content and other content tagged at the same location on the Instagram map, and that who can see content tagged at a location depends on your profile privacy setting.
- Another Help Center page says you can add or edit the location of photos or videos you have already shared. Again, this is a manual step.
- Meta's Data Policy, in the version dated 4 January 2022 and hosted in Instagram's Help Center, says the information it collects can include "information in or about the content you provide (like metadata), such as the location of a photo or the date a file was created." That describes what Meta may collect, not whether the public copy keeps it. We could not read the body of Meta's current Privacy Policy page, so we quote this version.
- For messages, the Help Center page Send a message to someone on Instagram says you can select a photo or video from your library, and that a message request to someone who does not follow you can contain only text until they accept it. It says nothing we could find about metadata or location data in those photos.
Because none of this says what happens to the EXIF inside your file, cleaning first removes the dependency on trusting it. The same applies to other messengers, such as WhatsApp.
Clean the photo before you upload or send it
- Open the tool above and add your JPG, PNG or WebP photos, up to 5 at a time. It runs entirely in your browser and your files are never uploaded.
- Read the before list. It shows what each file held, such as GPS position, camera make and model, serial number, and date and time.
- Download the cleaned copies. The metadata is cut out without re-encoding, so there is no quality loss. The ICC colour profile is kept, and on JPEGs a bare rotation flag is kept so photos stay upright.
- Check the after list. The tool re-reads each cleaned file to show you what is left.
- Post or send the cleaned files in Instagram. HEIC files are re-saved as JPEG only if your browser can open them (Safari can); otherwise convert them first. GIF is not supported.
What this does not remove
- Tags you add in the app. A location tag you choose in Instagram is separate from the file. Leave it off if you do not want it shown.
- What is visible. Faces, street signs, house numbers and a recognisable view stay in the picture.
- File names. The tool does not rename files.
- Platform-side copies. The tool cannot clean what Instagram stores after upload, or the copy someone saves from your message.