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The basics

What is Optimo?

Optimo makes photos and videos smaller without making them look worse. It runs on your own computer or phone — your files are never uploaded, there's no account to create, and it works with no internet connection at all.

What does it cost?

Optimizing images on the desktop app is free forever, up to 50 images a day in batches of 10 files. Video, unlimited batches and the advanced controls are Optimo Pro Lifetime — one payment of $19, no subscription. The iPhone and Android apps are free, with no purchases at all.

What do I need to run it?

Windows 10 or newer (64-bit), macOS 11 or newer (Apple Silicon or Intel), or a modern 64-bit desktop Linux. It takes about 150 MB of disk space, and there's nothing else to install — everything it needs to handle video ships inside the app.

Free vs Pro

Free is not a trial. It doesn't expire and it never asks for an account. This is the whole difference:

Add more files than Free allows and the app offers to optimize the first 10 rather than refusing the job. The 3 video conversions are a one-off allowance, not a daily one — they exist so you can prove video works for you before paying anything.

Formats

Images

PNG, JPG/JPEG, WebP, AVIF, TIFF, GIF, BMP, ICO and SVG — convert between any of them, or keep the original format. Quality and lossless controls, target file size, resize by pixels or percentage, rotate, flip, brightness, saturation, hue, gamma, grayscale, blur, sharpen, invert, and EXIF/GPS stripping.

Video

MP4, WebM, MKV, MOV, AVI and GIF, with H.264, H.265, VP8, VP9 and AV1 video, and AAC, MP3, Opus, Vorbis and FLAC audio. Quality and bitrate control including two-pass, hardware-accelerated encoding where your machine supports it, resolution presets from 1080p down to 360p, speed change, rotate and flip, audio volume or removal, and frame and audio extraction.

Will it reduce my resolution?

Only if you ask it to. Resizing is a control you set — leave it alone and your dimensions are untouched.

iPhone & Android

Where can I get it?

Optimo for iPhone is on the App Store now — free, and it needs iOS 16.4 or newer. The Android version is on the way; there's a Google Play badge on the download page that goes live the day it lands.

What the mobile app does

Pick photos and videos from your library, choose a quality level, and Optimo compresses them in a batch on your device. The optimized copies save back to your library — into an Optimo album by default — and you get a notification when the batch finishes. Free up space finds your biggest files so you can start where it counts, and you can turn on delete originals to actually reclaim the storage.

What does it cost?

Nothing. There are no in-app purchases, no subscription and no ads.

Which preset should I pick?

Best quality barely touches the photo. Balanced saves about half the space and looks the same. Space saver squeezes hardest — and all three keep your photo's full resolution. Only For sharing makes the image smaller on purpose, so it's quick to text or email.

Are my RAW photos and Live Photos safe?

Yes — Optimo deliberately leaves them alone. Re-compressing a RAW capture would destroy an editable original, and processing a Live Photo could drop its motion, so the app skips both rather than quietly damaging them.

Why did some files say "already optimized"?

Because the optimized copy came out bigger than the original — modern phones already store photos efficiently. Rather than waste your space, Optimo keeps the original. That's the app working correctly.

What permissions does it need?

Access to your photos, so it can read the media you pick and save the optimized copies back. Notifications only if you turn on "notify when done", and those are generated on your phone — there's no push server. Nothing else: no camera, no microphone, no location, no contacts.

Purchase & licence

How does buying Pro work?

Pro is a single payment of $19 — no subscription and nothing to cancel. You'll get a licence key by email; paste it into the app to unlock Pro. Payments and receipts are handled by Lemon Squeezy, our payment provider.

I bought Pro but haven't received my key

Check your spam folder for the receipt from Lemon Squeezy — the key is in it. Still nothing? Tell us the email you paid with and we'll dig it out.

Can I move my licence to a new computer?

Yes. Deactivate it in the app on the old machine, which frees the activation, then activate on the new one. If the old computer is gone or broken, get in touch — we'll release it for you.

Does Pro work offline?

Yes. Optimo checks a licence occasionally when it can reach the internet, but being offline — travelling, on a plane, behind a firewall — never takes Pro away.

Can I get a refund?

In full, within 14 days, no reason needed. The fastest route is replying to your Lemon Squeezy receipt, since they hold the payment record and can refund directly; or write to us and we'll pass it on. Refunds go back to your original payment method and take a few business days to appear.

Does Pro unlock the mobile app?

They're separate products — but the mobile apps are free, so there's nothing to unlock.

Privacy

Do you upload my files?

No. Optimo has no servers for your media. There's nothing to upload to, no account, and no sign-in. Pull your network cable out and it still works.

Do you track me?

No analytics and no telemetry in either app, and this website has no analytics and no tracking cookies.

Then what does the app connect to?

On desktop, exactly two things, and neither involves your files: a check for updates, which you can switch off in Settings, and — for Pro users only — a licence check that sends your licence key and a machine name so a refunded or revoked key stops unlocking Pro. The free tier never makes that call. The mobile apps make no network requests involving your media at all, and both store listings declare "no data collected".

The full detail is in our privacy policy.

Installing

macOS — eject the disk image before you launch

Optimo is signed with a Developer ID and notarized by Apple, so it opens with no security warning. Open the .dmg, drag Optimo into Applications, then eject the disk image and launch it from Applications.

Ejecting matters: run Optimo straight from the mounted image and macOS starts a temporary read-only copy, so your settings and updates silently won't stick.

Windows — "Windows protected your PC"

SmartScreen shows this because the Windows build isn't code-signed yet — a certificate is on our roadmap. Click More info, then Run anyway. Nothing is wrong with the file.

Linux — the AppImage won't launch

Make it executable first: chmod +x Optimo-*.AppImage. For the .deb package: sudo dpkg -i Optimo_*.deb

Troubleshooting

A file failed to process

Usually the file is open in another app, sitting on a disconnected drive, or the output folder isn't writable. Try a different output folder in Settings.

My optimized file is bigger than the original

The original was already well compressed. Try a lower quality setting, or use target file size (Pro) to name the size you want and let Optimo hit it.

It's running slowly

Video is heavy work. Turn on hardware acceleration in Settings, and on an older machine lower the number of concurrent jobs so each one gets more of the CPU.

I want to start completely fresh

Delete Optimo's data folder — %APPDATA%/Optimo on Windows, ~/Library/Application Support/Optimo on macOS, ~/.config/Optimo on Linux. That resets settings, presets and statistics. It does not touch your photos or videos.

Still stuck?

Send us a message and tell us your platform — iPhone, Android, macOS, Windows or Linux — and what you were doing when it went wrong. A person reads every one.

On desktop, open Settings → Diagnostics → Copy diagnostics first and paste the result into your message. It captures your version and the recent app log with file paths removed, which usually identifies the problem straight away. It goes on your clipboard, not to us — nothing is sent until you paste it.