Convert iPhone HEIC photos into standard JPG files - free, private, and instant.
Higher quality = larger file size. 80-95 is recommended for a great balance of sharpness and size. 100 is maximum quality (no compression).
HEIC stands for High Efficiency Image Container, and it is Apple's default photo format for iPhones and iPads running iOS 11 or later. It is built on the HEIF standard - High Efficiency Image Format - developed by the Motion Picture Experts Group and adopted by Apple in 2017. The core reason Apple switched to HEIC was storage efficiency: a HEIC photo typically uses about half the disk space of an equivalent JPG image while delivering the same perceived visual quality.
Beyond just compression, HEIC supports features that the older JPG format cannot handle natively: 16-bit color depth (compared to JPG's 8-bit), Live Photos with their short video clips embedded in a single file, image sequences (like burst shots), and wider dynamic range data from HDR sensors. For the average iPhone user with a 128 GB device and thousands of photos, HEIC can effectively double usable photo storage - a meaningful improvement for everyday users.
The format is based on the same underlying compression codec (HEVC, or H.265) that Apple uses to compress 4K video, which is why it achieves such dramatic size savings without visible quality loss.
The root cause is licensing. HEVC - the compression codec inside every HEIC file - is patent-protected technology. Microsoft requires Windows users to pay a small fee for the HEVC Video Extensions codec from the Microsoft Store before Windows 10 or 11 can natively display HEIC files. Many users are unaware this codec exists and are therefore left with files that display only as blank icons in File Explorer.
Beyond Windows, the compatibility gap is wide. Older versions of Adobe Photoshop, web browsers below a certain version, most social media uploaders, email clients, document editors, and many photo printing services do not support HEIC files natively. EXIF data and color profiles sometimes get stripped or misread when HEIC files are processed by non-Apple software. This is why converting to JPG - the universally accepted standard - is often the most practical solution for sharing or editing photos outside the Apple ecosystem.
JPG has been the dominant image format on the web since the mid-1990s and enjoys near-universal support. Converting your HEIC files to JPG eliminates compatibility friction entirely.
Yes - technically, but in practice the difference is almost always invisible to the human eye. JPG is a "lossy" format, meaning some image data is discarded each time the image is compressed and saved. HEIC is also lossy, but uses a more efficient algorithm that retains more detail at the same file size. When you convert from HEIC to JPG, you are decoding the original HEIC data to a raw pixel grid, then re-encoding that grid to JPG.
The key variable is the quality setting you choose. At quality 90 out of 100 (this tool's default), the resulting JPG will look virtually indistinguishable from the original HEIC photo for normal viewing, sharing, and printing. Setting quality to 100 produces the largest possible JPG file with minimal compression artifacts. Settings below 70 will start to show visible degradation - blockiness in smooth gradients, fuzziness around fine details - so we recommend staying above 80 for important photos.
One important note: if you convert a HEIC to JPG, then edit the JPG and re-save it, you are compressing the image again, adding another generation of quality loss. For long-term archiving, it is wise to keep the original HEIC files alongside any converted JPGs.
If you prefer your iPhone to shoot JPGs directly rather than HEIC files, you can change this in a few taps:
With "Most Compatible" selected, your iPhone will capture photos as JPG files and videos in H.264 format, which work on all devices and platforms without any conversion step. The trade-off is that your photos will use roughly twice as much storage space as HEIC files of equivalent quality.
Alternatively, you can keep HEIC enabled on your phone to preserve storage, and use a tool like this one whenever you need to share photos outside the Apple ecosystem. Many users find this the best of both worlds: maximum efficiency on the device, universal compatibility when sharing.
Browser-based conversion is one of the most private ways to process personal photos. When you use this tool, the HEIC decoding and JPG encoding happens entirely through JavaScript running inside your own browser on your own hardware. Your photo data is loaded into your browser's memory, processed locally, and then made available for download - it never travels over your internet connection to any server.
There are no accounts, no accounts, no file uploads, no cloud storage, and no analytics that touch the contents of your images. This is fundamentally different from cloud-based converter services, which require you to upload your photos to a remote server (often with unclear data retention policies) before returning the converted file.
The only limitation of browser-side processing is RAM. HEIC files, when decoded to raw pixel data before re-encoding as JPG, expand significantly in memory. A single 12-megapixel HEIC photo can briefly occupy 50-150 MB of RAM during conversion. This tool processes your files one at a time (sequentially) rather than all at once specifically to manage this memory load and prevent your browser from running out of RAM or freezing.