HEIC to JPG Converter
You sent a photo from your iPhone, your friend opened it on Windows, and got nothing. The photo was saved as HEIC, which is Apple's preferred format and almost nobody else's. Drop your HEIC files in below and get JPGs back. Files never leave your browser.
Explain like I'm 5 (what is this even doing?)
iPhones save photos in a clever, space-saving format called HEIC. Most non-Apple things (Windows, Outlook, Slack, half the websites your nan uses) cannot read HEIC. This page takes the HEIC, rebuilds the picture in your browser, and saves it back out as a JPG that everything understands. The original is untouched and the new file stays on your device.
Convert
Converted files
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HEIC files are decoded by the heic2any JavaScript library, then re-encoded by the browser's HTMLCanvasElement.toBlob API at the chosen quality. JPEG quality is a 0 to 1 fraction (slider value ÷ 100). PNG is lossless, so quality is ignored. Resize uses contain-fit: the output keeps the original aspect ratio inside the supplied max width or max height. Size reduction = (1 − new size ÷ original size) × 100, expressed as a percentage.
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Why your iPhone saves HEIC in the first place
Apple switched the default camera format from JPG to HEIC in iOS 11, back in 2017. HEIC (which is HEIF wrapped around HEVC compression, in case anyone asks) gives you roughly the same image quality as a JPG at about half the file size. On a 256 GB phone full of holiday photos and short videos, that adds up. Inside the Apple ecosystem it is fine: Photos, Mail, AirDrop and Messages all handle HEIC without flinching.
The problem starts the minute you send the photo somewhere else. Outlook, Slack, most CMS upload boxes, plenty of older Android phones, anything running Windows 10 without the optional codec, every printing kiosk in the country: all of them either reject the file outright or show a sad little broken thumbnail. So you go and Google "convert HEIC to JPG", end up on a sketchy website, upload your kids to a server you have never heard of, and pray.
Stop your iPhone saving HEIC in the first place (the iPhone Settings shortcut)
If this happens to you a lot, you can just turn it off. Open Settings on your iPhone, tap Camera, then Formats, then pick Most Compatible. From the next photo onwards your phone will save JPGs and standard MP4 videos. New photos will be slightly larger on disk but they will open everywhere without ceremony.
This costs us a future visit to this page, which is fine. Trust banks better than traffic does.
Privacy: files never leave your browser
This is the bit that matters. Every other "free HEIC converter" you find online uploads your photos to their server, runs the conversion there, and hands the result back. Sometimes that is genuinely fine. Sometimes the photo is a passport, a child's face, or a confidential product shot, and "fine" is doing a lot of work. The honest default is to never send the file in the first place.
This converter does the whole job in the tab you are looking at. The HEIC decoder is a JavaScript library that runs locally; the re-encode happens on an HTML canvas in your browser. You can open the developer tools, click Network, and watch nothing happen when you press convert. Disconnect your Wi-Fi after the page loads and it still works.
Bulk conversion (200 holiday photos, no faff)
Drop the whole folder in. The converter works through them one at a time and lists the results as they are ready, with original and new file sizes side by side and an individual download link for each. On a modern laptop, a couple of hundred 12-megapixel HEICs takes a couple of minutes. On a phone, it is slower but it still works; close other browser tabs first if your device is older.
If you do this regularly, the simpler long-term fix is to switch your iPhone to Most Compatible (above) and forget HEIC ever existed.
What this tool does not do
- It does not extract the Live Photo motion. The still frame is the bit you get. If you drop the companion .mov in, it is ignored.
- It does not do OCR or read text from your photos.
- It does not recognise faces or tag people.
- It does not strip or rewrite EXIF metadata, beyond honouring the orientation flag so your portraits do not end up on their side.
- It does not handle HEIC video (.heif sequences are uncommon outside Apple, but if you find one, treat it as a video and convert it with a video tool).
JPG, PNG or WebP: what to pick
JPG is the right answer 95% of the time. It is the format every email client, every CMS, every printing service and every distant relative's laptop can open. The default quality of 92 is high enough that you will not see compression artefacts in normal viewing.
PNG is lossless. The pixel values you see in the canvas are the pixel values you save. Useful if you are going to edit the photo further and do not want to re-compress it twice. Files are noticeably bigger than JPG.
WebP gives you JPG-like quality at smaller sizes and is supported by every current browser. It is a great choice for the web, slightly less universal in email and older office software.
Related calculators
While we are sorting out images.
Frequently asked questions
How do I convert HEIC to JPG?
Drag your HEIC files onto the box above, or tap it and pick them from your phone or laptop. The converter decodes each file, re-encodes as JPG, and offers a download link per file. There is no upload step.
Why are my iPhone photos saving as HEIC?
Apple made HEIC the default in iOS 11 because it is roughly half the size of JPG at similar quality. The trade-off is compatibility: most non-Apple software cannot read it without help.
Can I open HEIC files on Windows directly?
Windows 11 can, after you install the HEIF Image Extensions and HEVC Video Extensions from the Microsoft Store. The HEVC one is a small paid download. Most third-party apps on Windows still cannot read HEIC, so converting to JPG is usually the simpler answer.
Does this upload my photos anywhere?
No. Files never leave your browser. Decoding and re-encoding happen on your device. You can prove it by opening the browser's network tab and watching nothing happen.
What is the difference between HEIC and HEIF?
HEIF is the container; HEIC is HEIF with HEVC-encoded images inside it, which is what Apple uses. In practice they are interchangeable, and both extensions are accepted here.
How do I stop my iPhone saving photos as HEIC?
Settings, then Camera, then Formats, then Most Compatible. From that point on, your iPhone saves JPGs and standard MP4 videos. Existing HEIC photos stay HEIC; only new ones change.
Are EXIF orientation and rotation respected?
Yes. The converter reads the EXIF orientation flag and applies it before re-encoding, so portraits stay portraits and a photo taken on its side comes out the right way up.