Convert HEIC to JPG (Free, No Upload)

Why your photos are HEIC in the first place

Since iOS 11 in 2017, iPhones and iPads have saved photos in HEIC by default. Apple’s reasoning is solid: HEIC files are roughly half the size of an equivalent JPG, which matters when a phone shoots 48-megapixel images and people keep tens of thousands of them. On the phone itself you never notice the format.

The trouble starts when the photo leaves the Apple ecosystem. Windows doesn’t open HEIC without a paid codec extension, older versions of Photoshop and most pre-2018 software don’t recognize it at all, and a surprising number of web upload forms (job portals, government sites, listing platforms) reject it outright. JPG, for all its age, opens on everything ever made. Hence this tool.

You can tell your iPhone to shoot JPG instead (Settings, Camera, Formats, then Most Compatible), but that costs storage on every photo you take forever. Converting the occasional photo that needs to travel is usually the better trade.

How the conversion works

Drop one HEIC file or a whole batch and the tool decodes each photo using libheif, the standard open-source HEIC decoder, compiled to WebAssembly so it runs inside your browser. The decoder loads on demand the first time you convert, then each photo is re-encoded as a JPG at a quality setting of about 90 and offered back as a download. Your photos never touch a server, which matters more for personal photos than for almost any other file type people convert online.

Two things to know about what comes out the other side. The JPG will be somewhat larger than the HEIC, because JPG is simply a less efficient format; that’s the price of compatibility. And re-encoding is technically lossy, though at quality 90 the difference is not something you can see at normal viewing sizes. If the result is too big for wherever it’s headed, run it through the image compressor afterward.

As a rough guide for what to expect from typical iPhone photos:

Original HEIC	Resulting JPG
1.5 – 2.5 MB (12 MP)	2.5 – 4.5 MB
3 – 5 MB (24/48 MP)	5 – 9 MB

The exact numbers depend on how much detail is in the scene; a beach photo with lots of flat sky compresses far better than a forest.

What carries over and what doesn’t

EXIF orientation is respected, so photos shot in portrait come out upright rather than sideways. Beyond that, the converter does not copy EXIF metadata into the output, which means the GPS location your iPhone embeds in every photo does not travel with the JPG. For a photo you’re about to post publicly or send to a stranger on a marketplace, that’s a genuine privacy plus. If you specifically need the capture date or location to survive, keep the original HEIC alongside the JPG.

Live Photos deserve a mention too. A Live Photo is really a still image plus a short video clip; only the still frame is in the HEIC file, so only the still frame converts. The motion part stays on your phone.

Converting in batches

You can drop many photos at once and download them together. The practical ceiling is your device’s memory, since each photo has to be decoded to full size in the browser while it converts. A few dozen photos at a time works fine on an ordinary laptop or phone; if you’re clearing out hundreds from a trip, convert them in groups rather than all at once. If the JPGs are destined for a single document, an application package say, you can feed them straight into JPG to PDF once they’re converted.

Frequently asked questions

How do I convert HEIC to JPG on Windows?

Drop the photos on this page and download the JPGs; nothing installs and nothing uploads. Windows can also open HEIC natively if you buy the HEVC codec extension from the Microsoft Store, but for the common case of needing a JPG to attach or upload somewhere, converting is simpler.

Does converting HEIC to JPG lose quality?

Technically yes, visibly no. JPG re-encoding is lossy, but at the quality setting this tool uses (around 90) the differences are below what you can see at normal viewing sizes. The JPG will usually be somewhat larger than the HEIC, since JPG is the less efficient format.

Why won't my iPhone photos open on my PC?

iPhones have saved photos as HEIC by default since iOS 11 in 2017. Windows, older photo software, and many web upload forms don't understand the format without extra codecs. Converting to JPG produces a file that opens everywhere.

Is it safe to convert HEIC photos online?

With most converter sites, your photos upload to their server, sit in temporary storage, and you're trusting their deletion policy. This tool is different: the conversion runs inside your browser using libheif compiled to WebAssembly, so your photos never leave your device. You can watch the network tab in your browser's developer tools and see that no upload ever fires.