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Do Screenshots Take Up Storage on iPhone? (And iCloud)

Yes. Each iPhone screenshot is a full-resolution image that uses iPhone storage and, with iCloud Photos on, iCloud space. How much, and how to free it.

6 min read
Muhammed BasilFounder & maker of Pizazoo

Yes. Every screenshot is a full-resolution image saved to the Photos app, so it uses storage on your iPhone, and with iCloud Photos turned on it also counts against your iCloud storage, where the free plan is 5 GB. A single screenshot is small, but thousands of them add up to gigabytes.

Here is what decides the size, how to check it, and how to get the space back.

How much space does one screenshot take on iPhone?

It depends on the format, your iPhone's screen resolution, and what was on the screen.

Format. In iOS 26 and iOS 27, Settings, General, Screen Capture lets you choose SDR or HDR. With SDR, screenshots are saved as PNG; with HDR, they are saved as HEIF (Apple). Apple's iOS 26 page calls the HDR format HEIC, a HEIF-based format.

Content. PNG is a lossless format (W3C): it keeps every pixel exactly, so there is no quality slider to shrink it. The file size depends on how well the picture compresses, and a plain settings screen generally compresses better than a page full of photos.

A worked example, with the assumptions spelled out:

  • The iPhone 17 display is 2622 by 1206 pixels (Apple). Assume the screenshot matches it.
  • That is 3,162,132 pixels. At 3 bytes per pixel (8-bit red, green and blue), the raw image is about 9.5 MB before compression.
  • PNG compression usually brings the saved file below that, by an amount that depends on the content. So 9.5 MB is a reference point for an SDR screenshot on that phone, not a typical size.

To see the real size of one of your screenshots, open it in Photos and swipe up (or tap the info button). Apple says the info panel can show details including file size (Apple).

Is HEIF smaller? Apple says HEIF compresses better than JPEG at the same visual quality (Apple), but HDR screenshots also capture more brightness and color, and Apple publishes no PNG versus HEIF comparison for screenshots. Choose SDR or HDR for how your screenshots should look, not as a storage trick.

How much space do all your screenshots take?

Multiply your average by your count. The table uses three assumed averages, not measurements; pick the column closest to the sizes you see in the info panel.

Number of screenshots At 0.5 MB each At 1 MB each At 2 MB each
500 250 MB 500 MB 1 GB
2,000 1 GB 2 GB 4 GB
5,000 2.5 GB 5 GB 10 GB
10,000 5 GB 10 GB 20 GB

At an assumed 1 MB each, 5,000 screenshots would fill the entire free 5 GB iCloud plan on their own.

How do you check screenshot storage in Settings?

On the iPhone: go to Settings, tap General, then tap iPhone Storage. Available space is shown at the top, with a list of apps below (Apple). Screenshots do not get their own line: they count toward Photos, which Apple defines as photos and videos stored in the Photos app. Full-page screenshots saved as PDFs count elsewhere, under Apps if saved to On My iPhone in Files, or under iCloud Drive if downloaded there (Apple). If you see recommendations, tap Show All to review them.

In iCloud: go to Settings, tap your name, then tap iCloud to see how much space you have left. Tap Storage to see what uses it (Apple). On iOS 17 or later, Recommended for You on the same screen suggests photos, large files and old backups you might delete (Apple).

Do screenshots use iCloud storage?

Yes, in one of two ways:

  • With iCloud Photos on (Settings, your name, iCloud, Photos, Sync this iPhone), every screenshot uploads in its original format at full resolution (Apple) and counts against your iCloud storage. iCloud includes 5 GB free, and that space is shared with backups, iCloud Drive and everything else (Apple).
  • With iCloud Photos off, your photo library, screenshots included, becomes part of your iCloud Backup (Apple).

When iCloud fills up, new photos stop uploading and your iPhone stops backing up to iCloud (Apple). In Photos, a red exclamation mark appears in the top-right corner of Collections (Apple).

Two details matter when you clean up. Items in Recently Deleted do not count toward iCloud storage. But if you are already over your limit, Apple says photos you delete are removed immediately and cannot be recovered from Recently Deleted (Apple).

Does Optimize iPhone Storage help with screenshots?

It saves space on the iPhone, not in iCloud. With iCloud Photos on, full-resolution originals stay in iCloud and the iPhone keeps space-saving versions. When the iPhone needs room, it optimizes the photos you open least first (Apple). Apple turns it on by default with iCloud Photos.

To check it in iOS 27: Settings, your name, iCloud, Photos, then tap iPhone Storage and make sure Optimize iPhone Storage is selected rather than Download and Keep Originals. In iOS 26 or earlier, the choice is on the Photos screen itself (Apple, Apple).

Your iCloud usage stays the same either way. Only deleting screenshots reduces it.

How do you free up space taken by screenshots?

  • Delete in bulk. In Photos, tap Collections, then Media Types, then Screenshots. Tap Select, slide your finger across thumbnails to select many at once, then tap the Trash button (Apple). With iCloud Photos on, this deletes them on every device. For a full walkthrough, see how to delete all screenshots on iPhone.
  • Empty Recently Deleted when you are sure. Deleted items stay for 30 days before they are permanently removed from your iPhone and iCloud (Apple). To remove them now, tap Collections, then Recently Deleted (below Utilities), tap View Album, tap Select, then tap the More button and choose Delete or Delete All (Apple). This cannot be undone.
  • Merge duplicates. Collections, Utilities, Duplicates, then Merge (Apple).
  • Clear old full-page PDFs from the Files app (Apple).
  • Keep Optimize iPhone Storage on if you use iCloud Photos.

Can a screenshot app help?

An organizer makes deleting easier, because you can see what you are throwing away. Pizazoo for iPhone and iPad (we make it) sorts the screenshots in your photo library into categories such as Receipts, Chats, Code and Errors with on-device AI, and indexes their text so you can find what to keep. Its own Trash keeps deleted screenshots restorable for 30 days.

One honest caveat: Pizazoo's "Remove from Photos after import" setting moves the originals to Recently Deleted, but the screenshots then live in Pizazoo's library on your iPhone. That tidies Photos; it does not free space. Deleting what you no longer need does.

Pizazoo is free on iOS and iPadOS 17 or later. See Pizazoo for iPhone and Pizazoo for iPad.

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