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HEIC to JPG Converter

Turn iPhone HEIC photos into JPG or PNG files right in your browser, many at a time.

Settings

How to use

  1. Drop your HEIC photos onto the box, or press "Choose HEIC files" and pick one or more images.
  2. Choose JPG for the smallest files or PNG for lossless output, and set the JPG quality (90% is the default).
  3. Wait a moment the first time while the converter loads; each photo then shows its new size when it is ready.
  4. Download photos one by one, or press "Download all (ZIP)" to save every converted photo in one archive.

What is a HEIC file?

HEIC is the file format iPhones and iPads have used for photos since iOS 11. It stands for High Efficiency Image Container and is Apple’s flavor of HEIF, a standard that stores pictures compressed with the same technology used for HEVC (H.265) video. The result is a photo that looks the same as a JPG while taking roughly half the storage space, which adds up quickly on a phone with thousands of pictures.

The downside is compatibility. Many Windows programs, older photo editors, online stores, government upload forms and most web browsers cannot open HEIC files. Chrome, Edge and Firefox on a desktop will usually just show a broken image or refuse the upload. JPG, on the other hand, opens everywhere, which is why converting is often the quickest fix.

How this converter works

When you add the first photo, your browser downloads a decoder: libheif, a widely used open-source HEIF library, compiled to WebAssembly and packaged by the open-source project heic-to under the LGPL-3.0 license. The decoder runs in a background worker, turns the HEIC data back into plain pixels and hands them to the browser, which saves them as a JPG at the quality you chose, or as a PNG.

Photos are converted one at a time so that the page stays responsive even with a large batch. If you change the output format or quality, the list is converted again with the new setting. Your original files are never changed; you always download new copies with the same name (numbered if two share one) and a .jpg or .png extension.

Metadata is not kept

The converted file contains the image and nothing else. The EXIF metadata — date taken, camera settings and, most importantly, the GPS location where the photo was shot — is left behind. That is usually what you want before posting a picture publicly. If you need to keep the original capture date for sorting, keep the HEIC files as well, or export photos from the Photos app with metadata instead.

When you don’t need to convert

Safari on Mac, iPhone and iPad opens HEIC files natively, and so do the Photos app on macOS and recent versions of Windows with the HEIF and HEVC extensions from the Microsoft Store. When you attach a photo in Mail or share it to many apps from an iPhone, iOS often converts it to JPG for you. On a Windows PC without those extensions, this page converts HEIC to JPG in Chrome, Edge or Firefox with nothing to install. Converting by hand is most useful when you have a folder of HEIC files on a computer, for example after copying them over a USB cable or downloading them from cloud storage.

Tips for large batches

At the default quality, each HEIC photo becomes a JPG of a few megabytes (more for 24 MP and 48 MP photos). Converting dozens of photos needs a fair amount of memory, so on an older phone it can help to convert in groups of 20 to 30. If the JPG files are still too large for an email or upload limit, run them through the image compressor afterward to reduce the dimensions as well.

Frequently asked questions

Why is the JPG bigger than the HEIC file?

HEIC compresses photos much more efficiently than JPG, so the same picture usually takes more space as a JPG, especially at high quality. That is normal. If the files are too large, lower the quality to 80% or reduce the dimensions with the image compressor.

Why does the first conversion take longer?

HEIC decoding needs a fairly large component (about 3 MB, under 1 MB to download) that is only fetched when you add your first photo. After that it stays loaded, and later photos convert right away.

Which JPG quality should I choose?

90% is close to indistinguishable from the original and still much smaller than PNG. Use 80% when file size matters more, for example for email or upload forms with a size limit.

Should I convert to JPG or PNG?

JPG is the right choice for photos almost every time. PNG keeps every pixel exactly but makes photo files several times larger, so pick it only if you need lossless copies for further editing.

Can I stop my iPhone from taking HEIC photos?

Yes. In Settings, open Camera, then Formats, and choose "Most Compatible". New photos are saved as JPG. When sharing, iOS often converts HEIC to JPG automatically as well.

What about Live Photos and burst shots?

The still image of a Live Photo is converted; the short video part is a separate file and is ignored. HEIC files that hold several images, such as bursts, produce a single JPG.

Which software does the conversion?

Decoding is done by libheif, an open-source HEIF library, through the open-source heic-to package (LGPL-3.0). Source code is available at https://github.com/hoppergee/heic-to.

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