HEIC vs JPG: which format should you actually use?
HEIC files are half the size of JPGs at the same quality — so why does everyone still ask you to send JPGs? A practical breakdown for anyone with an iPhone.
The short answer
HEIC is a modern image format Apple adopted in 2017. JPG is a 1992 format that everything on Earth can open. Both store photos, but they store them very differently.
If you took the photo on an iPhone and it's staying on Apple devices, HEIC wins — the same photo takes about half the disk space at the same visual quality. If you're sending it to anyone else, a Windows PC, most web forms, or almost any older app, convert it to JPG first.
Why HEIC is smaller
JPG uses a compression algorithm designed in the late 1980s. HEIC uses HEVC (H.265), the same technology behind 4K streaming video. HEVC is far better at describing images with fewer bits — patterns like skin, sky, and grass compress especially well.
A typical iPhone 15 photo:
- HEIC: ~1.8 MB
- JPG (same quality): ~3.5 MB
Multiply that across a 5,000-photo library and you're looking at 8 GB of disk you get back for free.
Where HEIC breaks down
The problem is compatibility. HEIC needs a licensed HEVC decoder, which means:
- Windows 10/11 needs a paid codec from the Microsoft Store to preview HEICs.
- Most email clients on non-Apple devices won't inline them.
- Older versions of Photoshop, WhatsApp Web, LinkedIn uploads, print shops, and government forms often reject them outright.
- Web browsers on Android didn't reliably render HEIC until 2023 and coverage is still spotty.
That's why "can you send it as a JPG?" is still such a common request even in 2026.
When to convert
Convert HEIC to JPG when:
- You're uploading to a website, job application, or form.
- You're sending photos to a Windows user or someone on Android.
- You need to edit in older Photoshop, GIMP, or Paint.NET.
- You're printing at a walk-in kiosk or through most online print services.
Convert HEIC to PNG when you need lossless quality — screenshots, product photos where every pixel matters, or anything you'll edit multiple times.
Convert HEIC to WebP when the destination is the web and you control it. WebP is nearly as small as HEIC and works in every modern browser without extra codecs.
How to convert without uploading
We built HEIC to JPG to run entirely in your browser — the file never leaves your device, which matters more than most people realize for personal photos. Just drag your HEICs in and download the JPGs. Batch conversions of 100+ photos work fine.
If you want to keep the original quality for archiving, HEIC to PNG is lossless. For the web, HEIC to WebP gives you HEIC-like file sizes with universal browser support.
The verdict
Keep HEIC as your camera default — it saves real disk space and Apple's ecosystem handles it seamlessly. Convert to JPG the moment you need to share outside that ecosystem. The friction is on the sharing side, not the storage side.