Frequently Asked Questions
What is a HEIC file?
HEIC is the photo format your iPhone uses by default. Apple adopted it starting with iOS 11 because it cuts file sizes roughly in half compared to JPEG, which saves a ton of storage. The downside? Windows, many image editors, and a lot of websites still can't open HEIC files natively. That's why people end up needing a converter.
What input formats does heic.site accept?
Pretty much anything image-related. HEIC, HEIF, AVIF, WebP, PNG, JPG, GIF, BMP, and TIFF. Output is JPG, PNG or WebP, with PDF on Pro and AVIF where your browser can produce it. The converter figures out the input format from the file's contents, not its extension, so a mislabelled file still works.
Can you really convert TIFF? Most browser tools can't.
Yes, in every browser. No browser can decode TIFF by itself — Chrome and Firefox refuse outright, and Safari only manages it by handing the file to macOS. We ship our own TIFF decoder and run it in a background thread, so it behaves the same everywhere and the file still never leaves your device. One limitation worth knowing: TIFF files can hold multiple pages, and we convert the first one only.
Why can't I select AVIF as the output?
Because your browser can't create AVIF files. Producing AVIF depends on the browser having an AVIF encoder wired into its canvas, and most do not — Chrome included, at the time of writing. We check whether yours can before offering the option, and grey it out when it can't, rather than handing you a file with the wrong contents inside. Reading AVIF is a separate matter and works fine nearly everywhere, so converting from AVIF to JPG, PNG or WebP is not affected.
Is this actually free? What's the catch?
The converter is free and there's no watermark, no signup wall, and no daily cap. The one limit is batch size: without an account you convert 3 files at a time. Convert as many batches as you like. It's free because the work happens in your browser rather than on our servers, so basic conversions cost us almost nothing to run. Pro ($5/month) lifts the batch limit and adds PDF output and file sharing.
Do my files get uploaded somewhere?
No. Everything runs locally in your browser — we never receive your images and could not look at them if we wanted to. You don't have to take our word for it: open your browser's developer tools, switch to the Network tab, and convert something. Not a single request fires while the conversion runs. The one exception is the Pro sharing feature, which uploads only the files you explicitly choose to share.
How many files can I convert at once?
Free converts 3 files per batch, and you can run as many batches as you want. Pro removes the batch limit entirely, so you can drop in a whole folder and pull everything down as a single ZIP. Either way the work happens on your own machine, so your browser's memory is the real ceiling — on an older laptop, 50-75 files per batch is gentler than dumping 500 in at once.
Do I need an account?
Not for converting. The free converter works the moment the page loads, with no email address and no signup. You only need an account if you want Pro, since that's what your subscription attaches to. You can sign up with an email and password or with Google.
Can I convert HEIC to PDF?
Yes, PDF output is a Pro feature. The page dimensions are matched to the image rather than forced onto letter-size paper, so you don't end up with a small photo stranded in the corner of a mostly blank page. It's the usual reason people need this — receipts, forms, and applications that only accept PDFs. The conversion still runs in your browser.
Can I share converted files with someone?
Pro users can turn a set of converted files into a temporary download link and choose whether it lasts 24, 36, or 72 hours. Optionally we'll email the link to the recipient for you, which requires confirming your own email address first so the message isn't sent on behalf of an unverified sender. When the link expires the stored files and their database records are deleted permanently.
Which browsers work?
All modern ones — Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, Opera. Safari on Mac or iPhone is noticeably faster for HEIC files specifically because Apple baked HEVC decoding into the OS. Other browsers use a WebAssembly decoder, which is solid but not as fast. For non-HEIC formats (PNG, JPG, WebP, etc.), speed is about the same across all browsers.
Will converting hurt the image quality?
Depends on what you pick. PNG is completely lossless — pixel-for-pixel identical. JPG, WebP, and AVIF use lossy compression, but at our default settings (92 for JPG, 85 for WebP, 80 for AVIF), you genuinely cannot tell the difference without zooming to 200% and really looking for it. You can drag the quality slider if you want to tweak the balance.
Does this work on phones?
Yeah. The site is responsive, works fine on iOS and Android. Tap the drop zone to open your photo picker. iPhones running Safari are especially fast for HEIC conversion because of the native codec support.
What happens to photo metadata (EXIF, GPS, etc.)?
We strip it by default — that means camera info, GPS coordinates, timestamps, all of it gets removed. This is a privacy choice. If you want to keep that data, flip the toggle in the settings panel before converting. Just know that EXIF support varies by format: JPG and WebP handle it well, PNG and AVIF are more limited.
Why won't my HEIC file open on Windows?
Windows 10 and 11 can't decode HEIC out of the box because the HEVC codec it depends on is patent-encumbered, and Microsoft ships it as a paid add-on in the Microsoft Store. You can buy the extension, or you can convert the file to JPG or PNG once and never think about it again. Converting is also the safer option if you're sending the photo to someone else, since you can't know what their machine supports.
What's the difference between HEIC and HEIF?
HEIF is the container format; HEIC is what you get when that container holds an image encoded with HEVC, which is what Apple uses. In everyday terms they're used interchangeably, and .heic and .heif files both open here. If a file is labelled one way but encoded the other, the converter reads the actual header bytes and handles it anyway.
Why is Safari so much faster for HEIC?
Apple includes a hardware-accelerated HEVC decoder in macOS and iOS. Safari taps into that directly, so it's decoding HEIC images using dedicated silicon instead of software. In our testing it's 17-39x faster than the WebAssembly approach other browsers use. Once the image is decoded, the encoding step (to JPG, PNG, whatever) is the same speed regardless of browser.