How to use it
- Drop your HEIC files into the box, or click it to pick them. On a phone, this opens your photo library.
- Leave the quality at 90% unless you need smaller files. The first photo can take a few seconds while the decoder loads.
- Download each JPG, or use Download all to get a zip.
Why iPhones save HEIC in the first place
Since iOS 11, iPhones have saved photos in HEIC by default. It is a container format (HEIF) holding an image compressed with HEVC, the same codec used for a lot of modern video. The practical upshot is that a HEIC photo is usually around half the size of a JPG of the same visual quality, which matters when a phone is taking thousands of 12 and 48 megapixel photos a year.
The catch is support. Apple devices read HEIC without fuss, and recent Safari can show it in a web page, but plenty of software still cannot: many upload forms, older photo printers, a lot of Windows setups, and some Android gallery apps. JPG is the format everything agrees on.
What changes when you convert
JPG is also a lossy format, so converting is a re-compression. At 90% quality the difference is very hard to see, but the file will be larger than the HEIC you started with, often by 1.5 to 2 times. That is normal and not a sign that anything went wrong.
Two things from the original are not carried across. Live Photo motion is stored separately and is dropped. Photos taken in HDR mode will look like a normal, well-exposed photo rather than the brighter HDR version your iPhone shows, because JPG has no standard way to hold that extra brightness range. Rotation is applied to the pixels, so a portrait photo stays portrait.
Stop the problem at the source
If you are constantly converting, you can change the iPhone setting instead: Settings → Camera → Formats → Most Compatible makes the camera save JPG. You give up some storage, and a few camera modes, such as 48 MP HEIF Max and some high frame rate video options, only work with High Efficiency switched on. Another option is Settings → Photos → Transfer to Mac or PC → Automatic, which converts photos to JPG when you copy them to a computer by cable.
Converting a whole camera roll? Do it in batches of 50 to 100. Decoding HEIC is heavy work, and phones in particular can run short of memory with hundreds of files open at once.
HEIC and JPG compared
| HEIC | JPG | |
|---|---|---|
| First released | 2015 | 1992 |
| Compression | Lossy | Lossy |
| Transparency | Possible, rarely used | No |
| Animation or pages | Bursts and Live Photos | No |
| Best for | Storing photos on phones | Photos for sharing, email and print |
| Support | Apple devices; patchy elsewhere | Universal |
Questions people ask
Does converting HEIC to JPG lose quality?
A little, because JPG compresses the image again. At 90% quality the change is not visible in normal viewing. If you need the image to stay exactly as captured, convert to PNG instead, which is lossless but much larger.
Why is the JPG bigger than my HEIC file?
HEIC uses a newer, more efficient codec. The same picture needs more bytes as a JPG. A 2 MB HEIC turning into a 3 to 4 MB JPG is typical.
Is the date and camera information kept?
No. The image is redrawn, so the new JPG does not carry the original EXIF data, which also removes any GPS location. If you want to see what was in the original first, open it in the EXIF viewer.
Can I convert HEIC on Windows without installing anything?
Yes. This page does the decoding in your browser, so you do not need the HEIF and HEVC extensions from the Microsoft Store.