diff --git a/app/routes.py b/app/routes.py
index 5e053b4..7a75378 100644
--- a/app/routes.py
+++ b/app/routes.py
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 import csv
 from io import StringIO
+import io
 from flask import Blueprint, render_template, redirect, request, send_file, url_for, flash
 from werkzeug.security import generate_password_hash, check_password_hash
 from app.models import Profile, Reading, db, User
@@ -7,6 +8,7 @@ from app.forms import DeleteForm, LoginForm, ProfileForm, ReadingForm, SignupFor
 from flask_login import login_user, login_required, current_user, logout_user
 import base64
 from datetime import datetime, timedelta
+from PIL import Image
 
 main = Blueprint('main', __name__)
 auth = Blueprint('auth', __name__)
@@ -206,7 +208,23 @@ def profile():
         # Handle profile picture upload
         if form.profile_pic.data:
             file_data = form.profile_pic.data.read()
-            profile.profile_pic = base64.b64encode(file_data).decode('utf-8')
+
+            # Resize and compress the image
+            try:
+                image = Image.open(io.BytesIO(file_data))
+                image = image.convert("RGB")  # Ensure it's in RGB format
+                image.thumbnail((300, 300))  # Resize to a maximum of 300x300 pixels
+
+                # Save the resized image to a buffer
+                buffer = io.BytesIO()
+                image.save(buffer, format="JPEG", quality=80)  # Compress with quality=80
+                buffer.seek(0)
+
+                # Encode the compressed image as base64
+                profile.profile_pic = base64.b64encode(buffer.read()).decode('utf-8')
+            except Exception as e:
+                flash(f"Error processing profile picture: {e}", 'danger')
+
 
         db.session.add(profile)
         db.session.commit()
diff --git a/requirements.txt b/requirements.txt
index c0d390b..8a4c275 100644
--- a/requirements.txt
+++ b/requirements.txt
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ itsdangerous==2.2.0
 jinja2==3.1.5
 Mako==1.3.8
 MarkupSafe==3.0.2
+pillow==11.0.0
 psycopg2==2.9.10
 psycopg2-binary==2.9.10
 SQLAlchemy==2.0.36
@@ -25,4 +26,3 @@ typing-extensions==4.12.2
 werkzeug==3.1.3
 wtforms==3.2.1
 zipp==3.21.0
-gunicorn==20.1.0