Google Images quietly removes ‘exact size’ and ‘larger than’ search filters

Ben Schoon | Aug 29 2019 - 8:22 am PT

Google Images is one of the most popular ways to find a picture on the web, and lately, it’s undergone some changes. One change to Google Images that was just recently spotted was the removal of a search filter that allowed users to find images of exact sizes.

The toolbar along the top of every Google Images search has a selection of several filters including size, color, usage rights, image type, and also when it was uploaded. These make it much easier to narrow down your search to find an image that fits your criteria.

However, sometime in the past few days, Google removed the option to filter an Images search by the exact photo size or by a minimum resolution. These options have been available in Google Images for several years at this point and we’re not entirely sure why Google has suddenly removed them. The change seems widespread from what we can tell, with a Reddit thread amassing comments about the issue.

It could be that Google is looking to replace the feature, but for the time being, we’re not sure. Thankfully, there is a way around the removal. If you head to Google’s Advanced Image Search feature, you can still filter by sizes larger than certain megapixel counts, but the ability to filter by exact size isn’t available here.

Somewhat hilariously, Microsoft’s Bing does still offer exact size image filtering.

Google Images removed the ability to filter by exact size (Image Credit: Search Engine Roundtable)

If you’re curious where this functionality was used, it’s a helpful tool for many in finding suitable wallpapers or images at a very specific resolution. It’s probably not the most widely used tool, but it’s a functionality that will be missed by many.