Convert HEIC to JPG
Free, private and fast: everything runs in your browser and your HEIC files are never uploaded.
HEIC to JPG: why convert
iPhones and iPads save photos as HEIC by default because it stores the same picture in a noticeably smaller file than JPG, which saves space on the phone and in iCloud. The catch is that many places still do not open HEIC: Windows PCs without the right codec, older photo editors, printing kiosks, and countless website upload forms that ask for a JPG. This converter turns your HEIC photos into ordinary JPG files that open everywhere. Add one photo or a whole batch; several photos are delivered together in a zip. Each photo is turned the right way up, and you choose the JPG quality. The decoding happens inside your browser with libheif, an open source HEIF library compiled to WebAssembly, so your personal photos never leave your device.
How to convert HEIC to JPG
- Drop your .heic photos in the box, or click to choose them. You can add more at any time.
- Pick a JPG quality, or keep the recommended 90 %.
- Click Convert to JPG and download the photo, or a zip with all of them.
What changes when you convert
Photos stay upright
When you hold an iPhone upright, the camera still records the picture sideways and stores a rotation instruction in the HEIC file. Converters that ignore it give you portrait photos lying on their side. This one applies the rotation while decoding, so the pixels in the JPG are already upright and look right in every program.
Live Photos keep only the still image
A Live Photo is two files: the HEIC still picture and a short .MOV video with the motion and sound. Only the HEIC is converted here, so the JPG is the still frame you see in the Photos app. The video part is not inside the HEIC file and is left out.
HDR and colours
Newer iPhones add an HDR gain map to the HEIC, which makes highlights glow on HDR screens. A JPG made here cannot carry that, so you get the standard version of the photo. iPhones also record in the wide Display P3 colour range; the JPG uses standard colour, so very saturated reds, oranges and greens can look slightly less vivid than on the iPhone screen.
Date, place and camera details are not copied
The JPG contains the picture only. The date taken, the GPS location and the camera settings stored in the HEIC are not carried over. That is handy when you share photos with strangers, but photo apps that sort by date taken will fall back to the file date. Keep the HEIC originals if those details matter to you.
Expect a larger file
JPG compression is older and less efficient than the HEVC compression inside HEIC, so the JPG is usually bigger than the photo you started with. 90 % quality looks the same as the original to most eyes; choose 70 % or 80 % when you need smaller files for email or a web form.
Very large photos on a phone
48-megapixel photos (the HEIF Max setting on recent iPhones) need a lot of memory to convert. A computer handles them easily, but the browser on a phone or tablet may refuse. If a photo fails, convert it on a computer.
About the formats
HEIC
HEIC is the photo format iPhones and iPads have used by default since iOS 11 in 2017. It is a HEIF file (High Efficiency Image File Format, an MPEG standard) with the picture compressed by HEVC, the H.265 video codec, which makes files considerably smaller than a JPG of similar quality.
- Opens on iPhone, iPad and Mac; many Windows PCs, web upload forms and older apps cannot read it without a converter or extra codec.
- Stores 8-bit or 10-bit colour; iPhones use the wide Display P3 colour range.
- One file can hold several images: the photo, a thumbnail, and on newer iPhones a depth map (Portrait mode) and an HDR gain map.
- Rotation is stored as a transform in the file, separate from the pixels.
JPG
JPG (or JPEG) is the most widely used image format for photos, supported by every camera, phone, browser and image editor. It uses lossy compression, which keeps files small at a small cost in quality.
- Best for photos; text and sharp lines can get blurry edges.
- No transparency: transparent areas become a solid colour.
- The quality setting trades file size against detail.
Frequently asked questions
Are my photos uploaded?
No. The photos are decoded and saved as JPG by your own browser. Nothing is sent to a server, so it is safe for photos of family, documents and ID cards.
Can I convert many HEIC photos at once?
Yes. Select or drop as many as you like; they are converted one after another and downloaded together as a zip, with each JPG named after its original photo, for example IMG_1234.jpg.
How do I make my iPhone take JPG photos instead?
Open Settings, Camera, Formats, and choose Most Compatible. New photos are then saved as JPG and videos as H.264, at the cost of larger files. Existing photos stay HEIC. If you copy photos to a Windows PC with a cable, the setting Photos, Transfer to Mac or PC, Automatic makes the iPhone hand them over as JPG.
Why does Windows not open HEIC files?
HEIC pictures are compressed with HEVC, a codec covered by patents, and Windows does not include it on every PC. Microsoft offers HEIF and HEVC extensions in its Store, but converting to JPG is often simpler when the photos are going to someone else.
Is the decoder downloaded every time?
The HEIC decoder, about 1 MB, loads only when you choose a HEIC file, and your browser keeps it in its cache for next time. Safari on recent Apple devices can usually read HEIC by itself, and then the decoder is not needed at all.