Is HEIC better than JPG?

HEIC stores similar visual quality in a smaller file and supports extras such as higher color depth and transparency. JPG wins on compatibility, because nearly every device, app and website opens it. For storage on Apple devices HEIC is better, while JPG is the safer choice for sharing and uploading.

Why can't I open a HEIC file on Windows?

Windows needs the HEIF Image Extensions from the Microsoft Store, and on many PCs also the paid HEVC Video Extensions, to show HEIC photos. Without them the Photos app shows an error or a blank image. If you prefer not to install anything, convert the files to JPG in your browser.

Does converting HEIC to JPG reduce quality?

JPG is a lossy format, so a small amount of data is lost when you convert. At a high quality setting such as 92%, which is the FileKiwi default, the difference is almost impossible to see in normal viewing. Keep the original HEIC files if you want a perfect archive.

Are my photos uploaded when I convert HEIC on FileKiwi?

A copy of each photo you add is uploaded over an encrypted HTTPS connection and kept in a private folder that is not publicly accessible, then deleted automatically after 30 days. The conversion itself runs in your browser with the libheif decoder, and the JPG results are not stored. There is no account to create and no watermark.

What Is a HEIC File and How to Open It on Windows

A HEIC file is a photo saved in Apple's High Efficiency format, the default camera format on iPhones and iPads. On the phone it looks like any other picture. Copy it to a work laptop, though, and Windows may show a blank thumbnail, while a visa portal or a print shop website may refuse the upload outright.

What is a HEIC file?

HEIC is the file extension Apple uses for images stored in HEIF, the High Efficiency Image File Format. HEIF was developed by the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG), the same group behind many video standards. Inside a HEIC file, the picture is usually compressed with HEVC, also known as H.265, a video codec that keeps a lot of detail in a small file.

Apple made HEIC the default photo format with iOS 11 in 2017, and macOS High Sierra added support on the Mac the same year. Since then, every iPhone set to the High Efficiency camera option saves its photos as HEIC instead of JPG.

Why Apple uses HEIC

The main reason is storage. A HEIC photo usually takes noticeably less space than a JPG of similar visual quality. The same phone can hold more pictures, and backups to iCloud finish sooner.

The format can also store things a classic JPG cannot:

Higher color depth than the 8 bits per channel of a standard JPG, which helps smooth skies and gradients.
Extra image data, such as the depth map that lets you change the background blur of a Portrait mode photo after you take it.
Transparency, through an alpha channel.
Several images in one container, for example image sequences.

The downside: compatibility

JPG has worked on practically every device since the 1990s. HEIC is much newer, and support depends on the operating system, the app and sometimes an extra codec. Many upload forms still accept only JPG or PNG, so a HEIC photo gets rejected as an unsupported file even though nothing is wrong with it.

HEIC to JPG

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How to open a HEIC file on Windows

Windows 10 and Windows 11 can display HEIC photos, but often not out of the box. Which fix you need depends on what you are doing: looking at the photos on your own PC, or sending them somewhere else.

Option 1: Install the HEIF Image Extensions

Open the Microsoft Store and search for HEIF Image Extensions.
Install it. It is free and published by Microsoft.
If the photos still do not open, also install HEVC Video Extensions. Microsoft charges a small fee for it, although some PCs come with it already installed by the manufacturer.
Open the HEIC file in the Photos app. Thumbnails should now appear in File Explorer as well.

This lets you view the photos on your own PC. It does not help when you need to email them to someone else or upload them to a website that wants JPG.

Option 2: Convert HEIC to JPG in your browser

When the goal is a normal image file, converting is the shorter route. Open the HEIC to JPG converter, drop in one or many HEIC files, and download the JPG copies one by one or all together as a ZIP.

FileKiwi decodes HEIC inside your browser with the open source libheif decoder, so a batch of 40 holiday photos does not sit in a server queue. Each file can be up to 50 MB.

Option 3: Get JPG files from the iPhone directly

You can also make the iPhone deliver JPG files in the first place. The two settings for that are covered further down.

How to open HEIC on Mac, iPhone and Android

Mac

Macs running macOS High Sierra or later open HEIC in Preview and Photos with no extra software. To save a JPG copy, open the photo in Preview, choose File > Export, pick JPEG as the format and click Save.

iPhone and iPad

HEIC photos open normally in the Photos app. When you attach a photo in Mail or pick one in an upload form in Safari, iOS often hands over a JPG copy automatically. Not every app triggers this, and AirDrop to a Mac keeps the HEIC original.

Android

Android added support for HEIF images in Android 9, so most recent phones can show HEIC files in Google Photos or the built in gallery. Older phones and some messaging or office apps still cannot, and that is when a conversion helps.

How to stop your iPhone from saving HEIC

If you often move photos to a Windows PC, two iPhone settings save you a step.

Camera format: go to Settings > Camera > Formats and choose Most Compatible. New photos will be saved as JPG. The tradeoff is that they use more storage.
Transfer setting: go to Settings > Photos and, under Transfer to Mac or PC, choose Automatic. The iPhone then converts photos to a compatible format when you copy them to a computer with a cable.

Neither setting changes photos you have already taken. The thousands of HEIC files already in your library stay HEIC, and those still need converting when you share them.

Should you convert HEIC to JPG?

Keep HEIC when the photos stay inside the Apple world, for example in iCloud Photos, on your iPhone and on your Mac. You save space, and every device in that chain opens them.

Convert to JPG when:

A website, government portal or job application form only accepts JPG or PNG.
You are sending photos to friends or colleagues who use Windows PCs or older phones.
You want to edit the photo in software that does not read HEIC.
You are printing at a photo shop or kiosk that asks for JPG.

Need a PDF instead, for example to send several receipts in one file? The HEIC to PDF tool turns your iPhone photos into the pages of a single PDF. If you plan to edit a photo many times, HEIC to PNG gives you a lossless copy that does not degrade with each save, although PNG files are much larger.

What happens to quality and metadata

JPG uses lossy compression, so converting does discard a tiny amount of information. At the FileKiwi default quality of 92%, you would need to zoom in side by side to spot a difference. Raise the quality slider for more detail or lower it for smaller files.

Photo orientation is applied, so portrait shots stay upright. Metadata such as your GPS location is not copied into the new JPG. If you post a photo taken at home on a public forum, that is one less thing to worry about.

If the JPG files are still too large for an upload form, run them through the image compressor, or read our guide on how to reduce photo size to 20 KB or 50 KB.

HEIC vs JPG at a glance

Feature	HEIC	JPG
File size at similar quality	Smaller	Larger
Compatibility	Apple devices, plus Windows and Android with support installed	Almost every device, app and website
Color depth	More than 8 bits per channel possible	8 bits per channel
Transparency	Supported	Not supported
Best for	Storing photos on iPhone and Mac	Sharing, uploading and printing

Other modern formats make similar tradeoffs between size and compatibility. Our comparison of WebP vs PNG vs JPG and the explainer on what AVIF is cover the web side of the story.