Convert HEIC to JPG without uploading

Drop an iPhone photo. Get a JPG. The file never leaves your device.

No signup. No 5-file cap. No upload progress bar.

What this converter is not

  • No account. No upload. No storage.
  • No video, editing, or AI upscaling.
  • No mobile app, no API, no exotic formats.

It converts HEIC to JPG in your browser. That is the whole feature set.

Why the converter you tried before did not work

Most free HEIC converters online share the same shape. The page loads with three banners and an animation. The drop zone is somewhere in the middle. After you drop the file, an upload progress bar fills in over twenty seconds while your photo travels to a server in some country you cannot point to on a map. Then you get a download link, hit a five-files-per-day cap, and a popup asking for your email.

SnapCompress was built because the maker hit that exact wall trying to convert his own photos. The conversion runs entirely in your browser — the file never leaves your device. There is nothing to upload, nothing to cap, nothing to monetize behind a signup. The cost of running this site is the domain renewal once a year.

What HEIC actually is

HEIC is the format your iPhone has been saving photos in by default since iOS 11 in 2017. Technically, HEIC is a HEVC-compressed image wrapped in a HEIF container. Apple picked it because it produces files roughly 30 to 50 percent smaller than JPEG at comparable quality.

That trade is good for storage. It is bad for sharing. Most websites, email clients, Windows applications older than a few years, and large portions of Android still cannot open HEIC. So you end up here, trying to undo the format choice your phone made for you without asking.

The Windows HEIC extension does not actually solve the problem

Microsoft sells an HEIC extension on the Windows Store. Once installed, your computer can open HEIC files. Done, right? Not quite.

Installing the extension changes nothing about the file. It is still a .heic file. The moment you upload it to a job application portal, attach it to an email, or send it to a relative who does not have the extension, you hit the same wall. The extension is a viewer for you, not a converter for everyone else.

Converting to JPG once produces a file that works everywhere, on every device, without anyone needing to install anything. That is the durable fix.

How the converter works under the hood

Two file types arrive here: regular HEIC (most iPhone photos) and ProRAW DNG (iPhone Pro models with ProRAW enabled). They are decoded differently.

Regular HEIC runs through libheif compiled to WebAssembly. This is the same library most native HEIC viewers use. The first decode after a fresh page load takes a few seconds while the WASM module loads. Subsequent decodes are immediate.

ProRAW DNG is harder. Decoding the raw sensor data with most libraries produces a black image or a rainbow pattern, because Apple uses a non-standard color profile and bit-depth combination. We bypass the problem by extracting the JPEG preview Apple bundles inside the DNG file. It is the same image the Photos app shows you on the phone — already color-corrected, normal-looking, and small. Re-decoding the raw sensor data was the original approach and it produced rainbows about half the time. Switching to the embedded preview ended the rainbows.

Most online HEIC converters do not do this distinction because they process everything on a server using a single pipeline. ProRAW conversions through them often arrive corrupted or oddly tinted.

How small does the JPG end up?

It depends on the source. A 24 MB iPhone photo — usually a Live Photo with motion frames or a ProRAW capture — lands between 1 and 3 MB as JPG, at default quality settings. A 3 MB regular HEIC tends to convert to a JPG in the same ballpark, occasionally slightly larger because JPEG is less efficient than HEVC.

These are real numbers from one device. Your mileage will vary with camera settings and the specific photo. The drop zone above will tell you the exact final size before you download.

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Frequently asked

Specific questions about HEIC to JPG conversion. If something is not here, the contact form is on. Send a message.

Will my photo upload to a server?
No. The conversion runs in your browser. The file never leaves your device — there is no server to send it to. You can verify this by opening DevTools Network tab while you convert: nothing goes out.
Is HEIC the same as HEIF?
Not quite. HEIF is the container format (an ISO standard). HEIC is the specific implementation Apple uses, with HEVC compression inside the HEIF container. Most tools treat them interchangeably for conversion purposes, but the technical distinction matters if you ever read a spec.
I already installed the HEIC extension on Windows. Why do I still need to convert?
Because the extension only lets your computer read the file. The file itself is still HEIC. The moment you share it — email, web upload, sending it to someone without the extension — the receiver hits the same wall you hit. Converting to JPG is the durable fix.
Doesn't WhatsApp convert iPhone photos automatically?
Sometimes. It depends on the WhatsApp client, whether you sent the photo as "Photo" (compressed) or "Document" (original), and what the receiver is using. For anything outside chat apps — emails, web uploads, profile pictures — assume nothing converts automatically.
How big are the JPG files compared to the HEIC originals?
Typical range: a 24 MB iPhone photo (often a Live Photo or ProRAW capture) lands between 1 and 3 MB as JPG, depending on quality settings. Standard HEIC photos in the 2-5 MB range usually convert to JPGs of similar size, sometimes slightly larger because JPEG is less efficient.
Does the converter work on Mobile Safari / Android Chrome?
Yes. Both. The first conversion on a fresh page load can take an extra 2-5 seconds while the WebAssembly decoder warms up, especially on iPhone Safari. After that, conversions are immediate.
Will the EXIF metadata (date, GPS) survive the conversion?
Date and most EXIF tags are preserved. GPS coordinates are stripped by default for privacy. If you need GPS preserved for a specific use case, that is on the roadmap but not available today.
Can I convert several HEIC files at once?
Not yet. One at a time for now. Bulk conversion is on the list, but not before we are sure it does not slow down the single-file flow that most people come for.
What about iPhone ProRAW DNG files?
Those work too. ProRAW captures come as DNG, not HEIC. We extract the embedded JPEG preview Apple bundles inside the DNG instead of re-decoding the raw sensor data — it is faster, more reliable, and produces a normal-looking JPG instead of the rainbow-pattern artifacts that some libraries return when they try to decode iPhone ProRAW directly.
Why is your converter free?
Because it does not cost us much. The processing happens on your computer, not ours, so there is no server bill. Domain costs a bit each year — that is the entire operating cost. No tracking, no upsell, no 5-file paywall.