HEIC vs JPG: which should you use?

HEIC stores a photo in roughly half the space of JPG at similar visual quality, and supports richer colour and transparency — but JPG opens on virtually every device and app ever made. Keep HEIC to save storage on Apple devices; convert to JPG whenever you need to share, print, upload, or open a photo somewhere that isn't an iPhone.

The core difference is the codec. HEIC wraps an image compressed with HEVC (H.265), a modern codec that squeezes more picture into fewer bytes. JPG uses a 1990s codec that every camera, browser, printer, and website understands. So HEIC wins on efficiency and JPG wins on compatibility — that trade is the whole story.

On quality, HEIC has real advantages on paper: up to 16-bit colour depth (versus JPG's 8-bit), optional transparency, and the ability to hold multiple frames and depth data in one file. In practice, a JPG saved at high quality looks indistinguishable from the HEIC for an ordinary photo viewed on a screen — the visible difference only shows up in extreme edits or very subtle gradients.

Practical rule: leave your library in HEIC if you live in Apple's ecosystem and want the storage savings. The moment a photo needs to leave that world — emailed to a Windows user, uploaded to an older site, sent to a print shop — turn it into a JPG. If you would rather never deal with HEIC, set your iPhone to shoot JPG.

Convert HEIC in your browserDrop your .heic files and get JPG, PNG, or PDF — converted on your own device, nothing uploaded.

Last verified June 13, 2026.

Frequently asked questions

Is HEIC higher quality than JPG?

At the same file size, yes — HEVC compresses more efficiently and HEIC supports deeper colour. But a high-quality JPG of the same photo looks essentially identical on screen, so for everyday use the quality gap is small.

Why is HEIC half the size of JPG?

HEIC uses the HEVC video codec, which is far more efficient than JPG's older compression. The same photo encodes in roughly half the bytes, which is why Apple switched to it to save storage.

Should I convert my whole photo library from HEIC to JPG?

Usually not — converting everything doubles your storage and loses HEIC's colour depth. Convert only the specific photos you need to share or open elsewhere, and leave the rest as HEIC.

Does converting HEIC to JPG lower the quality?

Slightly. JPG is lossy, so re-encoding drops a little detail, but at quality 90–100 the loss is hard to see. The original HEIC is untouched, so you keep the full-quality copy too.

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