Convert HEIC to PNG
Convert iPhone photos to PNG when the image is going to be edited, annotated or placed in a design.
Drop your HEIC files here
or click to browse · paste with Ctrl+V · files never leave your device
Nothing queued yet. Add as many files as you like — everything runs on your own device.
Nothing is uploaded
Conversion runs in your browser. Your files never touch a server, so there is no copy of them to leak.
No sign-up, no watermark
No account, no email, no daily limit, and nothing stamped across your image.
Batch and folders
Drop a hundred files at once and download the results as a single ZIP.
Works offline
Once this page has loaded you can disconnect entirely and it still works.
PNG is the right destination for a HEIC photo when it is heading into an editor rather than an inbox. It is lossless, so every subsequent save is exact and you stop accumulating compression damage across rounds of cropping and annotating. If you simply need a photo somebody else can open, JPG is smaller and equally universal.
Be ready for the file size. HEIC is one of the most efficient photo formats in use and PNG is one of the least efficient for photographs; a 2 MB iPhone photo can easily become a 15 MB PNG. That is normal, and it is the price of losslessness rather than a fault in the conversion.
Orientation is handled properly: the EXIF rotation an iPhone records is applied while decoding, so the PNG is upright everywhere rather than sideways in half your applications.
How to convert HEIC to PNG
- Add your HEIC files. Drag them onto the box above, click to browse, or paste an image straight from your clipboard. You can add as many at once as you like.
- Adjust the settings if you need to. The defaults suit most images. PNG is lossless, so there is no quality setting to adjust.
- Download the PNG file. Each file gets its own download button as soon as it finishes, and you can pull the whole batch down as a single ZIP.
What changes when you convert HEIC to PNG
Every format conversion involves trade-offs, and vague tools hide them. Here is exactly what happens to your image in this particular conversion.
- Transparency is preserved: both HEIC and PNG carry a full alpha channel.
- PNG is lossless, so nothing further is lost — but it also cannot restore detail that HEIC already threw away. Expect the PNG file to be considerably larger than the original despite containing the same visible image.
- HEIC files from an iPhone carry EXIF orientation. We apply the rotation while decoding, so your photo comes out the right way up rather than sideways — a bug in a surprising number of converters.
PNG or JPG for an iPhone photo?
Choose PNG if the image is about to be edited repeatedly, annotated, placed into a design tool, or used as a source for other exports. Lossless matters when a file will be saved many times.
Choose JPG if you are sending it to somebody, uploading it to a form, attaching it to an email or posting it. The file will be a fraction of the size and nobody will see a difference.
There is no quality advantage to PNG here in the sense people usually mean. The HEIC has already been compressed by the camera; PNG preserves it exactly as it stands but cannot recover anything the phone discarded.
About HEIC / HEIF (High Efficiency Image Format)
HEIC is the format an iPhone uses by default, storing photos at roughly half the size of an equivalent JPG.
Where you probably got it: Photos taken on an iPhone or iPad with default camera settings.
Strengths
- About half the file size of JPG at the same visual quality
- Keeps depth maps, Live Photo data, HDR and wide colour
- Saves a great deal of space on your phone
Limitations
- Windows needs a paid codec from the Microsoft Store to even preview it
- Rejected by most websites, upload forms and older software
- Patent-encumbered, which is why support outside Apple is so poor
About PNG (Portable Network Graphics)
PNG is the lossless format of choice for screenshots, logos and any image that needs a transparent background.
Support: Universal across browsers, operating systems and design software.
Strengths
- Completely lossless — pixels survive unlimited re-saves untouched
- Full 8-bit alpha transparency, including soft edges and drop shadows
- Perfect for text, screenshots, line art and flat colour
Limitations
- Much larger than JPG or WebP for photographs
- No animation (APNG exists but is patchily supported)
- No quality dial — you cannot trade detail for size
Is it safe to convert HEIC online?
Here, yes — and you can check rather than trust. Open your browser’s developer tools, switch to the Network tab and convert a HEIC file: no request carrying your image is made. Disconnect from the internet after this page has loaded and the converter still works, which would be impossible if a server were doing the conversion.
That is worth verifying wherever you convert, because most online converters do upload, and HEIC files are so often ID photos, medical scans and screenshots of bank apps — iPhone camera rolls are full of documents as well as pictures. Once a file is on somebody else’s server you are relying on a privacy policy rather than on anything you can observe. We wrote up how to tell a safe converter from a risky one in more detail.
Frequently asked questions
Why is the PNG so much bigger than the HEIC?
HEIC uses modern video-derived compression and PNG uses none at all in the lossy sense — it stores every pixel exactly, and its compression is tuned for flat colour rather than photographic detail. Growing five to eight times is entirely normal. If the size is impractical and you do not need lossless output, convert to JPG instead.
Will the photo come out rotated?
No. iPhones record which way up the photo is as a separate EXIF tag rather than rotating the pixels, and converters that ignore that tag produce sideways images. This one applies the rotation during decoding, so the PNG is upright with no orientation tag left for another program to misread.
How do I convert HEIC to PNG?
Drag your HEIC file onto the box above, or click it to browse. The conversion starts immediately in your browser and the PNG download appears within a second or two for most images. You can drop in a whole folder of files at once and download them together as a ZIP.
Are my HEIC files uploaded to a server?
No. The conversion happens locally in your browser, so your files are never transmitted anywhere — the tool even works with the network disconnected once the page has loaded. That is also why there is no file size or file count limit: nothing costs us anything per conversion. The practical ceiling is your own device's memory, which on a phone means very large images may fail.
Will converting HEIC to PNG reduce the quality?
No further quality is lost — PNG is lossless. Bear in mind it also cannot recover detail the original HEIC had already discarded, and the resulting file will be noticeably larger.
How do I stop my iPhone making HEIC files in the first place?
Open Settings, then Camera, then Formats, and choose "Most Compatible" instead of "High Efficiency". New photos will be saved as JPG. Existing photos stay HEIC, which is what this converter is for. There is also a related setting under Settings > Photos > Transfer to Mac or PC — set it to "Automatic" and iOS converts on transfer.
What is the difference between HEIC and PNG?
HEIC is the format an iPhone uses by default, storing photos at roughly half the size of an equivalent JPG. PNG is the lossless format of choice for screenshots, logos and any image that needs a transparent background. In practice the choice comes down to compatibility: native on Apple devices, awkward on Windows, and refused by most upload forms — the single most common reason people convert an image. Meanwhile universal across browsers, operating systems and design software.