HEIC vs JPG — Which iPhone Photo Format Should You Use?

HEIC vs JPG in one sentence: HEIC stores the same photo in less space, while JPG opens on every device, app and website. iPhones save HEIC by default because it saves storage; JPG is the format to use whenever a photo leaves the Apple ecosystem, for a Windows PC, an upload form, a print shop or an older app.

You can switch your iPhone to JPG in Settings → Camera → Formats → Most Compatible, or keep HEIC and convert photos when needed with HEIC to JPG, a free converter that runs in your browser without uploading anything. Below is how the two formats differ, which iPhone settings control them, and how to pick.

What HEIC and JPG actually are

JPG (or JPEG) dates from the early 1990s. It is a lossy format: it throws away detail the eye barely notices to keep files small. Every camera, phone, computer, browser and printer understands it.

HEIC is Apple’s name for photos stored in the HEIF container (High Efficiency Image File Format) and compressed with HEVC, the H.265 video codec. In Apple’s words, HEIF and HEVC “offer better compression than JPEG and H.264”, so photos and videos take less storage while keeping the same visual quality. iPhones have captured HEIC by default since iOS 11; Apple lists iPhone 7 and later among the devices that can capture in this format.

HEIF is a container, so one file can hold more than a single picture: an iPhone can store depth data (used for Portrait mode) and other auxiliary images alongside the main photo. A Live Photo’s short video is a separate .MOV file.

HEIC vs JPG compared

	HEIC	JPG
Compression	HEVC (H.265), more efficient	JPEG, older and less efficient
File size for the same quality	Smaller (Apple doesn’t publish an exact ratio)	Larger
Color depth	Format allows more than 8 bits	8-bit
Extra data (depth, multiple images)	Yes	Very limited
Opens on iPhone, iPad and Mac	Yes	Yes
Opens on Windows	Only with extra extensions	Yes
Opens in web browsers	Safari only (caniuse)	All
Accepted by upload forms and print services	Often not	Almost always

How much smaller a HEIC file is depends on the scene and the phone, so be wary of precise percentages. The practical takeaway is in Apple’s own statement: same visual quality, less space.

iPhone settings that control the format

Three settings decide what you get. Menu names below are from Apple’s support article Using HEIF or HEVC media on Apple devices.

1. Settings → Camera → Formats. High Efficiency saves photos as HEIC (and videos as HEVC). Most Compatible saves new photos as JPG and videos as H.264. Apple notes that this setting only appears on devices that can capture HEIF or HEVC.
2. Settings → Apps → Photos → Transfer to Mac or PC (Settings → Photos on iOS 17 and earlier). With Automatic, Apple says photos imported over USB into Photos, Image Capture or a PC may be converted to JPEG; Keep Originals copies the HEIC files unchanged.
3. How you share. Apple says that when you share by AirDrop, Messages or email and the receiving device doesn’t support the newer formats, the media may be sent in a more compatible format such as JPEG. When the receiver does support HEIC, or when photos travel through cloud storage or messaging apps that keep the original file, they arrive as HEIC, which is how people on Windows end up with .heic files.

Changing the camera format only affects photos taken from then on. Your existing library stays as it is.

Opening HEIC on Windows, Android and the web

Windows 10 and 11. Windows does not include a HEIC decoder. Microsoft’s support page says you need two Microsoft Store packages for the Photos app, HEIF Image Extensions (free) and HEVC Video Extensions ($0.99), “even if you only plan on using photos and not videos”. Installing them lets you view HEIC files, but upload forms and other apps may still refuse them.

Android. Recent versions can show HEIC photos in the gallery, but support in third-party apps and websites is uneven.

Browsers and websites. According to caniuse, only Safari (17 and later) displays HEIC images; Chrome, Edge and Firefox do not. That is why most websites refuse HEIC uploads and ask for JPG or PNG.

How to convert HEIC to JPG or PNG

If you already have HEIC photos, converting is quicker than installing codecs on every computer:

1. Open HEIC to JPG on any computer or phone.
2. Select or drop one or several .heic / .heif photos.
3. Keep the default 92% quality (or lower it for smaller files to email).
4. Click Download. One photo comes back as a JPG; several come back in a ZIP with their original names.

Safari decodes HEIC itself. In Chrome, Edge and Firefox, the page loads a WebAssembly build of the open-source libheif decoder the first time you convert, then the browser saves the JPG. Your photos stay on your device; nothing is uploaded.

Need a lossless copy to edit in Photoshop, GIMP or Figma? Use HEIC to PNG instead. PNG never adds compression artifacts when you save again, but the files are several times larger than the HEIC.

One side effect of either conversion: the file is rebuilt from pixels, so EXIF metadata such as the GPS location and the phone model is not copied. That is usually welcome before sharing; see how to remove EXIF data from photos for the details, or inspect a photo first with the EXIF Viewer.

Which format should you choose?

• Stay with HEIC (High Efficiency) if you use iPhone, iPad and Mac, back up to iCloud Photos and care about storage. Your photos look the same and take less space.
• Switch to JPG (Most Compatible) if you regularly copy photos to a Windows PC, send them to online forms, print shops or people on other platforms, and don’t want to think about it.
• Keep HEIC and set Transfer to Mac or PC to Automatic as a middle ground: the phone saves space, and cable imports to a computer arrive as JPG.
• Convert on demand for everything else: AirDropped, emailed or cloud-synced HEIC files can be turned into JPG in seconds when an app refuses them.

If you work with web images too, the same compatibility story plays out with newer formats: see what is an AVIF file and why do images save as WebP. And if you plan to print your photos, check that they have enough pixels with our guide to standard photo print sizes.