Convert iPhone HEIC photos to universal JPG. Works on Windows, Mac, anywhere. Batch convert hundreds at once — nothing uploaded.
HEIC is the format iPhones use to store photos starting with iOS 11 (2017). It's smaller and higher quality than JPG — but it's also a problem when you need to share photos with Windows users, upload to a website that only accepts JPG, or work with photo software that doesn't support HEIC.
This converter handles HEIC files entirely in your browser. Drop iPhone photos and get standard JPGs out the other end. No need to email them to yourself, no Windows software to install, no Apple ID to sign into.
HEIC (High Efficiency Image Coding) is a format Apple adopted in 2017 to replace JPG on iPhones. It's based on the HEIF (High Efficiency Image Format) standard. The motivation was simple: produce smaller files at higher quality than JPG.
HEIC files are typically about half the size of equivalent JPGs at the same visual quality. That matters when your phone has limited storage and your photo library has thousands of images. It also supports features JPG can't, like 16-bit color depth, Live Photos data, and depth maps.
The problem: HEIC is much newer than JPG, and many systems still don't support it. Windows didn't support it natively until Windows 10/11 (with a separate codec install), older Android phones can't open it, many websites reject it, and some professional photo workflows still don't handle it well.
Common situations where HEIC needs to become JPG:
If everyone in your workflow uses Apple devices and modern software, you can usually keep HEIC. The moment you need to share more broadly, convert.
If you're on iPhone reading this, you can drop photos directly from Safari into the dropzone above. If you're on a computer, here are the options:
Send the photo to yourself via Mail. Apple Mail will sometimes auto-convert to JPG; iMessage typically preserves HEIC.
Open Photos on iPhone, select photos, tap Share, choose AirDrop, pick your Mac. By default this preserves HEIC unless your Mac requests JPG.
Connect iPhone via USB. On Mac, open Image Capture; on Windows, open File Explorer and browse to the iPhone's DCIM folder. Copy the .HEIC files directly.
Enable iCloud Photos, then download originals from iCloud.com on any computer. They'll come in HEIC format.
If you want iPhone to stop creating HEICs and use JPG instead, go to Settings → Camera → Formats → "Most Compatible." This applies only to new photos; existing ones are unchanged.
Converting HEIC to JPG typically increases file size by 30–50%. This is the unavoidable cost of leaving HEIC's more efficient compression behind. At quality 90%, the visual difference between the original HEIC and the resulting JPG is imperceptible — you're just paying more bytes for the same picture.
The default quality (90%) is the right setting for almost everyone. Lower it only if you have hard size constraints; raise it for archival.
For maximum compatibility and better file size, consider converting to WebP instead — switch the output format in the settings panel. WebP files are smaller than JPG, support transparency, and work in all modern browsers and email clients.
Other HEIC converters require uploading your iPhone photos to their servers. That's a real privacy concern — your photos often contain personal information, location metadata (EXIF GPS), and faces. Sending them to an unknown server is risky.
pictoolkit does the conversion entirely on your device. We use the open-source heic2any library, loaded into your browser, which decodes HEIC files using JavaScript. Your photos never go anywhere except your hard drive.
If you also want to strip EXIF metadata (location, camera info, date, etc.) before sharing, use our EXIF viewer after conversion.
HEIC itself uses lossy compression, so by the time you have a HEIC file there's already some quality loss baked in. The conversion to JPG re-encodes that visual data — at quality 90% or higher, you won't see any additional loss. The output is essentially identical to the HEIC for normal viewing.
HEIC uses more efficient compression than JPG — that's the whole point of the format. Expect JPG files to be 30–50% larger than the source HEIC at the same visual quality. This is an unavoidable trade-off of universal compatibility.
The current version converts pixels only, not EXIF metadata. For most casual use this is actually preferred — it strips location, camera info, and other tracking data automatically. If you need EXIF preserved, please let us know.
Yes. Drop hundreds and they'll convert in parallel. The conversion can be slow for large batches because HEIC decoding is computationally intensive — be patient.
Yes. You can drop HEIC files directly from your iPhone's photo picker. Tap the dropzone, choose photos, and the converter handles them locally on your phone.
HEIF and HEIC are essentially the same format with different file extensions. Our converter handles both equally.