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AI Images & Metadata

Introducing AI Metadata Cleaner for Mac: Strip AI Metadata Locally, in Bulk

Our first owned product: a signed, notarized Mac app that removes AI metadata and EXIF 100% locally, using the same ExifTool engine as the website. Free for single files, Pro for bulk folders.

By Andreas De Rosi · July 22, 2026 · 3 min read

For years, ExifReader has given you free, browser-based tools to read, edit, and strip image metadata. Today we are shipping something we own end to end: AI Metadata Cleaner for Mac, a native app that removes AI-generation metadata and EXIF from your images entirely on your own machine. Nothing is ever uploaded.

The short version. AI Metadata Cleaner is a signed, notarized Mac app that strips the tags marking an image as AI-generated (C2PA / Content Credentials, JUMBF, Stable Diffusion / Midjourney generation parameters) plus EXIF, using the exact same ExifTool engine as the website. It is free for single files. Pro is a one-time €17.99 / $17.99 purchase that unlocks bulk, whole-folder cleaning. It is local-only, private by default, and honest about what it cannot do.

⬇️ Get AI Metadata Cleaner for Mac →

Why a Mac app, when your web tools are free?

The free AI Metadata Remover on the website processes your image on our server. That is fine for a one-off, but three things only a desktop app can do:

  • Truly local. The app reads and writes on your Mac. Your images, file names, and folder paths never leave your machine. That is the point for sensitive photos.
  • Bulk folders. Drop a whole folder and clean everything inside it, including subfolders, in one pass. No one-file-at-a-time uploads.
  • Same engine you already trust. It runs the identical ExifTool commands as exifreader.com, so results match the tool you know.

Free vs Pro

The free tier cleans single files with both modes: remove AI metadata only (keeping your camera EXIF, GPS, and copyright), or remove all metadata. Pro unlocks bulk and whole-folder cleaning. It is a one-time purchase, not a subscription: a perpetual license for Pro 1.x on up to two personal Macs, with your key emailed immediately and offline validation after that. There is a 14-day refund, and Paddle is our Merchant of Record so tax is handled where applicable.

Pro is non-destructive by default: your originals stay untouched and each cleaned copy is written alongside it with a _no_ai_metadata suffix (or _no_metadata in Remove-All mode). An optional Overwrite-originals mode cleans in place when you want that.

The honesty rule, kept

We will not pretend the app does more than it does. Stripping metadata removes the tags that label an image as AI-generated. It cannot remove Google SynthID or the pixel-level and statistical fingerprints baked into the image itself, and it does not make an AI image "undetectable." If a tool anywhere promises that, it is lying. Want to see exactly what a file carries first? Run it through our free AI Metadata Detector.

Get it

Download the free version, or unlock Pro, on the AI Metadata Cleaner page. It needs macOS 13 or later and runs natively on Apple Silicon and Intel.

Related reading: how to remove AI metadata from images (and what you cannot remove) and why Meta watermarks its fakes but not your photos.

Try it, free.

Keep reading

Meta Watermarked Its Fakes. It Won't Watermark Your Photos. Meta Watermarked Its Fakes. It Won't Watermark Your Photos. How to Remove AI Metadata From Images in 2026 (and What You Cannot Remove) How to Remove AI Metadata From Images in 2026 (and What You Cannot Remove)