UPSC photo size: 35×45 mm and 20–50 KB

The box ChargeBite encodes

The exam-photo preset is the same 35×45 mm idea as many SSC, NEET, and JEE forms:413×531 px at 300 DPI, JPEG, with a20–50 KB target. That is not 630×810. If you reuse a Passport Seva export here, the portal may still take it — or it may bounce on file-weight or on a “recent colour photograph” rule that Seva does not share. Always open thecurrent notification, not a blog from 2019.

• 35 × 45 mm (about 413 × 531 px at 300 DPI)
• JPEG, colour, recent portrait
• 20–50 KB for the photograph box
• A second upload for the signature (wide crop, similar KB cap)

Why a 35×45 crop still fails UPSC

Same failure list as Passport Seva — gray wall, tiny face, HEIC, beauty mode — plus a tighter byte window:

1. Over 50 KB after export. ChargeBite walks JPEG quality down. If the crop is a busy print shirt against a textured wall, there is not enough simple area to hit 50 KB without turning the face to mush. Reshoot on a white wall in even daylight.
2. Under 20 KB. A WhatsApp-forwarded thumbnail looks like a stamp. The lower bound exists so you cannot upload a 4 KB smudge. Reshoot; do not upscale.
3. Signature in the photo box, or photo in the signature box.Useexam signaturefor the 350×150-style crop. A passport portrait pasted into the signature slot fails.
4. Wrong year’s dimensions. Some papers ask 200×230 or a different KB cap. If the notification names other numbers, do not force this preset.
5. The PDF of the form is over 300 KB. That is a separate upload. Compress the filled application withCompress PDF (300 KB cap), not by photographing the screen.

Step-by-step

1. Read this year’s UPSC (or SSC/NEET/JEE) photograph instructions. Write down the KB cap.
2. Openexam photoon ChargeBite. Encoding stays in the browser.
3. White wall, no flash, one person. Drop the JPEG or use the camera.
4. Zoom until the head fills the 35×45 guide. Export. Check 20–50 KB in Files.
5. Repeat on the signature preset with a dark-pen photo on white paper.
6. If the application PDF is heavy, compress it separately. Do not JPEG-compress a PDF by screenshotting it.

413×531 is not 630×810

Passport Seva’s digital still is 630×810. The exam preset is 413×531 at 300 DPI for the same 35×45 mm print. If you take a Seva export and upload it as the CSE photograph, some boards accept it because the aspect matches; others bounce on file-weight (a 180 KB Seva JPEG is over the 50 KB exam cap) or on “photograph as per notification.” Convert by re-cropping in the exam preset, not by renaming the file. The signature slot is a different aspect entirely — stuffing a headshot into 350×150 letterboxes the face and fails.

Clothing: a dark, plain shirt against white is what most notifications describe. White on white disappears. Heavy patterns, logos, and uniforms with badges confuse both the byte cap and a human checker. Keep jewellery small. Religious head covering is usually allowed if the face is fully visible; a fashion cap is not. When the PDF of the application is a third upload, compress that PDF separately. Photographing the preview on screen adds a generation of JPEG and almost always overshoots 300 KB or looks like a photo of a photo.

State PSCs, university entrance, and some departmental exams copy the UPSC box and then change one number. If the PDF says 20–40 KB or 200×230 px, believe that PDF. ChargeBite’s exam preset is the common CSE/SSC/NEET/JEE box, not a translator for every gazette.

For the signature: photograph a dark-ink signature on unlined white paper, not a stylus scribble on a glossy screen. Hold the phone square to the paper; a steep angle turns the crop into a parallelogram that still “fits” 350×150 and still fails. Do not invert colours to fake white paper. If the ink is faint, reshoot under a lamp from the side, not with flash. Thumb impressions, when a form asks for them, use the generic signature-on-white preset — they are a blob, not a 35×45 face. If both uploads must be “recent,” shoot them in the same session. A three-year-old passport JPEG next to a fresh signature is an easy human reject even when both files hit the byte window.

What this will not do

ChargeBite is not UPSC, not SSC, and not a photo studio. We do not submit forms. We do not guarantee a board will accept the file.Termssay the same for every exam and ID crop. If the notification disagrees with this page, the notification wins.

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