Convert HEIC images to PNG online for free. Use this exact converter when you need iPhone or iPad photos in a format that works better outside Apple-first workflows.
Converting HEIC to PNG re-encodes the image into the PNG container while preserving resolution and color information. The trade-off depends on the target format: lossy targets (JPG, WebP) shrink file size; lossless targets (PNG, TIFF) preserve every pixel exactly.
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A 2 MB iPhone HEIC photo typically becomes 10 – 20 MB as PNG.
Quality: Lossless once decoded. PNG preserves the HEIC pixels at full fidelity.
Best for: editing photos in software that doesn't support HEIC.
Avoid when: compactness matters — PNG is much larger than HEIC.
Tip: PNG is overkill for most iPhone photos. Convert to JPG unless you specifically need lossless or transparency.
PNG is lossless and supports transparency — the two things JPG can't do. Screenshots, UI mockups, logos, icons, diagrams, and anything with sharp edges or text should be PNG. File sizes are larger than JPG for photographic content (usually 2-5×), so PNG is a bad choice for photographs unless you specifically need lossless. Note: PNG has no metadata for camera EXIF, so converting a photo JPG → PNG loses the camera info.
Every image conversion involves a small trade-off between quality, file size, and compatibility. Here's how to make the choice deliberately, not by accident.
The drop zone above accepts single images or batches. Free-tier uploads are limited to 10 MB per file — enough for phone photos and standard web images. Pro handles files up to 1 GB and batches of up to 20 at once. Filenames are preserved, and the new extension is appended automatically.
PNG conversions default to a sensible middle ground — high enough that nothing visible is thrown away, low enough that the file isn't oversized. If you're preparing for print, pick a higher quality; for a web thumbnail, drop it. If the target format is lossless (PNG, TIFF, or WebP-lossless), there's no quality slider — every pixel is preserved.
The output is ready in a couple of seconds for a single image, or a few seconds for a batch delivered as a ZIP. Both the source you uploaded and the PNG output are permanently deleted from our servers within 30 minutes — nothing is retained, backed up, or shared with anyone.
The pixel data in your source is decoded, held briefly in memory as a raw bitmap, and re-encoded into the target format's container. Along the way, we preserve the colour profile embedded in the source (HEIC usually carries sRGB; some phone cameras save wider gamuts), any alpha channel where both formats support it, and EXIF metadata where relevant.
If the target format lacks something the source has — say, transparency in a PNG being converted to JPG — that data flattens onto a background before encoding. You'll never lose visible pixels silently; where a trade-off happens, we default to the most common expectation for that specific format pair.
Real reasons people run this conversion — grounded in specific problems, not vague benefits.
WordPress rejects some source formats out of the box. Squarespace, Ghost, and most e-commerce platforms have their own preferred image formats. If the upload button greys out or throws an error, a quick conversion to PNG usually fixes it — no plugin needed.
Some image formats are ecosystem-specific — HEIC belongs to Apple, WebP has patchy support on legacy Windows apps, and some tools still balk at anything newer than JPG. Converting to PNG means the person receiving the file doesn't have to install anything to open it.
Passport portals, visa applications, university forms, and job platforms often specify an exact format and file-size ceiling. If the requirement is PNG, this is the conversion. If they specify size too, run the compression tool afterwards to hit the target byte count.
Figma prefers PNG or SVG for exported assets. InDesign expects TIFF, EPS, or high-quality JPG for print. Canva takes almost anything but produces cleaner results with lossless sources. Converting your image to what the tool actually wants avoids the "why does this look pixelated" back-and-forth.
A 24-megapixel PNG is 20+ MB. Converting to a well-compressed PNG typically brings that under 3 MB with no visible change on a normal screen. Perfect for sliding under Gmail's 25 MB attachment cap, WhatsApp's compression, or a form's "under 5 MB" rule.
For long-term storage, a stable, widely-supported format matters more than pixel-perfect quality. PNG is a reasonable archival choice for HEIC sources when the goal is "openable in 10 years on whatever device exists then." Bonus: batch convert the entire folder in one pass.
Every conversion happens on TLS-encrypted uploads, on isolated per-request workers, with both the source and the result auto-deleted within 30 minutes. No ads, no watermarks on paid tiers, no metadata mined for training.
Technical comparison of the two formats — useful for deciding which to use, or for confirming what changes during conversion.
| Property | HEIC | PNG |
|---|---|---|
| Full name | High Efficiency Image Container | Portable Network Graphics |
| Year introduced | 2017 | 1996 |
| Developer / standard body | MPEG / Apple | PNG Development Group / W3C |
| MIME type | image/heic | image/png |
| File extension | .heic / .heif | .png |
| Compression | Lossy (HEVC) | Lossless (DEFLATE) |
| Color / data depth | 8/10-bit | 24-bit truecolor + 8-bit alpha |
| Max dimensions / size | 8,192 × 4,320 px | 2,147,483,647 × 2,147,483,647 px |
| Transparency | Yes | Yes |
| Animation | Yes | APNG extension only |
| Standard / specification | ISO/IEC 23008-12 | W3C / ISO/IEC 15948 |
| Best for | iPhone photo storage (50% smaller than JPG at equivalent quality) | Logos, screenshots, graphics with transparency or sharp edges |
HEIC (High Efficiency Image Container) is a modern image format that Apple adopted as the default photo format starting with iOS 11 in 2017. It uses H.265/HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding) compression to achieve dramatically smaller file sizes — typically 40-50% smaller than JPEG at equivalent visual quality. This efficiency allows smartphones to store significantly more photos without sacrificing the detail and colour accuracy users expect.
HEIC is primarily used within the Apple ecosystem for photos captured on iPhones and iPads. It supports advanced features including 10-bit colour depth, HDR imaging, and the ability to store multiple images (such as Live Photos or burst sequences) within a single file. The main drawback is limited compatibility outside of Apple devices — Windows requires an extension to view HEIC files, web browsers generally do not support it, and many image editors lack native HEIC support, making conversion to JPEG or PNG often necessary for sharing.
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