Convert HEIC to JPG
Drop your iPhone photo and download it as JPG, ready to open anywhere.
Drop an image here
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PNG, JPG, WEBP, HEIC, AVIF, JXL, GIF, BMP, TIFF and SVG · up to 20 MB
Why your iPhone saves HEIC, and what you gain by moving to JPG
Since iOS 11, an iPhone saves its photos as HEIC rather than JPG. The reason is a good one: at the same apparent quality a HEIC takes about half the space, which adds up to several gigabytes across a full camera roll. The trouble starts the moment you leave Apple's world. You send the photo to someone on Windows, upload it to an older platform, or attach it to a form, and nothing shows up on the other side.
JPG isn't better than HEIC: it's the one everybody can open. That's the whole reason for this conversion. HEIC compresses better, but it needs a codec Windows doesn't ship with, that many document systems lack, and that some editing software still ignores. JPG has spent three decades as the lowest common denominator of digital photography.
What changes in the file
Converting decodes the HEIC and re-encodes it as JPG, so there is a recompression. At the default quality it's invisible to the eye, but it's worth knowing what to expect:
- The file grows, usually to two or three times the size. That's the price of an older codec.
- Transparency is lost, if there was any. JPG has no alpha channel. On a camera photo that's irrelevant because nothing is transparent; on a cropped screenshot it matters, and PNG is the better choice there.
- EXIF metadata is kept: date, camera model, and location if the photo carried it.
- A HEIC holding several images — a burst, or the still half of a Live Photo — contributes its primary image, the one you'd see on opening it.
When not to convert to JPG
If the photo is headed for a website, WEBP or AVIF are better destinations: smaller than a JPG of equivalent quality, and supported by every current browser. And if you're about to edit it seriously, any lossy conversion is a poor starting point: work from the original where you can, and keep intermediate steps as PNG.
To send it to someone, print it, or upload it somewhere that accepts nothing unusual, JPG is exactly what you want.
Common questions
- Why won't my HEIC open on Windows?
- Because HEIC needs a codec Windows doesn't ship with. You can buy it from the Microsoft Store, or convert the photo to JPG, which opens on any machine from the last thirty years with nothing installed.
- Do I lose quality converting HEIC to JPG?
- A little, yes. Both formats compress lossily, so converting means decoding the image and re-encoding it with a different codec. At the default quality (85) you won't see the difference by looking at the photo; what you will notice is the file being roughly twice the size.
- Can I stop my iPhone from saving HEIC in the first place?
- Yes. In Settings › Camera › Formats, pick "Most Compatible" and new photos will be saved as JPG. The ones you already have stay HEIC.
- Are the date and location kept?
- EXIF metadata survives the conversion, including date, camera and coordinates if the photo carried them. If you're publishing the image and would rather not share where it was taken, strip them with another tool first.
- What about Live Photos?
- The photograph is converted, not the video clip attached to it. A Live Photo is really two files, and what's processed here is the still image.