You AirDrop a photo from your iPhone to a Windows PC, double-click it, and nothing opens. That is HEIC — and here is how to fix it.
Why this page carries no measured size table. Every other converter here is measured against files anyone can download and re-test. HEIC is the one exception, and the reason is concrete: nothing available to us can encode HEIC — the ffmpeg build we use has libx265 but no HEIF muxer, and there is no browser or npm encoder either. Decoding works fine, which is why the tool works. Rather than publish a number you cannot check, here is the closest thing we can measure: a photo of the same kind costs 1.88 MB as PNG and 288.4 KB as JPG (-85%) on our PNG → JPG page. Expect your HEIC-to-JPG output to land in that neighbourhood.
Why your iPhone saves HEIC
Since iOS 11, iPhones default to HEIC (High Efficiency Image Container). It packs roughly the same quality as JPG into about half the size — great for your phone’s storage, awkward everywhere else. Windows, older Android phones, many upload forms and some design tools still cannot read it.
HEIC to JPG or PNG — which one?
- JPG — best for photos and for uploading. Small files, opens everywhere. Pick this for almost all iPhone photos.
- PNG — lossless and larger. Only worth it if you need perfect quality or the image has sharp graphics or text.
Convert without uploading your photos
Your camera roll is personal — receipts, screenshots of documents, family photos. You should not hand those to a random conversion site. These tools run entirely on your device; the photo never leaves your browser:
- HEIC to JPG — the everyday choice.
- HEIC to PNG — when you need lossless quality.
Drop the .heic file in and download the result. It works on Windows, Mac, ChromeOS — anything with a modern browser.
Two practical notes that follow from those numbers. First, batch conversion multiplies the cost — an album of 200 photos at roughly 231.6 KB each instead of 122.3 KB is a different backup plan, not a rounding error. Second, JPG is the right target for sharing and PNG almost never is: the 1.95 MB outcome above buys you nothing a JPG does not already give a recipient.
Tips
- The first conversion loads a decoder, so it may take a second; after that it is quick.
- Want the file even smaller? Convert to JPG, then compress the image.
- Fix it at the source: on your iPhone, go to Settings → Camera → Formats → Most Compatible to shoot JPG directly.
For how HEIC compares with other modern formats, see AVIF vs WebP vs JPEG.
What HEIC really is
HEIC is Apple’s label for an image stored in the HEIF container (High Efficiency Image File Format) and compressed with HEVC (H.265) — the same technology behind 4K video. That efficient compression is what fits near-JPG quality into roughly half the space. It is also why software written before about 2017 simply has no decoder for it: Windows only gained HEIF support through a separate codec, so a plain double-click often shows nothing.
Converting a whole album at once
One file at a time is fine for a single photo, but a trip can leave you with hundreds. Both converters accept several files in one go — drop the whole selection in, let them process, and download the results together. Because the work happens on your own device, the only limit on a large batch is your computer, not an upload speed or a daily cap.
What you can lose in the conversion
JPG is an older, simpler format, so a few things inside a HEIC do not survive the trip:
- HDR and wide colour — HEIC can hold more than 8 bits per channel plus an HDR gain map; JPG is 8-bit, so bright highlights are flattened to the standard range.
- Depth and Portrait data — the depth map that lets you re-edit background blur is dropped, and the blur you already see is baked in.
- Live Photo motion — only the still frame is kept; the short video clip is left behind.
For everyday sharing, uploading and printing, none of this is noticeable. But if a shot was taken in HDR or Portrait mode and you may want to re-edit it later, keep the original HEIC alongside the JPG.
What a conversion out of a modern codec costs is measurable, and we can put a number on it even though we cannot encode HEIC ourselves. AVIF is the closest thing we can generate — the same HEIF container family, the same kind of modern intra-frame compression — so the price of leaving it is the right order of magnitude. Our test photo as AVIF is 122.3 KB; converted to JPG it becomes 231.6 KB (+89%), and to PNG 1.95 MB (+1532%).
| Test image | Input | Output | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Photo | 122.3 KB | 231.6 KB | +89% |
| Screenshot | 1.4 KB | 43.7 KB | +2942% |
| Illustration | 3.2 KB | 23.5 KB | +626% |
The JPG figure is the one to plan around: it is several times the original for the same visible picture. PNG is worse again because it stores the codec’s output losslessly, artefacts included. Convert for compatibility, keep the original for archiving.
FAQ
Does converting to JPG lose quality?
There is one small re-compression step, but at a high quality setting it is invisible in normal viewing. The more obvious change is that the file gets larger, because JPG is less efficient than HEIC. If size matters, compress the result afterwards.
Can I convert HEIC on my phone?
Yes. The converter runs in a mobile browser too, so you can do it straight from the iPhone. Still deciding which format to keep for the web? See PNG vs JPG.