Deletes original image files if they have been resized
As of April 2026, Delete Unscaled Images is a WordPress images plugin with 700 active installations and a 5/5 rating from 5 reviews. It has been downloaded 3.7K+ times in total. Requires WordPress 5.3+ and PHP false+. Available on WordPress.org since 2022. Last updated 1 year ago — may have compatibility concerns. Top alternative: Autoptimize.
WordPress 5.3 added “big image handling” that scales uploaded images to a maximum size of 2560 pixels for use on the website. WP adds “-scaled” to the full size image file name. The original, unscaled images are kept on the server. This can mean that many large images are stored on the server that aren’t ever actually going to be displayed on the website. In my case, users are uploading 15MB files from their cameras.
After the scaled version and intermediate/thumbnail images are generated, the originals are no longer needed and just taking up storage space. Delete Unscaled Images will remove those unneeded files.
First, original images are deleted immediately after the resized versions are created for all new uploads.
Second, there is a bulk deletion tool in…
| WordPress | 5.3+ requiredTested up to 6.5.8 |
| PHP | false+ required |
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