A Metadata2Go alternative for AI-generated images
Metadata2Go is a good choice for viewing and removing metadata from almost any file, and its site states that it accepts files up to 75 MB. If the file is an AI-generated image, removing tags may not be enough. PassReal removes provenance markers as well, then rebuilds the pixels and writes a camera profile.
Last updated: 2026-10-08
What Metadata2Go does well
Metadata2Go presents itself as a free browser-based suite of metadata tools: a viewer, an editor and a remover. Its remover is described as taking the hidden fields off a file before you share it, without changing the picture itself. The viewer, according to its own page, has no format list and reads whatever the format stores, with photos, PDFs, documents, video, audio and ebooks named as examples. The site says a free file can be up to 75 MB and that an account or a paid plan raises that limit.
For a one-off job on a mixed set of files, that is hard to beat. You do not install anything, you do not write a command and you can look at what a file contains before you decide to remove it. If you need to remove the location from a holiday photo or the author from a PDF, you should use it, or ExifTool locally, and you do not need PassReal.
What it does not say
The homepage is silent on several points that matter for generated images. It does not mention C2PA or Content Credentials. It does not mention batch processing. It does not say how long uploaded files are kept: it says stored data is encrypted and backups are encrypted too, which is not the same as a retention period. None of that means the service is lacking. It means the page does not tell you, and for the sake of accuracy you should not assume.
If provenance is the reason you are there, test the tool on a known file. Run the file through the remover, then read the result with a second tool and look for leftover blocks. A stripped file that still lists a manifest is the failure to watch for.
Why AI images are a different job
A photograph from a phone carries a few dozen EXIF tags and sometimes a GPS position. An image from an AI generator can carry something different: a C2PA manifest in a JUMBF block, an IPTC digital source type that declares the image as made by a trained model, XMP blocks, and PNG text chunks holding a prompt or a workflow graph. Removing the tags is the first job. The second job is that a file with no metadata at all is itself unusual, because phones and cameras always write EXIF.
PassReal handles that second job. It strips the metadata by re-encoding from a pixel array, adds sensor-style grain and a lateral chromatic aberration that grows toward the corners, smooths the frequency spectrum, and then writes a JPEG whose EXIF comes from one consistent device profile together with a matching quantization table. After processing, the interface lists how many markers the file carried before and how many remain, by family: C2PA, XMP, EXIF, IPTC and text. On a Gemini export we counted 174 markers before and 0 after.
Side by side
- File types: Metadata2Go reads nearly anything; PassReal takes PNG, JPEG and WebP, up to 20 MB and 8192 pixels on the longest side.
- Editing: Metadata2Go has an editor for individual fields; PassReal does not edit single tags and always rebuilds the file.
- Pixels: Metadata2Go leaves the picture as it is; PassReal changes the pixels on purpose and says how.
- Volume: PassReal accepts up to 20 files in one batch, with 100 images a month on Pro. Metadata2Go does not describe batch processing on its homepage.
- Report: PassReal shows before and after counts of provenance markers.
- Price: both have a free entry point; the paid plans differ and you should read the current pricing pages.
The limits you should know about
Processing with PassReal changes the pixels, so the result is not byte for byte the original, and a very sensitive file should be edited with a tool that does not re-encode. It also does not make an image undetectable. We measured ZeroGPT at 0.96 to 0.97 after processing, which means it still classified the images as AI. What the product removes is the declared provenance. Our terms include a money-back guarantee: if a public AI image detector classifies a processed image as AI-generated, you can email us within 14 days with the image and a screenshot and we refund the payment that covered it.
SynthID, the pixel watermark used by Google tools, is not the same thing as metadata. Neither service targets it and we do not guarantee that it is removed.
Questions
Does Metadata2Go remove C2PA Content Credentials?
Its homepage does not mention C2PA or Content Credentials, so we cannot say. Test it on your own file and re-read the result with a metadata viewer such as ExifTool before you rely on it.
Where are my files processed on each service?
Metadata2Go states that files are processed on servers located in Europe and that traffic is encrypted, and it does not state how long files are kept. PassReal also processes files on a server; uploads and results are deleted automatically after 7 days, as its privacy page states.
Is PassReal free like Metadata2Go?
PassReal has a free allowance of three images per account: one right away and two more after you confirm your email. After that Pro costs 19 dollars a month for 100 images. Metadata2Go describes a free tool with paid plans that raise the file size limit.
Which should I use for a folder of mixed file types?
Metadata2Go, because it accepts photos, PDFs, documents, video, audio and ebooks according to its site. PassReal accepts PNG, JPEG and WebP images only.
Will either one hide that an image is AI-generated?
Neither can promise that. They remove what a file says about itself. A detector that reads the pixels is a separate matter, and our own ZeroGPT tests still returned 0.96 to 0.97 after processing.
Limits
Naturalization operates on the pixels and on the file, not on the content of the image. A subject that is implausible - six fingers, inconsistent reflections, text that does not read - stays implausible after processing, and a human reviewer will notice it. PassReal changes what a statistical classifier measures, not what a person sees.
Results vary by generator, by subject and by detector, and detectors are retrained. No pass rate is published on this page because none has been measured in a way that would still hold next month.
Three images, no card, no expiry.