JPG to HEIC — the honest version
Almost every site offering this uploads your photo to a server, because no web browser can encode HEIC. This page explains why, shows the two methods that really work, and converts your JPGs to AVIF or WebP right here if smaller files were the actual goal.
Drop JPG or PNG files here
converted to AVIF or WebP in this tab — see below for real HEIC
Why no website can convert JPG to HEIC in your browser
HEIC files store their pixels using HEVC, and HEVC is covered by a large pool of patents administered
by several licensing bodies. Browser vendors will happily ship a decoder — the licensing terms
for playback are manageable and the format is everywhere on Apple hardware. Shipping an encoder
is a different commercial question, and no major browser has done it. There is no
canvas.toBlob('image/heic'), and there never has been.
So when a converter site offers JPG to HEIC, one of two things is happening. Either your file is uploaded to their server, encoded there with a licensed command-line tool, and sent back — or you are quietly being handed something that is not HEIC at all. Both are worth knowing about before you drop a folder of personal photos into a stranger's form.
The obvious question: why do you want HEIC? The answer is nearly always "to save space". If that is your reason, HEIC is not the only option and probably not the best one. AVIF hits similar or better compression, is royalty-free, and is supported in Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari and modern Android. The tool above writes it directly, with no upload.
The two methods that genuinely produce HEIC
On a Mac, using Preview (no install)
Open the JPG in Preview, choose File → Export, and set Format to HEIF. Hold Option while opening the Format menu if HEIF is not listed — some macOS versions hide it behind the modifier key. Preview uses Apple's licensed encoder, so you get a real, Photos-compatible file. For a whole folder, select the images in Finder, right-click and choose Quick Actions → Convert Image, then pick HEIF.
On Windows or Linux, using ImageMagick or libheif
Install libheif-examples (Linux) or ImageMagick with HEIC delegates (Windows), then:
heif-enc input.jpg -o output.heic -q 85
or with ImageMagick: magick input.jpg -quality 85 output.heic. On Windows you may also
need the HEVC codec from the Microsoft Store for anything to preview the result afterwards.
What the tool above actually gives you
| Format | Size vs the original JPG | Opens on | Good for |
|---|---|---|---|
| AVIF | −40 to −60% | All current browsers, Android 12+, iOS 16+ | Web use, storage, anything modern |
| WebP | −25 to −35% | Everything since roughly 2020 | Wider compatibility than AVIF |
| JPG | −10 to −70% | Everything | Shrinking an oversized JPG in place |
Pick AVIF unless you know the file has to open in something old. The quality slider maps to the encoder's quality target, and 80 is a sensible default — AVIF at 80 usually looks better than JPG at 92 while being roughly half the size.
If you were trying to go the other way
Most people who land here are actually stuck with HEIC files and want JPG. That is the main converter, and it does run fully in your browser, because decoding is the direction that browsers support.
Common questions
- Can any free online tool convert JPG to HEIC without uploading?
- No. Encoding HEIC requires an HEVC encoder, which no browser ships. Any tool that produces a real HEIC file from a web page is doing the work on a server, which means your image is uploaded.
- Is AVIF a good replacement for HEIC?
- For most purposes, yes. AVIF uses the royalty-free AV1 codec, reaches comparable or better compression, supports transparency and high bit depth, and is supported natively by every current browser. The one place HEIC still wins is Apple's own Photos ecosystem.
- Why would I want HEIC instead of JPG at all?
- Storage. A HEIC file is typically around half the size of the equivalent JPG at the same visual quality. It also supports transparency, 10-bit and higher colour, and multiple images in one container, which is how Live Photos and depth data are stored.
- Will a HEIC file I create on a Mac open on Windows?
- Only if the Windows machine has the HEVC Video Extensions installed. Windows 11 handles HEIF containers but still needs the HEVC codec for the image data inside. This is the usual reason converting to HEIC creates more problems than it solves.