How many pixels is a 48 MP photo?

8,064 by 6,048 pixels, which is 48.8 MP. The spec sheet rounds that to 48 MP. A megapixel figure is only the two dimensions multiplied together, so two photographs sharing one can be shaped quite differently — and it is the shape that decides how much the crop takes away.

Does a 48 MP phone actually save 48 MP photos?

Usually not. Left as it came, a phone like this merges neighboring sensor pixels into single larger ones — pixel binning — and writes a file of roughly 12 MP, or 4,032 by 3,024 pixels. You get the full 48 MP only if the camera was deliberately switched into its full-resolution mode before the picture was taken. This is why a photograph off a 48 MP phone often prints no better than one off a much older handset.

Can a 48 MP photo be enlarged to print bigger?

Stretching a file raises its pixel count without adding anything, so a print made from it looks exactly as soft as the original — the same picture with a bigger number on it. What can help is enlargement that works out what detail probably belonged in the gaps, which this site does in the editor and shows you beside the original at full size before anything uses it. It is often a real improvement and it is occasionally wrong, so the decision is yours to make by looking. The free check on this page is never adjusted for it: those numbers are what the photograph holds now.

Is a 48 MP photo good enough for a funeral?

Yes, up to 20x24" at a true 300 DPI, and up to 24x36" for a print on an easel that people see from across the room. That covers the register-table portrait comfortably.

How large will a 48 MP photograph print for a memorial?

A 48 MP photograph holds a true 300 DPI as far as 20x24". At 8,064 × 6,048 pixels — 48.8 MP — it clears 300 DPI at 9 of the 10 standard sizes once the crop to each frame shape is accounted for, and stays acceptable framed up to 24x36" at 200 DPI.

Only when someone went into the camera settings and asked for the full sensor. Untouched, most of these phones write a 12 MP file; an iPhone 15 or later writes 24 MP.

What the phone was sold as, and what it saved, are two numbers

Most 48 MP phones save about 12 MP by default. They combine groups of sensor pixels into one — pixel binning — producing a cleaner 4,032 × 3,024 file instead of a noisy full-resolution one. Unless the camera was deliberately switched into its full-resolution mode before the picture was taken, what you have is what a 12 MP photo can print, not what this page describes. Checking the file itself below settles it in a second.

Pixels: 8,064 × 6,048
Actual megapixels: 48.8 MP
Largest sharp print (300 DPI): 20x24"
Largest acceptable (200 DPI): 24x36"

Every print size at 48 MP

Filled in with 8,064 × 6,048 already. Put your own photograph in to check the file you actually have — it is read on your own computer and never uploaded.

A 48 MP photo

8,064 × 6,048 px

49 MP

These are this page’s example figures. Check your own photograph to see its verdicts — nothing leaves your device.

Largest sharp print — 300 DPI

20x24"

Largest acceptable print — 200 DPI

24x36"

This photograph can also be enlarged, if you need a size above those.

The editor enlarges it here in your browser, which is usually worth about one step up the list. The print comes out softer than one made from a photograph that was big enough to begin with, and it is usually still a print worth having.

You see the result beside the original at full size before you decide, because you are the one who knows what they looked like. The verdicts above are not adjusted for it — they are what the photograph holds now.

Print size verdicts for a 8,064 by 6,048 pixel photograph
Size	Verdict	Effective DPI	Needs at 300 DPI	What that means
5x7"	Print it	1152	1,500×2,100	A true 300 DPI. Nothing to worry about at this size, close up or across the room.
8x10"	Print it	756	2,400×3,000	A true 300 DPI. Nothing to worry about at this size, close up or across the room.
A4	Print it	689	2,481×3,507	A true 300 DPI. Nothing to worry about at this size, close up or across the room.
11x14"	Print it	549	3,300×4,200	A true 300 DPI. Nothing to worry about at this size, close up or across the room.
12x16"	Print it	504	3,600×4,800	A true 300 DPI. Nothing to worry about at this size, close up or across the room.
A3	Print it	487	3,507×4,962	A true 300 DPI. Nothing to worry about at this size, close up or across the room.
16x20"	Print it	378	4,800×6,000	A true 300 DPI. Nothing to worry about at this size, close up or across the room.
18x24"	Print it	336	5,400×7,200	A true 300 DPI. Nothing to worry about at this size, close up or across the room.
20x24"	Print it	302	6,000×7,200	A true 300 DPI. Nothing to worry about at this size, close up or across the room.
24x36"	Acceptable	224	7,200×10,800	224 DPI after cropping. Sharp framed or on an easel, slightly soft held at arm’s length.Can be enlarged for this size — softer, still printable.

Effective DPI accounts for the crop needed to reach each frame shape, so it is lower than dividing raw pixels by inches. That crop is the part most calculators quietly skip.

Where a 48 MP photo comes from

An iPhone 14 Pro or later shooting ProRAW or HEIF Max
An Android phone switched into its full-resolution mode
A high-end mirrorless body

Where it came from matters as much as the number. A file can be the right pixel size and still have been flattened by compression on the way — which is what happens to every photograph that arrives through a chat app rather than as a file. If the photograph came out of a message thread, the original is almost certainly still on the phone that took it, and it is several times larger. Where the numbers hold up, the crop is what to look at next: 20x24" print resolution sets out what that size asks for.

If the verdicts above look worse than expected, the reason is almost always the crop rather than the megapixel count. Every figure here has the crop to each frame shape already taken off, which most calculators quietly skip — see the print size chart for the arithmetic.

Questions

48 MP questions

How large will a 48 MP photograph print for a memorial?: A 48 MP photograph holds a true 300 DPI as far as 20x24". At 8,064 by 6,048 pixels — 48.8 MP — it clears 300 DPI at 9 of the 10 standard sizes, once the crop to each frame shape is accounted for. Framed and seen from a few feet away rather than held in the hand, it stays acceptable up to 24x36" at 200 DPI.
How many pixels is a 48 MP photo?: 8,064 by 6,048 pixels, which is 48.8 MP. The spec sheet rounds that to 48 MP. A megapixel figure is only the two dimensions multiplied together, so two photographs sharing one can be shaped quite differently — and it is the shape that decides how much the crop takes away.
Does a 48 MP phone actually save 48 MP photos?: Usually not. Left as it came, a phone like this merges neighboring sensor pixels into single larger ones — pixel binning — and writes a file of roughly 12 MP, or 4,032 by 3,024 pixels. You get the full 48 MP only if the camera was deliberately switched into its full-resolution mode before the picture was taken. This is why a photograph off a 48 MP phone often prints no better than one off a much older handset.
Can a 48 MP photo be enlarged to print bigger?: Stretching a file raises its pixel count without adding anything, so a print made from it looks exactly as soft as the original — the same picture with a bigger number on it. What can help is enlargement that works out what detail probably belonged in the gaps, which this site does in the editor and shows you beside the original at full size before anything uses it. It is often a real improvement and it is occasionally wrong, so the decision is yours to make by looking. The free check on this page is never adjusted for it: those numbers are what the photograph holds now.
Is a 48 MP photo good enough for a funeral?: Yes, up to 20x24" at a true 300 DPI, and up to 24x36" for a print on an easel that people see from across the room. That covers the register-table portrait comfortably.

Other photo sizes

Compare against how large a 24 MP photograph prints, how large a 50 MP photograph prints and how large a 16 MP photograph prints, or see every megapixel count against every print size.

Now prepare the files.

Clean up the background, frame it once, and get every standard size from that one framing. Free to use; the downloads carry a watermark until the photograph is paid for.

Open the tool