HEIC & HEIF to JPG Converter

This conversion goes from one lossy format to another, so a second round of compression is applied to an image that has already been compressed once. The default quality of 90 is set deliberately high, because the point of this conversion is compatibility rather than saving space.

• 95–100 — Visually identical to the HEIC. Files get large. Worth it if the photo will be edited or printed.
• 85–94 — The default range. Preserves the photo faithfully for viewing, sharing and uploading.
• 70–84 — Noticeably smaller. Fine for the web; you are now stacking two rounds of visible compression.
• Below 70 — Artefacts from both formats compound. Avoid unless a size limit forces it.

Expect the JPG to be larger — often about twice the size. That is not a fault. HEIC's whole purpose is better compression, so storing the same photo as JPG genuinely needs more space. You are paying in megabytes for universal compatibility.

Two things do not survive the conversion, and it is better to know now:

• Live Photos become a single still frame. HEIC can hold an image sequence; JPG holds one picture. The motion and sound are not in the JPG.
• Depth and portrait data is dropped. The blurred background stays as it was rendered, but the depth map that let you re-edit it afterwards is gone.

Your originals on your phone are untouched, so nothing is lost permanently.

HEIC or HEIF: what is the difference?

The two names cause a lot of confusion, and they usually describe the same photo.

• HEIF — High Efficiency Image File Format — is the container: an international standard from the MPEG group describing how image data, thumbnails, depth maps and image sequences are packaged into one file.
• HEIC is HEIF holding images compressed with HEVC, the H.265 video codec. It is the label Apple uses, which is why iPhone photos end in .heic.

So an HEVC photo inside a HEIF container can reasonably be called either, and some devices and programs save exactly that kind of photo with a .heif extension instead. For conversion purposes they are the same: we tested a .heic photo and the same image packaged as a generic .heif file, and both produced byte-for-byte identical JPGs.

One relative uses the HEIF container with a different codec entirely: AVIF, which holds AV1-compressed images. It is a separate format with its own converter — AVIF to JPG.

Stopping your iPhone making HEIC in the first place

If you convert these regularly, it is usually easier to change the setting:

Settings → Camera → Formats → Most Compatible.

Your phone will then shoot JPG directly. You lose the storage saving and the higher colour depth, and photos already taken stay as HEIC — but new ones will just work.

There is a second setting worth knowing about, because it causes a confusing situation: Settings → Photos → Transfer to Mac or PC → Automatic converts HEIC to JPG as photos are copied off the phone. Set to "Keep Originals" it transfers the HEIC untouched. If some of your photos arrive as JPG and others as HEIC, this setting is usually why.

When to choose a different target

• Editing the photo afterwards — convert to PNG instead. It is lossless, so repeated saves cost nothing, at the price of a much larger file.
• Publishing to a website — WebP is the better target. It keeps far more of HEIC's efficiency than JPG does, and every current browser displays it.
• Sending to someone, printing, or uploading to a form — JPG, without hesitation. Compatibility is the whole point.

Location data

Photos from a phone usually carry GPS coordinates recording exactly where they were taken — frequently someone's home. That metadata is stripped during conversion, so the JPG you download does not carry your location into whatever you post it to.

If you specifically want to keep the EXIF data, this is not the right tool.

Converting a lot of photos

Add as many files as you like; each is converted separately with its own download. Because this runs on a shared server rather than your device, the endpoint is rate limited, so a very large batch is better done in groups. If you have hundreds to convert, changing the camera format setting above will save you more time than any converter.