How many photos do I have on my iPhone?

The number is on the first screen of the Photos app, but it is easy to miss, and it does not say what it includes. Here is where it is on iOS 27, how to break it down by type and by month, what counts and what does not, and how to turn it into the number people usually want next: how much space those photos take. The screens are the same on iOS 26.

The count is under the Library title

Open Photos. The library opens on the grid of your photos, with the title Library at the top and, right under it, the total: 82 Items in our test library. The word is Items because the figure counts photos and videos together.

If the screen shows big cards for years or months instead of a grid, you are in the Years or Months view: tap All in the bar at the bottom. The count appears at the top of the grid; if you have scrolled, swipe down to the top, or tap the Library tab again. The sort order does not change the number, and it updates as you delete.

Photos and videos counted separately: Settings › General › About

The one place that splits the two is not in the Photos app. Open Settings, tap General, then About, and scroll to the second group: Videos and Photos each have a row with their count, and the two add up to the library total, 7 and 75 for our 82 items. Capacity and Available sit right under them, so this screen also answers the next question, how much room is left.

With iCloud Photos on: two more counts in Settings

If your library syncs with iCloud, Settings counts it twice more, and one of these also separates photos from videos. Open Settings, tap your name, then iCloud, then Photos: the In iCloud row reads, for example, 62,449 Photos, 6,924 Videos, with Status showing when the last sync finished. Go back one screen to iCloud and the Photos tile under Saved to iCloud gives the total, 69,373 items for the same library. These count what iCloud holds, which is the whole library once syncing has finished, so they match the Library title on the iPhone.

Count by type: Media Types

For the split between photos, videos and screenshots, tap Collections, scroll down to Media Types and tap the heading. Each type your library contains has a row with its count: Videos, Bursts, Screenshots and Screen Recordings in our test library, and on a real iPhone also Live Photos, Portraits, Selfies, Panoramas, Slo-mo, Time-lapse, Cinematic or Spatial when you have some.

Two things to know when you read these rows. A type lists what matches it, so a screen recording is also one of the videos: adding the rows together double-counts. And there is no Photos row here; for that number, use the About screen above, or subtract the Videos row from the library total.

Count by month

Open the library and tap Months in the bar at the bottom. Every month card carries its count in the corner, such as 30 for a trip month. The Years cards do not show a count. This view answers a different question than the total: where the photos pile up, which is where a cleanup pays off first. Our guide to sorting iPhone photos by date covers the Years, Months and All views in detail.

What the number includes, and what it leaves out

	In the count?
Photos and videos in your library	Yes, together
Live Photos, bursts, screenshots, screen recordings	Yes, once each
Photos whose originals are in iCloud (Optimize Storage)	Yes
Photos in albums	Yes, once: albums hold references, not copies
Hidden photos	No, they only appear in the Hidden collection
Recently Deleted	No, until you recover them
Photos in a Shared Album you did not save	No, they live in the album only
Photos in an iCloud Shared Library	Yes in the Both Libraries view; only yours in Personal Library

The last row matters if you share a library with family: the filter button at the top of the library switches between Both Libraries, Personal Library and Shared Library, and the count follows the view. Apple’s guide to iCloud Shared Photo Library explains the views.

From a count to the space it takes

The count says nothing about size, because a 48 MP photo takes ten times the space of a screenshot and a minute of 4K video takes as much as 60 photos. For the space, open Settings > General > iPhone Storage and look at the Photos row, which shows what the library uses on this iPhone. Divide it by the Items count for your average size per item, then use that average to work out how much more fits: our guide to how many photos a 128 GB iPhone holds walks through the math and the settings that change it. If that screen says the iPhone is almost full, start with iPhone storage full.

The count in PrunePic, and how to make it go down

PrunePic keeps the same numbers one tap away. Tap the person button at the top left of the feed to open Overview: Your Camera Roll shows live counts for All Items, Photos, Screenshots and Videos, with a one-line tip on where to start. See Full Breakdown adds the other types your library contains, such as Live Photos, Selfies, Screen Recordings and Bursts.

These are counts, not sizes, like the ones in Photos. The difference is what comes next: pick a cleaning mode for the type you want to shrink, then swipe left to send a photo to the PrunePic Trash, up to keep it, right to add it to Favorites or an album. Everything you swipe away waits in the trash until you empty it, and the cleanup insights total what you deleted and the space it took. Your photos never leave your device.

Common mistakes

• Adding the Media Types rows together. A screen recording is also one of the videos. Use the library total.
• Looking for the count in iPhone Storage. That screen shows the space Photos uses, never the number of items; the counts in Settings are in General › About.
• Counting Recently Deleted as gone. Deleted items leave the count right away but keep their space for 30 days.
• Comparing the iPhone and the Mac before syncing finishes. With iCloud Photos on, both show the same library, but only once the upload is complete.

The bottom line

The total is under the Library title in Photos, photos and videos together; Settings › General › About counts the two apart, the iCloud screens in Settings count the synced library, Media Types splits it by kind and the Months view spreads it over time. The number leaves out hidden and deleted items and counts your iCloud library whether or not the originals are on the phone. To turn it into gigabytes, look at the Photos row in iPhone Storage, and if the total is bigger than you would like, our guide to cleaning up the camera roll is the place to start.