HEIC to JPG

How to convert HEIC to JPG

1. Drop your HEIC or HEIF photos on the drop zone, or click it to choose them. You can select a whole batch from your photo library at once.
2. Under Convert to, keep JPG for the smallest files and the widest compatibility, or pick PNG for a lossless copy.
3. For JPG, set the JPG quality slider. The default of 92 % keeps practically all the detail of the original.
4. Click Convert to JPG. The first time, the HEIC decoder (about 1.3 MB) is loaded; after that, conversion starts immediately.
5. Each photo gets a row with a preview, its dimensions, the size before and after, and a Download button. Download all saves every converted photo.

What is a HEIC file?

HEIC is the file format iPhones and iPads use for photos by default since iOS 11. It is Apple’s name for images stored in the HEIF container (High Efficiency Image File Format) and compressed with HEVC, the H.265 video codec. The result is roughly half the size of a JPG of similar quality, which is why Apple chose it: twice as many photos fit on the phone.

The drawback is compatibility. Windows needs an extra codec to open HEIC files, many websites and online forms refuse them, and most browsers other than Safari can’t display them. Converting to JPG gives you a file that opens everywhere: email, Windows, Android, printers, social networks and administrative portals.

Other devices also produce HEIF files, including some Samsung, Google and Canon models; this tool reads them as well. It recognizes a HEIC file by its content (the brands in its “ftyp” header), not only by its extension, and refuses AVIF files, which use the same container with a different codec.

How the conversion works

This tool decodes the photo with libheif, the open-source HEIF library, compiled to run in your browser. It runs in a separate background worker so the page stays responsive, even with a batch of 12-megapixel photos. In Safari, which reads HEIC natively, the browser’s own decoder is used instead, which is faster.

The decoded pixels are then encoded as JPG or PNG. Photos are processed one at a time to limit memory use; expect a second or two per photo on a recent computer, more on a phone. When a HEIF file contains several images, such as an image sequence, only the first one is converted.

Privacy and metadata

Your photos never leave your device: decoding and encoding happen entirely in your browser, and nothing is uploaded. Because the JPG is built from the decoded pixels, it does not contain the original EXIF metadata. That removes the GPS location, which is good for privacy when you share photos, but also the date taken and camera details. Keep the HEIC originals if you need that information for sorting your library.