The Best Free HEIC to JPG Converters in 2026

An iPhone has saved photos as HEIC by default since iOS 11, and plenty of software still refuses to open them. The format itself is fine: it holds the same photo in roughly half the space of a JPG. The problem is that a Windows PC, a government upload form or a print shop wants JPG, and you have three hundred holiday photos in the wrong format.

There are dozens of converters. They differ in three ways that matter far more than speed. Some upload your photos to a server and some do not. Some keep the date and GPS location stored in each photo and some strip it. And some take one file at a time, which is fine for a passport photo and hopeless for a camera roll.

How we compared them

We checked each tool against its own published documentation and pricing in October 2026. Where a vendor does not say how it handles something, usually metadata, we say that rather than guess. We include our own converter, and say plainly where something else is the better choice.

The short answer

If you are on a Mac, you already own a good converter. On Windows, install iMazing Converter or CopyTrans HEIC. If you cannot install anything, a browser converter that does not upload is the next best thing.

Before you convert anything: change the iPhone setting

The cheapest conversion is the one you never do. In Settings, go to Camera, then Formats, and choose Most Compatible. From then on the camera saves JPEG. Apple is clear that this only applies to new photos, so it fixes the future and not the backlog.

Apple also converts on the way out in some cases. Copying photos to a computer over USB may convert them to JPEG unless the Photos setting Keep Originals is on, and AirDrop or Messages may send JPEG to a device that cannot read HEIC. The word Apple uses is “might”, and people regularly report getting HEIC anyway, so do not rely on it for a large transfer.

1. iMazing Converter: best overall

iMazing Converter (it used to be called iMazing HEIC Converter) is free on both the Mac App Store and the Microsoft Store, with no account. It is the only free tool we found that documents all the things this article cares about. Conversion happens on your computer with no internet connection required. You can choose to keep or remove EXIF metadata. It takes whole folders. And it preserves embedded colour profiles, including the Display P3 profile iPhones use, which is the usual cause of washed-out conversions.

You can set JPEG quality and output size, and it converts iPhone HEVC videos to MP4 as well. It does not document what it does with HDR gain maps or Live Photos, so assume you get a standard-range still.

2. Preview, Photos and Quick Actions: best on a Mac

macOS reads HEIC natively and offers three ways out. In Preview, open the photos, select them in the sidebar, and use File, Export to save as JPEG with a quality slider. In Finder, Control-click a selection and choose Quick Actions, then Convert Image. In Photos, File, Export lets you pick JPEG quality, size and colour profile, which makes it the best of the three for photos you care about.

Nothing leaves your Mac. Apple does not document whether Preview keeps EXIF, so if the date and location matter, use Photos or iMazing and check a converted file before deleting anything.

3. CopyTrans HEIC: best for Windows Explorer

CopyTrans HEIC adds a Convert to JPEG item to the right-click menu in File Explorer, and gives Windows thumbnails for HEIC files while it is installed. Conversion runs locally, and CopyTrans states that the date taken and geolocation are kept. It runs on Windows 7 through 11.

The limits: the free version converts up to 100 images at a time, there is no quality setting, and it handles iPhone HEIC photos only, not HEVC video. Business use needs the paid Pro version.

4. Windows Photos: already installed, one file at a time

Windows can open HEIC in the Photos app with two Microsoft Store extensions: HEIF Image Extensions, which is free, and HEVC Video Extensions, listed at US$0.99. Windows 11 often has what it needs out of the box. Once a photo opens, the menu offers Save as, and you can pick JPG.

That is one photo per save, so it suits the occasional file and nothing more. Some people find Photos still refuses HEIC after installing both extensions. If that happens, the tools above decode HEIC themselves and do not need either extension.

5. ConvertStuff: best when you cannot install software

Our HEIC to JPG converter runs in the browser. The photo is decoded by a WebAssembly build of a HEIC decoder on your own machine and is never uploaded, which you can confirm in your browser’s network panel. It accepts several files at once and needs no extensions, so it works on a locked-down work laptop or a Chromebook where installing iMazing is not an option.

It has real limits, and we list them on the tool page. The output carries no EXIF, so the date taken and GPS location are removed. That is good for a photo you are about to post and bad for an archive. HDR photos from iPhone 12 and later are tone-mapped to standard range, Live Photos give you the still frame only, and ProRAW files will not decode. It is also slower than a desktop app: roughly one to three seconds per 12-megapixel photo on a desktop and longer on a phone.

If you need PNG instead, for an edit you will compress later, the HEIC to PNG converter keeps the decode lossless.

6. FreeConvert: the most controls of the web tools

FreeConvert uploads the photo, converts it on its servers and deletes it after 8 hours. In return you get options most tools hide: a compression level or target file size, resizing, auto-orientation, and a Strip Metadata switch. Leave that switch off if you want the date and location kept. Turning it on also removes the colour profile, which can shift colours. The free tier allows files up to 1 GB and 20 conversion minutes a day without an account.

7. CloudConvert: reliable, with a daily cap

CloudConvert is a general-purpose converter with HEIC support, quality and resolution controls, and a clear privacy policy: files are deleted within 24 hours, and processing happens in Germany for European users. The free tier allows 10 conversions a day, which rules it out for a camera roll. It does not document what happens to EXIF.

8. heictojpg.com: quick and big batches

Run by the makers of JPEGmini, heictojpg.com takes up to 200 photos per batch with no account and says files are deleted immediately after conversion. It offers no quality setting and does not say what it does with metadata. It is fine for photos without anything sensitive in them.

9. Adobe Express: if you are already using it

Adobe Express has a free HEIC to JPG page with no credit card and a 40 MB limit per file. Photos go to Adobe’s servers under its terms. It works, but it converts one image at a time, and it is only worth it if you are already editing in Express.

10. iCloud.com: if your photos are already in iCloud

If your iPhone syncs to iCloud Photos, you can skip conversion tools entirely. On iCloud.com, select the photos, open More Download Options, and choose Most Compatible, which Apple describes as JPEG when possible. You can download up to 1,000 photos at a time from any browser, including on Windows. There are no quality or size controls, and Apple does not say what happens to metadata.

11. XnConvert and XnView MP: batch, with metadata kept

XnView MP, a free image viewer, and XnConvert, its batch converter, read HEIC on Windows, Mac and Linux and process hundreds of files in one pass. The developer says EXIF data, including date, GPS and camera details, is kept by default, and you can resize in the same step. Live Photos and bursts give the primary still only. Both are free for personal use; business use needs a licence.

12. ImageMagick: for scripts and servers

ImageMagick is the free command-line workhorse of image conversion, and it can read and write HEIC when built with the libheif library. One command converts a file, with full control over quality, size and whether metadata is stripped, and it can process a whole folder. Check that your build includes HEIC support before relying on it.

13. Convertio: a general web converter

Convertio converts HEIC on its servers, deleting the files you upload immediately after conversion and the results within 24 hours. It accepts several files at once and imports from Google Drive, Dropbox or a URL. Its terms and its HEIC page state different free limits, so expect a cap. It does not document what happens to EXIF data.

Which one to use

• A whole iPhone library, keeping dates and places: iMazing Converter, or Photos for Mac export.
• The odd file on Windows: CopyTrans HEIC from the right-click menu.
• A work computer or Chromebook, nothing installed: a browser converter that does not upload, such as ours.
• A photo you are about to share publicly: anything that strips EXIF, so the GPS location of your home is not attached.
• Never again: switch the iPhone camera to Most Compatible.

What every converter loses

Two things do not survive conversion to JPG in any tool we looked at. HDR is the first. Recent iPhones store a gain map alongside the photo that lets compatible screens show brighter highlights. Even Apple’s own image libraries drop the newer gain-map format when they write JPEG, so expect a standard-range photo. Live Photos are the second. The motion is a separate video, and a JPG holds only the still.

Colour is the one you can control. iPhones shoot in Display P3, a wider colour space than most JPGs use. A tool that keeps the profile or converts it properly gives you the colours you saw on the phone. A tool that throws the profile away gives you something slightly flat. If your converted photos look dull next to the originals, this is almost always why. Our guide to modern image formats covers when it is worth moving to WebP or AVIF instead of JPG.