India Photo Requirements
India sets photo requirements per exam notification rather than nationally, so there is no single "Indian exam photo size" — the ceilings on this page range from 50 KB to 200 KB for the same 3.5 × 4.5 cm print, and the most-copied figure online is wrong. UPSC's own upload instructions require a jpg between 20 KB and 200 KB, not the 300 KB widely quoted, and they specify no pixel dimensions at all. Two things hold across every exam here: your signature is a separate upload with its own much smaller limit, and a file sized for one exam is not safe for another.
Requirements by application
These are different requirements, not variations of one. Find the form you are applying with.
UPSC — photograph
Resize a photo to this- Dimensions
- Not specified
- File size
- 20 KB – 200 KB
- Aspect / orientation
- Not specified — face must fill 75% of the frame
- Format
- jpg, filename must be "photo"
This one has a minimum. A file under 20 KB is rejected for being too small, so compressing as hard as possible fails the check.
“Upload a photo named photo in jpg format with a file size between 20KB and 200KB”
This is the officially published figure, and it is 200 KB — not the 300 KB most exam guides state, which would be rejected. UPSC publishes no pixel dimensions at all, so any "UPSC photo size in pixels" you find elsewhere is someone's interpretation. The binding rule is instead face coverage: the face must cover at least 75% — three quarters — of the photo area, with the head centered, both ear lobes visible, eyes open and unobstructed, a natural expression and a plain white background. UPSC's own rejection examples are mostly framing failures, not file failures: too small a face, a profile view, hair over the eyes. Cropping tighter is the fix, and cropping is allowed here. A photo in uniform, on a dark background, or wearing tinted glasses is refused, and the photo must not be signed.
UPSC — signature
Resize a photo to this- Dimensions
- 350–500 pixels
- File size
- 20 KB – 100 KB
- Aspect / orientation
- Three signatures stacked vertically
- Format
- jpg, filename must be "signature"
This one has a minimum. A file under 20 KB is rejected for being too small, so compressing as hard as possible fails the check.
“File size: 20 KB – 100 KB. Image dimensions: 350 - 500 pixels”
UPSC wants something unusual here and it catches people out: three separate signatures, signed one below the other on plain white unlined paper in black ink, scanned as a single image. One signature is rejected outright, as is blue ink, a horizontal arrangement, ruled or colored paper, or insufficient spacing between them. The PDF says "350 - 500 pixels" without stating which axis, so treat it as a rough target rather than an exact box. Applications whose signature file misses these specs are rejected.
UPSC — live photograph
- Dimensions
- Captured in the portal
- File size
- Not specified
- Aspect / orientation
- Not applicable
- Format
- Captured by webcam or phone
“Capture of live photograph shall be mandatory for submission of the application”
There is nothing to resize here, but it changes what your uploaded photo has to be. UPSC now requires a live photo captured through the portal — by webcam, or by scanning a QR code and using your phone — and matches it against the passport-size photograph you uploaded. If the two do not match, you cannot proceed with the application at all. This is the practical reason not to retouch an Indian exam photo even though no rule forbids it: heavy editing makes your upload fail the comparison against a live capture taken under ordinary lighting.
Banking exams — IBPS, SBI, RBI (reported)
Resize a photo to this- Dimensions
- 200 × 230 px
- File size
- 20 KB – 50 KB
- Aspect / orientation
- Portrait, roughly 0.87:1
- Format
- JPG
This one has a minimum. A file under 20 KB is rejected for being too small, so compressing as hard as possible fails the check.
The banking portals are the one group in India that states a pixel count rather than a print size, and 200 × 230 px is it, with signatures at about 140 × 60 px and 10–20 KB. This 20–50 KB band is a quarter of UPSC's ceiling, so a file built for UPSC is rejected here. Note that 200 × 230 is not the same shape as the 3.5 × 4.5 cm print the other exams ask for — 0.87:1 against 0.78:1 — so a photo cropped for SSC is not simply a resize away from being valid here, and the reverse is also true. Confirm against your own notification: this figure is from exam guides, not an IBPS PDF.
SSC, RRB and state PSCs (reported)
Resize a photo to this- Dimensions
- 3.5 × 4.5 cm — about 413 × 531 px at 300 DPI
- File size
- 20 KB – 50 KB
- Aspect / orientation
- Portrait, 0.78:1
- Format
- JPG
This one has a minimum. A file under 20 KB is rejected for being too small, so compressing as hard as possible fails the check.
SSC CGL, CHSL, MTS and GD, the railway exams (NTPC, Group D, ALP) and most state PSCs including UPPSC, BPSC and TSPSC are all described as asking for a 3.5 × 4.5 cm photo at 20–50 KB, with a separate wide 3.5 × 1.5 cm signature strip at 10–20 KB. The pixel figure is our conversion at 300 DPI, not a published one — the boards state the print size. Treat RRB with extra caution specifically: the two guides we checked contradict each other outright, one giving a 50 KB ceiling and the other 500 KB, which is a tenfold difference and cannot be split.
JEE Main and Advanced, NEET UG and PG (reported)
Resize a photo to this- Dimensions
- 3.5 × 4.5 cm — about 413 × 531 px at 300 DPI
- File size
- 10 KB – 200 KB
- Aspect / orientation
- Portrait, 0.78:1
- Format
- JPG
This one has a minimum. A file under 10 KB is rejected for being too small, so compressing as hard as possible fails the check.
The NTA portals behind JEE and NEET allow 10–200 KB, which is four times the SSC ceiling for the same print size — the single most useful thing to know here, because it means an SSC-sized file is valid but a NEET-sized one is not, and the mistake only shows up at upload. The signature is tighter than the photo and tighter than SSC's: about 4–30 KB on a 3.5 × 1.5 cm strip. The guides we have also disagree with each other about JEE Advanced specifically, so read the information bulletin for your own session rather than assuming Main and Advanced match.
GATE and IIT JAM (reported)
Resize a photo to this- Dimensions
- 3.5 × 4.5 cm — about 413 × 531 px at 300 DPI
- File size
- 5 KB – 200 KB
- Aspect / orientation
- Portrait, 0.78:1
- Format
- JPG / PNG
This one has a minimum. A file under 5 KB is rejected for being too small, so compressing as hard as possible fails the check.
The widest band of any Indian exam reported here, 5–200 KB, and the signature carries the same 5–200 KB range rather than a smaller one — unusual, since every other exam on this page treats the signature as the tighter upload. GATE is also the one group described as accepting PNG as well as JPG, but JPG remains the safer choice: portal software that predates the current notification often rejects PNG silently.
Defence recruitment — Agniveer, AFCAT (reported)
Resize a photo to this- Dimensions
- 3.5 × 4.5 cm — about 413 × 531 px at 300 DPI
- File size
- 10 KB – 50 KB
- Aspect / orientation
- Portrait, 0.78:1
- Format
- JPG
This one has a minimum. A file under 10 KB is rejected for being too small, so compressing as hard as possible fails the check.
A 10–50 KB band on the standard print size. The catch on Agniveer specifically is not a file property at all: notifications commonly require the photograph to have been taken within the last few months with the date printed on the image itself, and a photo without that date is rejected however correctly it is sized. No resizing tool can add it — that has to come from whoever takes the photo. Compressing to 10 KB can also render a printed date illegible, which is a reason to sit nearer the top of the band than the bottom.
Where these figures come from
Three rows on this page are official and five are not, and the difference is marked on each. The UPSC photograph, signature and live-photograph rules were read from the Union Public Service Commission's "Instructions for Uploading the Photo & Signature" and are quoted from it directly. The banking, SSC and railways, JEE and NEET, GATE and defence rows are labelled reported because they come from independent exam guides rather than a notification PDF — Indian exam specs are published per cycle, and several portals cannot be reached without a candidate login. Where those rows give a pixel figure it is our own conversion of the published centimetre size at 300 DPI, not a number any board printed.
A caution about every Indian exam figure you find online, including ours: the most widely repeated UPSC number is 300 KB, and it is wrong — the Commission states 20–200 KB. Two separate exam guides we checked both published 300 KB, which is a good illustration that agreement between websites is not verification. The guides also contradict each other outright on RRB, one giving a 50 KB ceiling and the other 500 KB. Your own exam notification PDF is the only authority that matters, and boards do revise these figures between cycles. Two structural points worth carrying away: photo and signature always count separately, so hitting one limit says nothing about the other, and the same 3.5 × 4.5 cm print carries a 50 KB ceiling at SSC and a 200 KB ceiling at NEET — so "it worked for my last exam" is not a check.
All 8 of these India specifications were read on 2026-08-09, and India can revise any of them without announcing the change.
Check your own form before you submit
Some figures here were read from official government pages and others are widely reported but unconfirmed — each one says which it is. Governments and exam boards revise India photo specifications without announcing the change, and many publish a different specification for each form — so the page for your application is the only authority that counts. Open it, check the numbers there, and if they differ from ours, use theirs: you can type any dimensions and any file size into our tool by hand, so you are never limited to the presets.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many photo requirements does India have?
8. India sets a separate requirement per application and they differ from each other: UPSC, photograph; UPSC, signature; UPSC, live photograph; Banking exams, IBPS, SBI, RBI (reported); SSC, RRB and state PSCs (reported); JEE Main and Advanced, NEET UG and PG (reported); GATE and IIT JAM (reported); Defence recruitment, Agniveer, AFCAT (reported). So there is no single "India photo size" to look up. UPSC, signature wants 350–500 pixels, while Defence recruitment, Agniveer, AFCAT (reported) wants 3.5 × 4.5 cm — about 413 × 531 px at 300 DPI — submit one where the other is asked for and it comes back rejected, so find your form in the table below before you resize anything.
India photo size for UPSC: photograph?
Not specified, not specified — face must fill 75% of the frame. File size: 20 KB – 200 KB. Format: jpg, filename must be "photo". This is the officially published figure, and it is 200 KB — not the 300 KB most exam guides state, which would be rejected. UPSC publishes no pixel dimensions at all, so any "UPSC photo size in pixels" you find elsewhere is someone's interpretation. The binding rule is instead face coverage: the face must cover at least 75% — three quarters — of the photo area, with the head centered, both ear lobes visible, eyes open and unobstructed, a natural expression and a plain white background. UPSC's own rejection examples are mostly framing failures, not file failures: too small a face, a profile view, hair over the eyes. Cropping tighter is the fix, and cropping is allowed here. A photo in uniform, on a dark background, or wearing tinted glasses is refused, and the photo must not be signed.
India photo size for UPSC: signature?
350–500 pixels, three signatures stacked vertically. File size: 20 KB – 100 KB. Format: jpg, filename must be "signature". UPSC wants something unusual here and it catches people out: three separate signatures, signed one below the other on plain white unlined paper in black ink, scanned as a single image. One signature is rejected outright, as is blue ink, a horizontal arrangement, ruled or colored paper, or insufficient spacing between them. The PDF says "350 - 500 pixels" without stating which axis, so treat it as a rough target rather than an exact box. Applications whose signature file misses these specs are rejected.
India photo size for UPSC: live photograph?
Captured in the portal, not applicable. No digital file size is published for this one — it is a print specification. Format: Captured by webcam or phone. There is nothing to resize here, but it changes what your uploaded photo has to be. UPSC now requires a live photo captured through the portal — by webcam, or by scanning a QR code and using your phone — and matches it against the passport-size photograph you uploaded. If the two do not match, you cannot proceed with the application at all. This is the practical reason not to retouch an Indian exam photo even though no rule forbids it: heavy editing makes your upload fail the comparison against a live capture taken under ordinary lighting.
India photo size for Banking exams: IBPS, SBI, RBI (reported)?
200 × 230 px, portrait, roughly 0.87:1. File size: 20 KB – 50 KB. Format: JPG. The banking portals are the one group in India that states a pixel count rather than a print size, and 200 × 230 px is it, with signatures at about 140 × 60 px and 10–20 KB. This 20–50 KB band is a quarter of UPSC's ceiling, so a file built for UPSC is rejected here. Note that 200 × 230 is not the same shape as the 3.5 × 4.5 cm print the other exams ask for — 0.87:1 against 0.78:1 — so a photo cropped for SSC is not simply a resize away from being valid here, and the reverse is also true. Confirm against your own notification: this figure is from exam guides, not an IBPS PDF.
India photo size for SSC, RRB and state PSCs (reported)?
3.5 × 4.5 cm — about 413 × 531 px at 300 DPI, portrait, 0.78:1. File size: 20 KB – 50 KB. Format: JPG. SSC CGL, CHSL, MTS and GD, the railway exams (NTPC, Group D, ALP) and most state PSCs including UPPSC, BPSC and TSPSC are all described as asking for a 3.5 × 4.5 cm photo at 20–50 KB, with a separate wide 3.5 × 1.5 cm signature strip at 10–20 KB. The pixel figure is our conversion at 300 DPI, not a published one — the boards state the print size. Treat RRB with extra caution specifically: the two guides we checked contradict each other outright, one giving a 50 KB ceiling and the other 500 KB, which is a tenfold difference and cannot be split.
India photo size for JEE Main and Advanced, NEET UG and PG (reported)?
3.5 × 4.5 cm — about 413 × 531 px at 300 DPI, portrait, 0.78:1. File size: 10 KB – 200 KB. Format: JPG. The NTA portals behind JEE and NEET allow 10–200 KB, which is four times the SSC ceiling for the same print size — the single most useful thing to know here, because it means an SSC-sized file is valid but a NEET-sized one is not, and the mistake only shows up at upload. The signature is tighter than the photo and tighter than SSC's: about 4–30 KB on a 3.5 × 1.5 cm strip. The guides we have also disagree with each other about JEE Advanced specifically, so read the information bulletin for your own session rather than assuming Main and Advanced match.
India photo size for GATE and IIT JAM (reported)?
3.5 × 4.5 cm — about 413 × 531 px at 300 DPI, portrait, 0.78:1. File size: 5 KB – 200 KB. Format: JPG / PNG. The widest band of any Indian exam reported here, 5–200 KB, and the signature carries the same 5–200 KB range rather than a smaller one — unusual, since every other exam on this page treats the signature as the tighter upload. GATE is also the one group described as accepting PNG as well as JPG, but JPG remains the safer choice: portal software that predates the current notification often rejects PNG silently.
India photo size for Defence recruitment: Agniveer, AFCAT (reported)?
3.5 × 4.5 cm — about 413 × 531 px at 300 DPI, portrait, 0.78:1. File size: 10 KB – 50 KB. Format: JPG. A 10–50 KB band on the standard print size. The catch on Agniveer specifically is not a file property at all: notifications commonly require the photograph to have been taken within the last few months with the date printed on the image itself, and a photo without that date is rejected however correctly it is sized. No resizing tool can add it — that has to come from whoever takes the photo. Compressing to 10 KB can also render a printed date illegible, which is a reason to sit nearer the top of the band than the bottom.
Other countries
Looking for a size chart across every country instead? See the passport photo comparison.
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