The Complete EXIF Tag Reference
Every EXIF, IPTC and XMP tag that matters, with its hexadecimal tag ID, where it is stored, what a real value looks like, and how much privacy risk it carries. This is a reference you can check a tag against and cite.
Every tag at a glance
17 tags documented. 1 carries critical privacy risk, 4 is high risk, 4 is medium, 5is low, and 3 carries no meaningful privacy risk at all.
| Tag | Tag ID | Stored in | Risk |
|---|---|---|---|
| GPS Coordinates | 0x0001 | GPS IFD | Critical |
| Camera Serial Number | 0xA431 | ExifIFD | High |
| Date and Time Taken | 0x9003 | ExifIFD / IFD0 | High |
| GPS Date Stamp | 0x001D | GPS IFD | High |
| Owner Name and Copyright | 0x013B | IFD0 / ExifIFD / XMP / IPTC | High |
| Camera Model | 0x0110 | IFD0 | Medium |
| Copyright Notice | 0x8298 | IFD0 / IPTC / XMP | Medium |
| Lens Model | 0xA433 | ExifIFD | Medium |
| Software | 0x0131 | IFD0 / XMP | Medium |
| Aperture | 0x829D | IFD0 / ExifIFD | Low |
| Camera Make | 0x010F | IFD0 | Low |
| Focal Length | 0x920A | ExifIFD | Low |
| ISO | 0x8827 | ExifIFD | Low |
| Shutter Speed | 0x829A | IFD0 / ExifIFD | Low |
| Image Dimensions | 0x0100 | IFD0 / ExifIFD | None |
| Orientation | 0x0112 | IFD0 | None |
| White Balance | 0xA403 | ExifIFD | None |
Location data
The exact latitude, longitude and altitude where the photo was taken. The single most dangerous tag in any photo, and the reason most people want a metadata remover.
The UTC date and time the GPS receiver obtained its position fix, stored separately from the photo timestamp and in UTC rather than local time.
Ownership & authorship
The exact moment the shutter fired, down to the second. It is one of the most revealing tags on a photo and one of the most frequently leaked.
Fields that can contain your real name or legal entity. These are the tags that turn a photo from anonymous into attributable.
A copyright statement, sometimes including a year, a name and a URL. It is a deliberate attribution and it is not always wanted on a shared photo.
The application that last wrote the file — a camera firmware, a phone, or an editor such as Lightroom or Photoshop. It can reveal your editing workflow.
Device identity
A unique serial number for the exact camera body. It identifies one specific physical device in the world and is the strongest non-location identifier in a photo.
The specific camera or phone model, such as "iPhone 15 Pro" or "Canon EOS R6 Mark II". Narrower than the make and more identifying.
The make, model and sometimes serial number of the lens attached to the camera. The most over-precise field in the entire EXIF block.
The manufacturer of the camera, such as Canon, Sony, Nikon or Apple. It identifies the brand of device that produced the file.
Capture settings
The aperture (f-number) your camera lens was set to when the photo was taken. It tells you how wide the lens opening was, which narrows down the camera and lens model.
The focal length of the lens in millimetres. On phones this is a computed value that varies with the digital zoom factor.
The sensor sensitivity used to capture the photo. Higher ISO means a brighter image captured with more noise — a strong clue about the lighting conditions and device.
How long the sensor was exposed. Stored either as a fraction (1/250) or as an APEX value, and it reveals whether the photo was a sharp daylight shot or a long night exposure.
How the camera neutralised colour temperature. Automatic white balance is the default on nearly every phone and camera.
Technical file data
The pixel width and height of the stored image, plus the original capture dimensions. Technical, not private — but it is a reliable fingerprint for grouping photos.
A one-byte flag telling viewers how to rotate the image. Mostly useful, occasionally a headache, and never a privacy concern.
How we rate privacy risk
| Rating | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Critical | Reveals your exact location, or uniquely identifies a specific physical device. |
| High | Attributes a photo to a real person, a precise moment, or a place you live. |
| Medium | Narrows down your device, your workflow, or your identity, but is not identifying on its own. |
| Low | A capture setting. Useful to keep, and it only matters if you are publishing very large batches and want to avoid device fingerprinting. |
| None | Purely technical file information with no personal dimension. |
Where EXIF tags live inside a photo
EXIF is not a flat list. It is a nested structure, and understanding where a tag sits explains why some tools find it and others do not. The primary block, IFD0, holds the baseline TIFF fields such as Make, Model, Orientation and DateTime. A sub-block called the Exif IFD holds the capture settings and the serial numbers. A third block, the GPS IFD, is only present when location was recorded at all. Manufacturer-specific data sits in a MakerNote, a proprietary binary blob that no standard describes, and which frequently contains a duplicate of the serial number. Alongside the EXIF block sit two other metadata formats: the Adobe XMP packet and the older IPTC fields used by news and photo agencies. A complete clean-up has to deal with all three.
If you want the byte-level detail, our JPEG metadata explained guide walks through the actual segment structure of a JPEG file.
Check which tags your own photos carry
The reader parses the full EXIF, XMP and IPTC blocks locally in your browser and groups every populated tag for you. Nothing is uploaded, so your photos never leave your device.
Sources and how this was verified
Tag identifiers, data types and IFD structure come from the published specifications. The privacy ratings are our own editorial judgement, applied consistently across every entry, and every rating is checked against files produced by real cameras, phones and editors rather than from documentation alone.
- CIPA DC-007-Translation 2019 (Exif 3.0)
- ISO/IEC 21222-1:2015 — photography metadata
- Adobe XMP Specification, third edition (2024)
- IPTC IIM 4.2 and IPTC Photo Metadata Standard 2024
Our method is documented in the editorial and review policy. Corrections are welcome via contact.
Cite this reference
This reference is maintained, versioned and reviewed on a published schedule. You are welcome to link to it or to any individual tag entry.
“EXIF Tag Reference, freexifdata.com, reviewed October 20, 2026.”
EXIF tag FAQ
Common questions about what EXIF tags are, how many exist, and which ones put your privacy at risk.
What is an EXIF tag?
An EXIF tag is a single named field inside the metadata block of an image file. Each tag has a hexadecimal identifier, a defined data type and a fixed position in the file structure. The camera or editor writes the tag; software later reads it back to display camera settings, orientation, timestamps or location.
How many EXIF tags are there?
The EXIF 3.0 specification defines around 300 standard tags, but a single photo can carry far more than that once you count the IPTC fields, the Adobe XMP packet, and the vendor-specific MakerNote blocks that most camera manufacturers add. Most real-world photos contain between 20 and 60 populated tags.
Which EXIF tags are the most dangerous?
GPS coordinates are the most dangerous, because they reveal the exact place a photo was taken. Next in order are the camera and lens serial numbers, which identify one specific physical device, and the capture timestamp, which can place you somewhere at a specific moment.
Do all photos contain EXIF data?
No. It depends on the device and the software. Cameras and phones write EXIF by default. Social platforms usually re-encode the file and discard it on upload. Screenshots generally have no EXIF at all, and images exported from some editors have it stripped as well.
Can EXIF metadata be removed without damaging the photo?
Yes. EXIF lives in a separate metadata block from the image data, so a proper removal strips the tags while leaving the visible photo byte-for-byte identical in appearance. Cropping or resizing a photo does not remove EXIF, because the metadata block survives both operations untouched.
Where can I check which tags my own photos contain?
Upload a photo to the free browser-based EXIF viewer. It reads the full metadata block locally in your browser, shows every populated tag grouped by category, and never uploads the file to a server.