Indonesia Photo Requirements
Indonesia publishes three different photo requirements, and the file sizes are a trap: the e-Visa and civil service registration both cap at 200 KB, while a passport photo allows 2 MB — ten times as much. The red background so often described as "Indonesia's rule" applies only to civil service registration, not to a passport.
Requirements by application
These are different requirements, not variations of one. Find the form you are applying with.
Passport — M-Paspor photo upload
Resize a photo to this- Dimensions
- 400 × 600 px minimum, 4 × 6 cm
- File size
- ≤2 MB
- Aspect / orientation
- Portrait, 4:6
- Format
- JPEG, JPG or PNG
“size 4 x 6 cm with a resolution of at least 400 x 600 pixels, and in JPEG, JPG or PNG format”
The 2 MB ceiling is generous enough that most phone photos need no compression at all, so the binding constraints are the pixel minimum and the framing. Those framing rules are unusually precise: the top of your head including hair down to the bottom of your chin must be 50–60% of the image height, and your eye height measured from the bottom of the image must also be 50–60% of the height. No background color is specified.
e-Visa — online visa application
Resize a photo to this- Dimensions
- Passport size; no pixel figure given
- File size
- ≤200 KB
- Aspect / orientation
- Not specified
- Format
- JPG, JPEG or PNG
“Passport size photo (JPG/JPEG/PNG format with maximum size of 200 kb)”
The same 200 KB cap applies to the passport biodata page you upload alongside the photo, which is a document scan rather than a portrait and compresses very differently. No dimensions are published for either.
CPNS / SSCASN civil service registration
Resize a photo to this- Dimensions
- 4 × 6 cm; no pixel figure given
- File size
- ≤200 KB
- Aspect / orientation
- Portrait
- Format
- JPEG
This is the one that specifies a red background, which is unusual enough that a photo compliant anywhere else will fail here. Sources disagree on whether the ceiling is 200 KB or 300 KB, and SSCASN sets different limits per document type, so confirm on the portal. This figure is the least certain on this page.
Where these figures come from
The e-Visa figure is read directly from the Directorate General of Immigration visa FAQ at imigrasi.go.id, which states a 200 KB maximum for the photo and for the passport biodata page in JPG, JPEG or PNG. The passport figure is from the M-Paspor requirements. The CPNS figure is reported by multiple third parties rather than confirmed on sscasn.bkn.go.id.
Indonesia accepts PNG for the passport and e-Visa. Worth knowing: PNG is lossless and cannot be compressed to a specific file size at all, so if you need to hit a KB figure, save as JPEG.
All 3 of these Indonesia specifications were read on 2026-08-08, and Indonesia can revise any of them without announcing the change.
Check your own form before you submit
Some figures here were read from official government pages and others are widely reported but unconfirmed — each one says which it is. Governments and exam boards revise Indonesia photo specifications without announcing the change, and many publish a different specification for each form — so the page for your application is the only authority that counts. Open it, check the numbers there, and if they differ from ours, use theirs: you can type any dimensions and any file size into our tool by hand, so you are never limited to the presets.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many photo requirements does Indonesia have?
3. Indonesia sets a separate requirement per application and they differ from each other: Passport, M-Paspor photo upload; e-Visa, online visa application; CPNS / SSCASN civil service registration. So there is no single "Indonesia photo size" to look up. Passport, M-Paspor photo upload wants 400 × 600 px minimum, 4 × 6 cm, while CPNS / SSCASN civil service registration wants 4 × 6 cm; no pixel figure given — submit one where the other is asked for and it comes back rejected, so find your form in the table below before you resize anything.
Indonesia photo size for Passport: M-Paspor photo upload?
400 × 600 px minimum, 4 × 6 cm, portrait, 4:6. File size: ≤2 MB. Format: JPEG, JPG or PNG. The 2 MB ceiling is generous enough that most phone photos need no compression at all, so the binding constraints are the pixel minimum and the framing. Those framing rules are unusually precise: the top of your head including hair down to the bottom of your chin must be 50–60% of the image height, and your eye height measured from the bottom of the image must also be 50–60% of the height. No background color is specified.
Indonesia photo size for e-Visa: online visa application?
Passport size; no pixel figure given. File size: ≤200 KB. Format: JPG, JPEG or PNG. The same 200 KB cap applies to the passport biodata page you upload alongside the photo, which is a document scan rather than a portrait and compresses very differently. No dimensions are published for either.
Indonesia photo size for CPNS / SSCASN civil service registration?
4 × 6 cm; no pixel figure given, portrait. File size: ≤200 KB. Format: JPEG. This is the one that specifies a red background, which is unusual enough that a photo compliant anywhere else will fail here. Sources disagree on whether the ceiling is 200 KB or 300 KB, and SSCASN sets different limits per document type, so confirm on the portal. This figure is the least certain on this page.
Other countries
Looking for a size chart across every country instead? See the passport photo comparison.
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