Skip to content
ImageConverter

Secure server conversion

JPG to BMP Converter

Convert a JPG into a Windows BMP bitmap. It is worth being clear about what this does: a BMP does not undo JPEG compression — it freezes it. Every artefact your JPG has becomes an exact, permanent pixel, in a file about seven and a half times larger. The reason to do it is software that needs BMP, not better quality.

Deleted automatically Uploads removed within 30 minutes

Drag and drop your JPG images here

Add several at once. Each file is processed and then deleted from our server.

Up to 20 MB per file Batch ready

Step by step

How to convert JPG to BMP in 3 steps

  1. Add your JPG

  2. Nothing to configure — BMP has no quality setting

  3. Download your BMP

Format comparison

JPG vs BMP

JPG / JPEG (Joint Photographic Experts Group)

Lossy

Shrinks photographs to a fraction of their size by discarding fine detail the eye is least likely to notice.

  • Small files for photographs
  • Opens on virtually every device, browser and app
  • Blurs text and sharp edges, and re-saving loses a little more each time

BMP (Windows Bitmap)

Uncompressed

An early Windows format that stores pixels more or less raw, with little or no compression.

  • Read by old and embedded software that knows nothing newer
  • No compression artefacts
  • Very large files for the image size

Why a bigger file is not a better image

This is the misunderstanding behind most JPG-to-BMP conversions, so it is worth spelling out.

When a photo was saved as JPG, the encoder decided which detail the eye would not miss and threw it away. That decision was final. The faint blockiness in skies, the smudging beside sharp edges, the loss of fine texture — none of it is stored anywhere waiting to be recovered.

A BMP is uncompressed: it records three bytes for every pixel, exactly. Converting stores every pixel of the JPEG as the JPEG left it, artefacts included, with perfect accuracy. The image does not get better. It gets preserved precisely as it already is, in a much larger container.

Measured: a 48 KB photo became a 360 KB BMP, with no visible difference whatsoever.

What BMP genuinely does offer

Something real, if narrow: no further loss. A JPEG that is opened, edited and saved again loses a little more each time. A BMP can be edited and saved repeatedly with nothing lost. If an image is going to be worked on many times before it is finished, converting once and working in a lossless format is sound practice — though PNG does the same job at a fraction of the size.

How big it gets

A BMP's size depends on its dimensions and nothing else: width × height × 3 bytes. That makes large photographs very large:

  • 1920 × 1080 (a typical screenshot or video frame) — about 6.2 MB.
  • 4032 × 3024 (a 12-megapixel phone photo) — about 36.6 MB.

The JPEG of that phone photo is typically 2–4 MB. Check any size limits on the software you are converting for before converting a batch.

Portrait photos stay upright

Phones usually store a portrait photo sideways, with a note telling viewers to rotate it. A BMP has nowhere to keep that note, so if it were simply carried across, the bitmap would open sideways. The rotation is applied to the pixels before saving, so the BMP is the right way up in any software.

Quality

Quality and file size

There is no quality setting. BMP is uncompressed, so the output is an exact record of the decoded JPEG — no better and no worse.

When BMP is genuinely needed

  • Legacy Windows software that reads bitmaps and nothing else.
  • Embedded and industrial displays — signage controllers, machine panels — that avoid implementing a JPEG decoder.
  • Old game engines and modding tools expecting bitmap textures.
  • Some scientific, lab and medical software that processes raw pixel data.
  • Printer and plotter utilities of a certain age.

Before converting a lot of photos

Because of the 7.5× growth, a folder of 500 phone photos can turn from a few gigabytes into roughly 18 GB of bitmaps. If the target software supports any compressed format — even PNG — use that instead.

Metadata is not carried

JPEG photos carry EXIF data: camera, settings, date and often GPS location. A BMP has no standard place for any of it, so the bitmap contains only the image. If you need the metadata, keep the original JPG alongside.

If the goal is quality, the answer is the original

People often convert to BMP because they have been told "bitmaps are higher quality" or "JPEG is lossy, BMP is not". Both statements are true and neither helps once a photo is already a JPEG.

What does help:

  • The camera's original file — ideally a RAW, or the highest-quality JPEG the camera produced.
  • A re-export from the original in whatever application created the image, straight to BMP or PNG.
  • Keeping future edits lossless — which is the one genuine benefit, and PNG provides it much more efficiently.

BMP versus PNG

Both are lossless. PNG compresses without discarding anything; BMP does not compress at all. How much PNG saves depends on the image: photographs have little exact repetition for it to exploit, so a photo PNG measured only about 17% smaller than its BMP, while a simple graphic can be hundreds of times smaller. PNG also supports transparency and metadata, which BMP does not.

Choose BMP only when something specifically requires it. For every other lossless purpose, JPG to PNG is the better conversion.

Going the other way

BMP to JPG shrinks bitmaps dramatically, and is the more common need — most BMPs people encounter are old files that are awkwardly large to share.

What happens to your file

Browsers cannot write BMP files, so this runs on our server. Your upload is deleted the moment conversion finishes, the result is deleted as you download it, and anything abandoned is swept automatically.

Privacy

What happens to your file

This tool runs on our server, so it works the same on every phone and computer. Your file is uploaded, and this is exactly what happens to it:

  • Stored outside the public web root under a random name, never under your file's name.
  • Processed, with the original upload deleted immediately — whether it succeeded or failed.
  • The result sits behind a signed link that only you receive, which stops working after 20 minutes, and the file is deleted the moment you download it.
  • Anything never collected is deleted automatically within 30 minutes.
  • The image itself is never logged or kept. If a conversion fails, we record the formats involved and the error — not the file.
  • Camera metadata, including any GPS coordinates recording where a photo was taken, is removed from the result. Only the rotation needed to show the image the right way up is kept.

Questions & answers

JPG to BMP: frequently asked questions

Will converting JPG to BMP improve the quality?

No. JPEG compression discarded detail permanently when the photo was saved. A BMP stores every pixel of the JPEG exactly as it is — artefacts included — so the image is preserved, not improved. Measured, a 48 KB photo became a 360 KB BMP with no visible difference.

Why is the BMP so much bigger?

BMP is uncompressed: three bytes for every pixel, so size depends only on dimensions. A 12-megapixel phone photo is about 36.6 MB as BMP, against a JPEG of typically 2–4 MB.

Is there any benefit to converting?

One: no further loss. A JPEG loses a little each time it is edited and re-saved; a BMP does not. PNG gives the same benefit at a fraction of the size, so choose BMP only when software requires it.

Will my portrait photo come out sideways?

No. Phones store portrait photos sideways with a note telling viewers to rotate them, and BMP has nowhere to keep that note — so the rotation is applied to the pixels before saving, and the bitmap opens the right way up in any software.

What happens to the camera information and GPS location?

It is not carried across. BMP has no standard place for EXIF data, so the bitmap contains only the image. Keep the original JPG if you need the metadata.

Should I use BMP or PNG?

PNG, unless something specifically requires BMP. Both are lossless, but PNG compresses without discarding anything — modestly for photographs, about 17% smaller measured, and enormously for graphics — and supports transparency and metadata.

Keep going

Related image tools

View all tools

BMP to JPG Converter

Convert BMP images to JPG. BMP stores images uncompressed, so the saving is usually enormous — often 95% or more.

On our server

JPG to PNG Converter

Convert JPG images to lossless PNG, free and with no sign-up. Understand when converting helps, and when it just makes a bigger file.

On our server

JPG to TIFF Converter

Convert JPG to lossless TIFF for printers and publishers. Read first: converting does not improve the image, and the file gets much larger.

On our server

PNG to BMP Converter

Convert PNG to BMP. Pixels stay identical; compression, transparency and metadata go. A photo PNG grows 21% — a simple graphic can grow 278 times.

On our server