HEIC is the iPhone's default photo format
With default settings, iPhones save photos in HEIC (HEIF) format. At the same quality the files are smaller than JPG, which saves storage space.
The trade-off is compatibility. Windows PCs may not open HEIC without an extra codec, and many upload forms on government, school or shopping sites only accept JPG and PNG. In those cases the photo needs to become a JPG.
Converting to JPG in the browser
On the HEIC to JPG page, select one or more .heic or .heif files. Each file can be up to 25 MB; one photo is saved as a JPG and several as a ZIP.
The default quality is 90, which is hard to tell apart from the original on screen. If you need smaller files, pick a target such as 500 KB or less in the image compressor after converting.
The decoder is downloaded once
Most browsers cannot read HEIC directly, so the first conversion on this page downloads a HEIC decoder (about 3 MB). The decoder is the open-source heic-to (based on libheif, LGPL-3.0), used without modification.
It is loaded only when you convert on this page, so other tool pages are not slowed down. Photos are not sent to a server; they become JPGs inside your browser.
Technical source: heic-to (GitHub) · Checked 2026-10-23
How size and quality change
Converting HEIC to JPG is often said to make files larger, but it depends on the quality setting and the photo. In a test, the libheif example photo (1280×854, 701 KB) became a 418 KB JPG at quality 90.
Files that are not HEIC are skipped when you add them, and if a damaged HEIC is included the conversion stops with a “could not read” message. Remove the file named in the message and run again. For Live Photos or HEIC sequences, assume only the first image becomes a JPG.
Getting JPGs from the iPhone in the first place
To save future photos as JPG, choose “Most Compatible” in the iPhone's Settings > Camera > Formats. Photos you already took do not change, and files get larger.
When copying to a PC by cable, setting Settings > Photos > “Transfer to Mac or PC” to “Automatic” usually converts photos to a compatible format during transfer. Menu names can vary slightly between iOS versions.
Keep the original and check the content, size and format of the result.