Convert HEIC to JPG without uploading your photos
Most “free HEIC converters” send your iPhone photos to a random server, run them through whoever’s API is cheapest this week, and email back the result. The server keeps a copy. Or it doesn’t, but you can’t actually tell.
We don’t do that. Drop a file below. Your browser does the conversion. The photo never leaves your computer. No signup, no upload, no tracking.
HEIC photos from iPhones and iPads embed GPS coordinates, camera details, and timestamps. DropFormat strips all metadata during conversion. Your output file contains only pixel data.
Why we don’t upload your files
Most “free online HEIC converters” are doing one of two things. Either they run a server that takes your image, converts it, sends it back, and quietly keeps a copy. Or they run it in the browser like we do, but cover the page in tracking pixels that follow you around the web afterward.
We’re option 3. The library that does the work (libheif, compiled to WebAssembly) runs in this tab. The file bytes never touch our server. We log conversion errors so we can fix bugs, but never the file content, and the IP that hit our error endpoint is SHA-256 hashed before storage.
If this sounds paranoid for “just a photo,” remember HEIC files often carry GPS coordinates, the phone model, and the timestamp. Strip those yourself if you want, but it should be your call.
Common questions
Is the conversion really happening in my browser? Yes. Open DevTools, Network tab, drop a file, watch. No request goes out (other than an error-report POST if the conversion fails, and even then we only send the error message, not the file).
Why is this free? A paid tier may come later for larger limits and priority support. Format access stays free. We don’t run ads.
Does it work on Safari and Firefox? Yes. Modern Chromium, Safari, and Firefox all decode HEIC and re-encode JPEG client-side. Phone browsers work too, though the WASM load is heavier on RAM, so very large files can be slow.
What happens to the EXIF metadata? Re-encoding to JPEG drops most of the original HEIC metadata. If you need to keep EXIF intact, this isn’t the tool yet.
What is HEIC?
HEIC (High Efficiency Image Container) is the default photo format on iPhones and iPads since iOS 11. It uses the HEVC codec to compress images at roughly half the file size of a comparable JPEG while retaining the same visual quality. Apple adopted it to save storage space on devices that take hundreds of photos a week.
The tradeoff is compatibility. Windows does not open HEIC without an extra codec, and many web platforms, email clients, and older image editors still reject it. That is why converting to JPG remains one of the most common tasks for anyone sharing iPhone photos outside the Apple ecosystem.
What is JPG?
JPG (also called JPEG) has been the standard photo format since the mid-1990s. Every device, browser, email client, and image editor on earth supports it. The format uses lossy compression: it discards visual detail that is hard for the human eye to notice, producing files that are much smaller than uncompressed originals.
The quality slider above lets you control how aggressive that compression is. 92% (the default) is visually indistinguishable from the original for most photos. Lower values produce smaller files at the cost of visible compression artifacts, especially around sharp edges and text. For photos you plan to print, stay at 90% or above.