Convert HEIC to PNG
Drop a HEIC file below and get a PNG back. The conversion happens on your own machine, so nothing is uploaded and there is no size or quantity limit beyond what your browser can hold in memory.
Drop images here
Ctrl/⌘ VPaste a screenshot or copied image
Accepts HEIC
Lower means a smaller file. 75 is a good default for photos.
100% in your browser Files are never uploaded.
Why convert HEIC to PNG?
Plenty of websites, content management systems and older desktop programs reject HEIC uploads outright. PNG is accepted just about everywhere, and that alone accounts for most of these conversions.
Expect the PNG file to come out larger than the HEIC you started with. That is the price of the broader compatibility and simpler decoding PNG gives you.
PNG is lossless, so the conversion adds no new compression artefacts. Whatever detail survives in the HEIC file is carried across exactly.
PNG is the format most image editors and design tools expect, which makes it the practical choice when the file is headed for further editing rather than straight onto a web page.
This conversion usually happens for one of two reasons: the image is headed into an editor that will not open HEIC, or you want a copy that will not degrade any further when you save it. PNG serves both. It is worth saying plainly, though, that if you simply need photos your PC or a website will accept, JPEG is almost certainly the better target — read the first note below before you commit.
Before you convert
A phone photo becomes an enormous PNG
PNG stores every pixel exactly, and a 12-megapixel photograph has a lot of pixels that are all slightly different from each other — the worst possible case for lossless compression. A 2 MB HEIC routinely comes out somewhere between 15 and 30 MB as PNG. If your goal was to email the photos or upload them somewhere, you have made the problem considerably worse. JPEG at quality 85 would land near 1 MB and look the same.
PNG is the right call when more editing is coming
Every save of a lossy file compresses it again. Crop, adjust, save, reopen, adjust again — a few rounds of that visibly softens an image. PNG breaks the cycle: once converted, further saves cost nothing in quality. For a photo you are going to work on, the file size is a fair price. For a photo you are going to send, it is not.
The extras in a HEIC still do not come along
Losslessness applies to the pixels, not to the container. HEIC can hold a burst sequence, a portrait depth map, the moving half of a Live Photo. PNG holds one still image, the same as JPEG does. Converting losslessly preserves the picture perfectly and still leaves all of that behind.
What carries over
- Every pixel, exactly
- Capture time, GPS, camera settings
- Freedom from further compression loss
What does not
- A small file size — expect 10x or more
- Burst sequences and depth maps
- The moving part of a Live Photo
HEIC vs PNG at a glance
| Property | HEIC | PNG |
|---|---|---|
| Compression | Lossy | Lossless |
| Transparency | Yes | Yes |
| Typical file size | 50-60% of an equivalent JPEG | 300-500% of an equivalent JPEG |
| Compatibility | Native on Apple devices; often rejected by web uploads | Opens everywhere, including decades-old software |
| Usually comes from | iPhone and iPad photo libraries | Screenshots, logos and graphics |
Frequently asked questions
Are my HEIC files uploaded anywhere?
No. The decoder and encoder are WebAssembly modules that run inside this page. The network tab may show a codec downloading the first time you use a format, but no request contains your file. On supported browsers, a codec that has already been used is cached so the same conversion can work offline.
Is there a file size or quantity limit?
There is no limit imposed by us. The practical ceiling is your device’s memory, since the image has to be held uncompressed while converting. On a typical laptop, images up to around 100 megapixels convert without trouble.
Will converting to PNG lose quality?
The original HEIC is already lossy, so some detail was discarded when it was first created. Converting to PNG preserves whatever is in the HEIC file exactly, but it cannot recover what was lost earlier.
Does it work on a phone?
Yes. The same WebAssembly modules run on mobile browsers. Conversion is slower than on a desktop because phone CPUs are weaker, and very large images are more likely to hit memory limits.
Why does my iPhone save photos as HEIC?
Apple switched to HEIC in iOS 11 because it fits roughly the same picture into about half the space of a JPEG. The trade-off is patchy support outside Apple’s own ecosystem, which is exactly why so many uploads get rejected. You can tell the camera to shoot JPEG instead under Settings → Camera → Formats → Most Compatible, at the cost of the space saving.
Why is the PNG bigger than the original?
PNG is lossless, so it stores every pixel exactly instead of approximating them. For photographs that usually means a file several times larger than a lossy original. PNG earns its keep with screenshots, logos, line art and anything needing transparency — not with photos.