Platform behaviour
Does Reddit remove EXIF data?
Yes, from the public copy
Images uploaded to Reddit are re-hosted and the served copy carries no EXIF.
What actually happens
- Reddit re-processes uploads through its own image pipeline, which drops the metadata block.
- Linking to an image hosted elsewhere bypasses this entirely — Reddit never touches that file, so whatever the host serves is what people get.
- Reddit posts are widely archived and mirrored, often within minutes, by systems that make their own copies.
The part most guides skip
The stripping only applies to Reddit-hosted uploads. Link to your own server or another host and nothing is removed.
This distinction matters more than the yes-or-no answer. "Strips EXIF" nearly always means "strips it from the copy other people can download". Your original file — coordinates, serial number, timestamp and all — was still transmitted, and it is still on their servers.
What to do instead
Clean the file before you upload it. It takes a second, it costs you no image quality here, and it removes the question entirely: if the metadata was never in the file you sent, no platform policy has to be trusted.
Remove metadata from your photo, or check what is in there first with the EXIF viewer.
Other platforms
- InstagramYes, from the public copy
- FacebookYes, from the public copy
- X (Twitter)Yes, from the public copy
- WhatsAppIt depends how you send it
- TelegramIt depends how you send it
- DiscordIt depends how you send it
- LinkedInYes, from the public copy
- PinterestYes, from the public copy
Platform behaviour changes without announcement. These notes reflect widely reproduced testing rather than official documentation, because most platforms do not publish this. Treat them as a guide, not a guarantee — which is itself the argument for stripping locally.