Understand the key differences between HEIC and JPEG image formats. Learn when to use each format and how to convert between them easily.
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Every photo you take on a modern iPhone is quietly making a decision you may not have noticed. Since iOS 11, Apple has defaulted to saving photos in a format called HEIC instead of the familiar JPEG that dominated digital photography for three decades. For most people, this change was completely invisible — until they tried to share that photo with someone on Windows, upload it to a website that threw an error, or send it to a print lab that sent it back unprocessed.
HEIC and JPEG are both image formats designed to store photographs, but they approach compression, quality, and compatibility in fundamentally different ways. Understanding those differences is not just a technical exercise — it determines whether your photos look their best, whether they open on your recipient's device, and how much storage space your camera roll consumes. This guide walks you through everything you need to know, including exactly when to keep your photos as HEIC and when to convert them to JPEG.
If you're in a hurry, here is the essential breakdown:
HEIC stands for High Efficiency Image Container. It is Apple's implementation of the HEIF (High Efficiency Image File Format) standard, which was developed by the Moving Picture Experts Group — the same organization behind the MP3 and MP4 formats. HEIF was finalized as an ISO standard in 2015, and Apple adopted it as the default capture format for iPhone photos starting with iOS 11 in 2017.
The underlying compression in HEIC is based on the HEVC (H.265) video codec, which is far more sophisticated than the DCT-based algorithm JPEG uses. This allows HEIC to achieve dramatically better compression ratios while preserving more visual information. Think of it as the same leap in efficiency that H.265 video represented over H.264, but applied to still images. Apple chose HEIC over alternatives like WebP because of its superior HDR support and its ability to store sequences of images — including Live Photos and burst shots — in a single file.
JPEG stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group, which is the committee that standardized it in 1992. It became the dominant format for digital photography because it struck the right balance between file size and image quality for the hardware of its era: modest storage, slow internet connections, and screens incapable of displaying HDR content. JPEG's lossy compression works by dividing an image into 8x8 pixel blocks, applying a mathematical transform called a Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT), and then discarding the coefficients your eye is statistically least likely to notice.
JPEG is now over three decades old, and its age shows in several ways: it cannot handle transparency, its maximum bit depth is 8 bits per channel (limiting its HDR capability), and its block-based compression creates characteristic artifacts — the blurry, blocky patterns you see when a JPEG is saved at low quality settings. Despite these limitations, JPEG's compatibility is unmatched. Every device, every browser, every operating system, every app, every service, and every print lab in existence can open a JPEG without hesitation. That universal compatibility is JPEG's enduring competitive advantage.
HEIC uses HEVC-based compression, which is a predictive codec that analyzes relationships between neighboring pixels and blocks across much larger areas than JPEG's 8x8 grid. Instead of working block-by-block independently, HEVC predicts what each area of the image looks like based on surrounding regions and encodes only the difference from that prediction. This approach is dramatically more efficient at capturing the way photographic images actually look — with smooth gradients, complex textures, and large areas of similar tone.
JPEG uses DCT-based compression on fixed 8x8 pixel blocks. While JPEG's algorithm was revolutionary in 1992, it has inherent limitations. Block boundaries become visible at higher compression levels, creating the characteristic "mosquito noise" and "blocking artifacts" that JPEG photos develop at lower quality settings. HEIC's more sophisticated approach avoids these artifacts even at aggressive compression levels, which is a significant visual quality advantage for photos with fine detail or smooth gradients.
The file size difference between HEIC and JPEG is the most practically significant difference for most users. Apple's own data — and independent third-party testing — consistently shows that HEIC files are approximately 50% smaller than JPEG files at equivalent perceived visual quality. In real-world terms, a JPEG that would occupy 5MB on your device will typically occupy around 2.5MB as a HEIC file with no noticeable quality difference.
For someone with a 256GB iPhone who takes hundreds or thousands of photos, this 50% reduction in storage consumption is meaningful. It effectively doubles the number of photos you can store before running out of space. The flip side is that whenever you need to share those photos outside the Apple ecosystem, you either need the recipient to be able to open HEIC (which is increasingly common but still not universal) or you need to convert them to JPEG first using a tool like our HEIC to JPG converter.
At equivalent file sizes, HEIC consistently produces better image quality than JPEG, particularly in areas of fine texture, smooth gradient, and high contrast. HEIC's superior compression algorithm preserves more of the original image data while achieving the same or smaller file size. This is visible when you zoom in on fine details like hair, fabric, foliage, or complex backgrounds.
JPEG quality degrades predictably as you compress more aggressively. The block-based artifacts become increasingly visible, particularly around sharp edges and in smooth areas like blue skies. HEIC handles aggressive compression much more gracefully — the quality degradation is smoother and less obvious to the human eye. At equivalent storage footprint, a HEIC photo will look noticeably sharper and cleaner than the same scene shot in JPEG mode.
This is where HEIC's technical superiority becomes most dramatic for modern hardware. HEIC supports up to 16 bits per channel color depth (also called 48-bit color), compared to JPEG's maximum of 8 bits per channel (24-bit color). More bits per channel means more gradations between colors — smoother gradients, more precise color rendering, and critically, the ability to store HDR (High Dynamic Range) information.
JPEG's 8-bit depth limits it to 256 possible values per channel, which means it cannot faithfully represent the wide dynamic range that modern camera sensors and OLED displays can capture and show. HEIC, with its 16-bit capability, can store the full luminance information captured by modern iPhone sensors with their multi-frame HDR processing, and display it faithfully on OLED screens with wide color gamuts. If you view HEIC HDR photos on a non-HDR display, they look identical to JPEG — but on a compatible HDR display, the difference is striking.
HEIC supports full alpha channel transparency, similar to how PNG handles it. This makes HEIC capable of storing images where parts of the scene need to be transparent — useful for things like stickers, overlays, and composited content. JPEG has no transparency support whatsoever; transparent areas in JPEG are automatically filled with a solid color (usually white or black), destroying the transparency information permanently.
For most photographers shooting with their phone camera, transparency is not relevant — photos of real scenes don't have transparent areas. But for anyone working with graphics, stickers, product photography against white backgrounds that need to be removed, or any other use case where transparency matters, HEIC's alpha support is a genuine advantage over JPEG.
One of HEIC's most distinctive capabilities is its ability to store multiple images in a single file. Apple's Live Photos — which capture 1.5 seconds of video before and after each still — are stored as a single HEIC container that includes both the still image and the motion clip. Burst shots taken in rapid succession can also be stored as a single HEIC file with multiple frames, allowing you to select the best one later without needing multiple separate files.
JPEG is a single-image format by design. It cannot store sequences, animations, or associated motion data. A JPEG file contains exactly one image. This architectural difference means that when you convert a Live Photo to JPEG, you lose the motion component and end up with only the still frame. If preserving Live Photo functionality matters to you, you need to either share in HEIC format or use Apple's own sharing methods that handle the Live Photo data separately.
| Feature | HEIC | JPEG |
|---|---|---|
| File size (vs JPEG) | ~50% smaller | Baseline |
| Compression type | Lossy (HEVC-based) | Lossy (DCT-based) |
| Max color depth | 16-bit per channel (48-bit) | 8-bit per channel (24-bit) |
| HDR support | Yes (full) | Very limited |
| Wide color gamut | Yes (Display P3, Rec. 2020) | sRGB only |
| Transparency (alpha) | Yes | No |
| Multiple images in one file | Yes | No |
| Live Photo support | Yes | No |
| Lossless option | Yes (HEIF lossless) | No |
| Compression artifacts | Minimal, even at high compression | Blocking/mosquito noise |
| Universal compatibility | Limited (improving) | Yes — 100% |
| Windows native support | Requires codec (Windows 10+) | Built-in |
| macOS native support | Yes (10.13+) | Yes |
| Android native support | Varies by manufacturer | Yes |
| Web browser support | Very limited | Yes — all browsers |
| Social media support | Usually auto-converts | Universal |
| Print lab support | Variable | Universal |
| File extension | .heic, .heif | .jpg, .jpeg |
| Age / standard | 2015 (ISO), 2017 (Apple adoption) | 1992 |
| Re-save quality loss | Yes (lossy) | Yes (lossy) |
Storing photos on your iPhone or iPad. The default HEIC setting on iOS devices makes perfect sense if you're not constantly transferring photos to non-Apple devices. You get 50% more photos per gigabyte of storage, and everything works seamlessly within the Apple ecosystem. Photos, Facetime, Messages, AirDrop between Apple devices — all of it handles HEIC transparently.
Taking HDR photos and viewing them on HDR displays. If you have a recent iPhone with Dolby Vision or HDR photo capture enabled, and you view those photos on an iPhone or Mac with an HDR display, HEIC is the only format that can store and display all of that tonal information. A JPEG conversion of the same photo will look correct on an SDR display but will lose the HDR depth and brightness range when viewed on a compatible HDR screen.
Shooting bursts and Live Photos. If you use Live Photos extensively — capturing those short motion clips that bring still images to life — HEIC is the format that preserves this functionality intact. Keeping your camera roll in HEIC means every Live Photo works exactly as intended in the Photos app, with the motion clip playback, the long exposure effect, and the bounce and loop playback modes all intact.
Archiving large photo libraries. If you back up your photos to iCloud or a local drive and want to minimize storage consumption while maintaining maximum quality for future use, HEIC is the better archival format. Its superior quality-to-size ratio means your archive will be half the size of the equivalent JPEG collection, without any perceptible quality loss for print or screen viewing.
Pro Tip: If you want to keep HEIC on your device but always share in JPEG for compatibility, go to Settings > Photos on your iPhone and set "Transfer to Mac or PC" to "Automatic." iOS will automatically convert to JPEG when you plug into a non-Apple computer, while keeping the originals as HEIC on your device.
Sharing with Windows users and non-Apple devices. While Windows 10 and 11 can open HEIC files with the optional HEVC codec installed, many Windows users have not installed that codec and will see an error when they try to open your HEIC file. If you regularly share photos with people on Windows PCs, Android devices, or older hardware, JPEG is the format that will work without exception, every time, on every device. Use our HEIC to JPG converter to convert before sharing.
Uploading to websites and web applications. The vast majority of websites, content management systems, and web applications expect JPEG or PNG. E-commerce platforms, portfolio sites, social media schedulers, email marketing tools, and countless other web applications will either reject HEIC files outright or silently fail to process them correctly. JPEG is the safe default for any web upload workflow.
Submitting to print labs and photo services. Professional print labs, photo book services, merchandise printing, and canvas print services almost universally specify JPEG as the required format. Even services that claim to accept "any format" often have HEIC processing pipelines that are less reliable than their JPEG handling. When print quality and predictable results matter, convert to JPEG first.
Professional photo editing workflows. While Adobe Lightroom, Photoshop, and other professional tools have added HEIC support, the support is not always complete or consistent across versions. Many professional photographers and retouchers still prefer JPEG or RAW for their editing workflows because the toolchain is more mature and predictable. If you're sending photos to a photographer, retoucher, or designer for professional editing, ask about their preferred format — and have a JPEG conversion ready.
Embedding photos in documents. Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, Google Docs, and most other office productivity applications handle JPEG reliably. HEIC support in these applications is inconsistent at best, non-existent at worst. If you need to include photos in a presentation, report, or document, convert to JPEG first to ensure the image displays correctly across all operating systems and app versions your audience might be using.
Pro Tip: Rather than deciding format at capture time, you can shoot in HEIC and convert selectively when needed. Use our image converter to convert just the photos you need to share, keeping your originals as HEIC on your device. This gives you the best of both worlds: efficient storage with universal sharing capability on demand.
| Platform / Use Case | HEIC Support | JPEG Support | Recommendation |
|---|---|---|---|
| iPhone / iPad (iOS 11+) | Native | Native | Either works; HEIC saves space |
| Mac (macOS 10.13+) | Native | Native | Either works |
| Mac (macOS 10.12 or older) | No | Native | Use JPEG |
| Windows 10 / 11 | Requires free codec install | Native | JPEG for guaranteed compatibility |
| Windows 7 / 8 | No | Native | JPEG only |
| Android (most devices) | Partial (varies by OEM) | Native | JPEG for sharing |
| Google Photos | Yes (auto-converts) | Yes | Either works |
| iCloud Photos | Yes (native) | Yes | Either works |
| Dropbox | Limited preview | Full support | JPEG preferred |
| Google Drive | Preview only | Full support | JPEG preferred |
| Chrome browser | No native support | Yes | Must convert for web display |
| Safari (iOS / macOS) | Yes | Yes | Either works |
| Firefox | No | Yes | Must convert for web display |
| Edge | With codec | Yes | JPEG preferred |
| Auto-converts | Native | Either (Instagram re-compresses anyway) | |
| Facebook / Meta | Auto-converts | Native | Either |
| Twitter / X | Auto-converts | Native | Either |
| Email attachments | Risky | Safe | JPEG strongly recommended |
| Professional print labs | Variable | Universal | JPEG required |
| WordPress | Limited | Native | JPEG or WebP |
| Shopify / e-commerce | Limited | Native | JPEG recommended |
| Adobe Photoshop (CC 2018+) | Supported | Native | Either works |
| Adobe Lightroom Classic | Supported (recent versions) | Native | Either works |
| GIMP | Plugin required | Native | JPEG easier |
Converting between HEIC and JPEG is straightforward, and you have several options depending on your workflow and volume of photos.
The fastest way to convert individual photos or small batches is to use our HEIC to JPG converter. You simply drag and drop your HEIC files, and the converter handles everything in your browser — no software to install, no account required, no files uploaded to a server. The conversion happens locally in your browser, which also means your photos stay private. For converting in the other direction or working with a wider range of format combinations, our image converter handles any format pair.
For deeper exploration of HEIC conversion options including command-line tools and bulk processing workflows, see our detailed guide on how to convert HEIC to JPG. If you want to understand more about the HEIC format itself before converting, our companion article on what is HEIC format covers the technical background in depth.
iOS has a built-in compatibility setting that automatically converts HEIC to JPEG when you share photos. To enable it, go to Settings > Photos and look at the "Transfer to Mac or PC" section. Setting this to "Automatic" tells iOS to convert to JPEG when transferring to a non-Apple computer via USB. For sharing via AirDrop, Messages, or email on iOS, the conversion happens transparently when the recipient's device needs it.
Alternatively, you can change your iPhone's capture format to JPEG entirely. Go to Settings > Camera > Formats and select "Most Compatible" instead of "High Efficiency." Your camera will now capture in JPEG by default. The tradeoff is that photos will take up approximately twice as much storage space, and you lose HEIC's HDR and depth map capabilities.
macOS's built-in Preview app can open HEIC files and export them as JPEG. Open the HEIC file in Preview, go to File > Export, and choose JPEG from the format dropdown. You can also set the quality slider before exporting. This works well for occasional conversions but becomes tedious for large batches. For bulk conversion on Mac, the Photos app can export selections as JPEG by selecting photos, going to File > Export > Export Photos, and choosing JPEG as the format.
Once you've installed the free HEVC Video Extensions from the Microsoft Store (search for "HEVC Video Extensions" — the free version from the device manufacturer works), Windows can open and display HEIC files natively. You can then right-click and use "Edit and Create > Edit" in the Photos app to open it, and then save as JPEG. For bulk conversion on Windows, several free tools including IrfanView and XnView handle HEIC batch conversion well.
For everything related to HEIC conversions specifically, our HEIC converter hub has all the tools and format options you need. For working with JPEG outputs — adjusting quality, converting to other formats, or optimizing file size — visit our JPG converter hub.
Pro Tip: When converting HEIC to JPEG for sharing or printing, use a quality setting of 90-95% to preserve the detail that HEIC's superior compression captured. While JPEG at 85% is often sufficient for web use, the source HEIC may contain fine detail that warrants a higher quality export, especially for professional printing or situations where the recipient will further edit or compress the image.
The theoretical advantages of HEIC translate into measurable real-world differences. Here are representative numbers based on typical iPhone photography scenarios, comparing HEIC and JPEG at equivalent perceived visual quality.
For a typical iPhone landscape photo (12 megapixels, complex scene with sky, foliage, and architecture):
The HEIC default produces a file approximately 50% smaller than JPEG at 85% quality, with equal or superior perceived sharpness in side-by-side comparison at standard viewing distances.
Assuming you take approximately 1,500 photos per year on your iPhone — a reasonable estimate for an active user — the cumulative storage difference is substantial:
Over three years, that difference amounts to roughly 9.5 GB — nearly 10 gigabytes of storage freed up just by using HEIC instead of JPEG. On a 64GB iPhone, that is a meaningful portion of total available storage. On a 128GB or 256GB device, it still translates directly to a longer interval before you need to delete photos or upgrade your storage plan.
In HDR scenes — a sunset, a brightly lit window in a dark room, or high-contrast outdoor environments — HEIC captures and preserves significantly more tonal information than JPEG. When viewed on an HDR-capable display (iPhone 12 and later, recent MacBooks with ProMotion displays, or external HDR monitors), HEIC photos show richer highlight detail and smoother shadow gradations. JPEG clips highlights and crushes shadows more aggressively because its 8-bit depth simply cannot represent the full dynamic range.
For standard viewing on SDR screens — older monitors, most televisions, print outputs — the difference is less pronounced, though HEIC's superior compression still produces cleaner results at equivalent file sizes. The color and tonal advantages of HEIC are most visible in exactly the dramatic, high-contrast scenes where you most want your photos to look their best.
One important consideration when converting HEIC to JPEG is that the conversion is a lossy-to-lossy process when using JPEG as the output. Your original HEIC file has already applied lossy compression to your photo. Converting that HEIC to JPEG applies a second round of lossy compression. If you convert at JPEG quality 95% or higher, the quality loss from the second compression pass is negligible and not visible to the human eye. At quality 80% or lower, you may see a visible reduction in sharpness compared to the original HEIC, because JPEG's less efficient algorithm has to work harder to achieve the same compression, introducing artifacts.
This means it is worth understanding the relationship between the two formats before you set up an automated conversion pipeline. For archival purposes, consider keeping your original HEIC files and only converting copies for distribution. This preserves the maximum quality original while giving you JPEG files for sharing. Our guide on best image format for web covers related considerations for web-specific workflows where you might be converting to WebP or AVIF rather than JPEG.
Windows 10 and 11 require a codec to display HEIC files. When you try to open a HEIC file without the codec installed, you'll see an error or the file will open as an unrecognized format. The fix is to install the free "HEVC Video Extensions" from the Microsoft Store — search for it directly in the Store app. Once installed, the Photos app and File Explorer thumbnail preview will both work with HEIC files. If you'd rather not install anything, the quickest solution is to convert your HEIC files to JPEG using our HEIC to JPG converter before viewing them on Windows.
Yes, but only slightly if done correctly. Since both HEIC and JPEG are lossy formats, converting between them applies a second round of compression. At JPEG quality settings of 90% or above, this second compression pass introduces negligible quality loss that is not visible to the human eye under normal viewing conditions. The visible quality difference only becomes apparent if you use aggressive JPEG quality settings (below 80%) or if you repeatedly convert the same image back and forth multiple times. Always convert at the highest quality setting your use case allows, and keep your original HEIC files as the master copy if quality preservation matters.
You will not notice a difference under most normal shooting and viewing conditions, but technically the JPEG version will contain slightly less tonal and color information. For HDR scenes, the JPEG will clip highlights more aggressively than HEIC would. For fine-detail scenes, HEIC's superior compression algorithm preserves slightly more sharpness at the same file size. In practice, most people switching from HEIC to JPEG for convenience purposes are satisfied with the quality. The more significant practical difference is file size: your JPEG photos will take up approximately twice as much storage space.
Android support for HEIC is inconsistent and depends on both the Android version and the device manufacturer. Some Android 12 and later devices on certain OEM skins (Samsung One UI, for example) can open HEIC files. But many Android devices, particularly older ones or those running stock Android, cannot open HEIC without a third-party app. If you regularly share photos with Android users, converting to JPEG before sharing is the safest approach. AirDrop to Android requires a third-party tool anyway, so building a JPEG conversion step into that workflow is natural.
HEIC and HEIF are closely related but technically distinct. HEIF (High Efficiency Image File Format) is the container format standard defined by the MPEG group. HEIC (High Efficiency Image Container) is Apple's specific implementation of HEIF that uses HEVC compression for the image data. Think of HEIF as the box specification and HEIC as the specific version of the box that Apple ships. On Apple devices, your photos are stored as .heic files. Other manufacturers using HEIF with different compression codecs might use .heif or other extensions. For practical purposes, the terms are often used interchangeably when discussing iPhone photos.
Most major social media platforms — Instagram, Facebook, Twitter/X, TikTok — can receive HEIC files and automatically convert them server-side. From the user's perspective, the upload appears to work normally. However, it is worth knowing that these platforms re-compress every photo they receive, regardless of format, and their compression settings are often quite aggressive. The format you upload in (HEIC or JPEG) makes little practical difference to the final output quality on the platform, because the platform's own compression is the dominant factor. What does matter for social media image quality is uploading the highest resolution source you have, since the platform's compression is applied on top of whatever you upload. See also our PNG vs JPG guide for related format decisions in web and social contexts.
Probably not, unless you have a specific workflow reason to do so. Converting your entire photo library is time-consuming, will roughly double your storage consumption, and applies an additional lossy compression pass to every photo. A better approach is to keep your originals in HEIC for storage efficiency and convert on demand when you need to share, upload, or print. If you do need JPEG versions of your entire library — for example, to move to a non-Apple platform or to hand off to a professional retoucher — export from the Photos app using File > Export > Export Photos with JPEG selected, which handles the conversion in bulk cleanly. For understanding how JPEG fits into broader format decisions for web publishing, our article on best image format for web covers the trade-offs between JPEG, WebP, and AVIF in depth.
The honest summary of the HEIC vs JPEG debate is that HEIC is the technically superior format in almost every measurable way — smaller files, better quality, more color depth, HDR support, transparency, and image sequences. But technical superiority does not matter if the file does not open when you need it to.
The practical strategy that works best for most iPhone users is to leave your camera set to HEIC (the default "High Efficiency" setting) and convert to JPEG only when compatibility requires it. This gives you the best storage efficiency on your device, the best quality in your photos app, and full access to HDR and Live Photo features — while maintaining the ability to share universally by converting on demand.
For sharing photos outside the Apple ecosystem, our HEIC to JPG converter makes the conversion instant, free, and privacy-preserving. For understanding the broader landscape of image format choices for web publishing and digital workflows, our guides on what is HEIC format and best image format for web provide the deeper technical context. And when you need to work with the JPEG format more broadly — optimizing quality, converting to other formats, or exploring alternatives like WebP — our JPG converter hub and HEIC converter hub have every tool you need.
The format you choose is not a permanent, irreversible decision. Your HEIC originals can always become JPEGs when a situation requires it. What you cannot do is recover quality that was lost in a low-quality JPEG conversion. Keep your originals, convert thoughtfully, and let the right format serve the right purpose.
Sarah Chen
Technical writer specializing in multimedia formats and digital workflows. Covers file conversion, video encoding, and document processing.
