iPhone HEIC to JPG — the complete 2026 conversion guide
Tomoda HinataTool author & maintainerPublished Apr 26, 202612 min read
HEIC has been the iPhone default since iOS 11 (2017) and stores photos at roughly half the size of JPG with the same visual quality. The catch: most of the world — Outlook, Slack, Instagram uploads, every Windows app from before 2018 — still cannot decode it. The fix is a one-time browser-side batch conversion at JPG quality 90, no upload, no extension.
Tools used in this guide
What exactly is HEIC?
HEIC is the HEIF (High Efficiency Image File Format) container around an HEVC (H.265) intra-coded frame — same codec the rest of the world calls 4K video. Apple shipped it as the iPhone default in 2017 because the per-photo byte savings vs JPG are dramatic (40–55% at the same visual quality) and modern phone storage was ballooning faster than carriers' upload limits.
Why does the rest of the world still need JPG?
JPG decoders ship in literally every operating system, browser, document tool, and printer. HEVC carries a per-decoder license fee Microsoft passes through as the paid HEVC extension on Windows; Outlook, Office, and most enterprise screenshot tools still cannot render HEIC inline. Instagram and Slack uploads fail or silently re-encode at low quality. JPG is the lingua franca; HEIC is the iPhone-internal storage format.
When should I convert vs keep the HEIC?
Convert when the photo will leave your iPhone for a non-Apple destination: email attachment, Office document, Slack/Discord upload, marketplace listing, screenshot share, archive that includes a Windows reader. Keep the HEIC when the photo lives only inside Apple Photos, iCloud, or AirDrop; you save 40–55% storage with no fidelity tradeoff.
What quality should I pick when converting?
JPG quality 90 is the sweet spot for almost everyone. The visual difference vs the HEIC original is invisible at typical viewing sizes, while the file is roughly 2× the source. Quality 80 saves another 30% with mild banding visible in skies; quality 100 doubles the file again with no perceivable improvement. Drop to 80 only when the upload destination has hard size caps.
What gets lost in the conversion?
JPG cannot represent: Live Photo (the 1.5 s video), depth maps used for portrait blur, Apple's Smart HDR gain map (10-bit highlight detail), or the burst-mode metadata. The pixels you see in Apple Photos survive intact at JPG quality 90; everything Apple computes from those extra channels does not. Always keep the HEIC original as your master if portrait re-blur or Live Photo replay matters.
Is the in-browser conversion actually private?
Yes. The conversion runs through libheif compiled to WebAssembly, executing entirely in your browser tab. No request leaves your device for the photo bytes. The only network traffic is the initial 1.2 MB JS bundle download (cached after the first visit) and analytics pings that contain zero image data.
Steps
About 2 minDrop your HEIC files
Drag up to 30 .heic files (80 MB each) onto the dropzone, or click to pick a folder — the picker filters non-HEIC files automatically.
Confirm quality 90
The default is JPG quality 90. Drop to 80 only if the destination has a hard size cap.
Run the batch
Click 'Convert'. The bar fills as each file finishes; failures (rare, usually corrupted HEIC) surface inline.
Download as ZIP
When the batch completes, click 'Download ZIP' for one bundle, or download each file individually.
| Format | File size | Visual difference vs HEIC original |
|---|---|---|
| HEIC (Apple original) | 2.8 MB | — |
| JPG quality 100 | 11.4 MB | Invisible |
| JPG quality 90 | 5.1 MB | Invisible at typical sizes |
| JPG quality 80 | 3.3 MB | Mild banding in skies (zoom 200%+) |
Frequently asked questions
Will my Live Photos still play after conversion?
No — JPG is a still-only format. Apple stores Live Photos as an HEIC + a paired MOV; the MOV is dropped during conversion. If Live Photo replay matters, keep the original HEIC alongside the JPG copy.
Should I keep the HEIC original after converting?
Yes. The HEIC carries depth maps and HDR gain maps that Apple Photos uses for Portrait re-blur and HDR display. The JPG is the deliverable; the HEIC is your master.
Quality 90 vs 100 — does the recipient see a difference?
No. At typical viewing sizes (any phone, any laptop, any print under A4) JPG 90 and 100 are visually identical. Quality 100 just doubles the file size for no visible gain.
Does HEIC support transparency?
Yes, HEIF supports an alpha channel, but iPhones never write it — every iPhone HEIC is fully opaque. This means converting to JPG (which lacks alpha) is always lossless on the alpha channel for camera-roll photos.
Can I batch convert hundreds of files?
The tool processes 30 at a time at up to 80 MB each. For 500 files, run six batches — every batch runs entirely in your browser, so there is no rate limit beyond what your CPU can handle.
Does the converter work on a Mac?
Yes — the tool runs in any modern browser regardless of platform. macOS Preview and Photos already export HEIC to JPG natively, so the browser tool is most useful on Mac for batch jobs and EXIF stripping in one pass.
Try it now
Batch convert iPhone HEIC photos to JPG
HEIC to JPG Converter