Convert HEIC/HEIF photos from iPhone to JPG or PNG free. 100% browser-based, no upload, batch supported. Open Apple photos on Windows and Android.
Apple iPhones and iPads save photos as HEIC (High Efficiency Image Container) by default. While HEIC offers smaller file sizes, Windows, Android, and most web platforms still cannot open these files natively. This free tool converts HEIC/HEIF photos to JPG or PNG instantly — directly in your browser, with no uploads.
This tool uses a WebAssembly-compiled HEIC decoder (libheif) bundled with your browser session. Your file is parsed, the raw pixel data is extracted, then re-encoded into JPG or PNG using the standard HTML5 Canvas API. The result is downloaded locally — nothing is uploaded, stored, or logged.
Your photos stay on your device. Convert vacation photos, screenshots, or sensitive images safely. Pair with the Image Compressor, the Image Resizer, or the EXIF Viewer.
HEIC is a container (HEIF) holding images compressed with HEVC, the same codec family used for 4K video. Compared with JPG, which dates from 1992, it predicts blocks of pixels far more intelligently, so a photo of comparable visual quality lands at roughly half the size. On a 128 GB phone that difference is thousands of extra photos, which is why Apple made it the default for every device from the iPhone 7 onward. HEIC also stores things JPG cannot: 10-bit colour depth, depth maps for Portrait mode, image sequences for Live Photos, and multiple exposures in a single file.
The cost of that efficiency is compatibility. HEVC is patent-encumbered, so Windows ships it as a paid add-on and many websites, printers and older editors never implemented it. Converting to JPG trades some file-size efficiency for the ability to open the photo literally anywhere.
If HEIC is a recurring problem for you, change the source instead of converting forever. On iPhone, open Settings, then Camera, then Formats, and choose Most Compatible — new photos are saved as JPG while existing ones stay HEIC. Separately, under Settings, Photos, scroll to Transfer to Mac or PC and pick Automatic, which converts on export to a computer. Keep in mind that Most Compatible disables some capture modes that need HEIF, and roughly doubles the storage each photo consumes.
WhatsApp, Instagram and most messengers already convert on upload, which is why photos shared through chat open fine but the same file pulled off the phone by cable does not.
Quality in JPG is a single dial with non-linear behaviour. Between 100 and 95 the file often halves with no perceptible change. Between 95 and 85 the size falls again and only fine texture — hair, foliage, film grain — softens slightly. Below about 75 you start seeing blocking around high-contrast edges, and text inside photos (a whiteboard, a receipt, a document snapshot) degrades earliest because JPG handles hard edges poorly. Practical guidance: 95 for photos you may print or archive, 85 for sharing and web use, PNG if the image is a screenshot or contains text you must keep crisp.
When converting dozens of files, keep the HEIC originals in a separate folder until you have verified the JPGs open and look right. The converted copies are new files, so nothing overwrites the source — but if you later delete the HEIC set, the depth and HDR information is gone permanently. For long-term archiving, keeping the HEIC master plus a JPG working copy uses less space than you might expect, because HEIC is the smaller of the two.
Photos carry EXIF metadata that frequently includes GPS coordinates accurate to a few metres, the exact capture timestamp, and the device serial-adjacent identifiers. Uploading family photos to an unknown converter hands over your home location alongside the image. Because decoding here happens in your own browser through a WebAssembly build of libheif, nothing is transmitted. If you want to inspect or strip what a photo reveals before sharing it publicly, run it through the EXIF Viewer first.
Is HEIF the same as HEIC? HEIF is the container standard; .heic is Apple's file extension for HEIF images encoded with HEVC. Both are handled here.
Will the JPG be larger than the HEIC? Usually yes, by roughly 1.5x to 2x at high quality. That is the expected trade for universal compatibility.
Can I convert back to HEIC? Not usefully. Re-encoding a lossy JPG into HEVC adds a second generation of loss without recovering the depth data. Treat the HEIC as the master.
HEIC (High Efficiency Image Container) is Apple's default photo format on iPhone and iPad since iOS 11. It produces ~50% smaller files than JPG at similar quality but isn't supported by Windows, most web browsers, or older apps — which is why conversion is so common.
No. Decoding and re-encoding happens entirely inside your browser using a WebAssembly decoder. Your photos never leave your device.
Yes. Drop as many HEIC files as you like — each one is converted and listed individually for download.
Basic EXIF metadata such as orientation is handled, but extended GPS/EXIF fields may not survive the conversion. For metadata-critical workflows use a desktop tool.
Only the still image frame is extracted — the embedded short MOV video is not included.
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