HEIC vs JPG: Quality, File Size and Compatibility Compared

Every few months someone hits a HEIC file that won't open, swears at Apple, and flips Settings › Camera › Formats to Most Compatible. That one tap roughly doubles the size of every photo you take from then on. Is it worth it?

To answer the HEIC vs JPG question properly I took a single iPhone shot — a backlit street scene, 4032 × 3024, plenty of sky gradient and shadow detail — and saved it three ways: as the original HEIC, as a JPG, and as a PNG. Here is what actually changed, and the rule I now use.

The same photo, three ways: what the files actually weigh

Same pixels, same scene, three containers:

• IMG_4821.HEIC — 1.9 MB, 10-bit, HDR gain map attached
• IMG_4821.jpg — 3.4 MB (Apple's default export quality), 8-bit
• IMG_4821.png — 22.6 MB, 8-bit, lossless

You can reproduce this on your own files. With ImageMagick:

magick identify -format "%f  %wx%h  %[bit-depth]-bit  %b\n" IMG_4821.*

IMG_4821.HEIC  4032x3024  10-bit  1.9MB
IMG_4821.jpg   4032x3024   8-bit  3.4MB
IMG_4821.png   4032x3024   8-bit  22.6MB

The headline number: the JPG is about 1.8× the size of the HEIC for the same picture. Across a 20,000-photo library that is the difference between filling a 50 GB iCloud plan and comfortably living inside it. That is the heic storage savings everyone talks about, and in my testing roughly 40–50% smaller is the normal range for ordinary daylight photos.

PNG is the outlier and it deserves one sentence: it is lossless, so it never throws pixels away, but it is a terrible format for photographs. Twelve times the size of HEIC for no visible benefit on a camera image. Keep PNG for screenshots, logos and anything with flat colour and sharp edges.

Quality: is HEIC really better than JPG?

At 100% on a laptop screen, the HEIC and the JPG look identical. Pixel-peeping is not where the difference lives. Three things are genuinely different:

Colour depth. HEIC stores 10 bits per channel, JPG stores 8. That is 1,024 tonal steps versus 256. In a clear sky gradient or a studio backdrop, the 8-bit JPG starts to show faint banding when you push exposure or contrast in an editor; the HEIC holds together longer. Check yours with exiftool:

exiftool -FileSize -ImageSize -BitDepth -ProfileDescription IMG_4821.HEIC

File Size           : 1.9 MB
Image Size          : 4032x3024
Bit Depth           : 10
Profile Description : Display P3

HDR. Modern iPhone HEIC files carry an HDR gain map, so the photo renders with real highlight punch on an HDR display and gracefully falls back on an old one. Export to JPG and in most workflows that gain map is baked down or dropped — the result is the flatter, slightly duller version you have probably noticed after emailing a photo to yourself.

Compression artifacts. At equal file size, HEIC wins clearly: its codec (HEVC intra-frame) handles fine detail and smooth gradients better than JPEG's older DCT blocks. In my test, a JPG squeezed down to 1.9 MB to match the HEIC showed visible mush in foliage and blocking around the high-contrast roofline. The HEIC did not.

So on heic vs jpg quality the verdict is: HEIC is the better format on every technical axis. Compatibility is the only thing JPG wins — and it wins it decisively.

Where HEIC quietly turns into JPG (and where it doesn't)

Here is the part most people miss, and it is why the camera setting matters less than you think. iOS already converts for you in most sharing paths:

• Share sheet → Mail, Messages, WhatsApp, Instagram, most apps: you get a JPG at the other end. Automatic.
• Uploading from Safari to a website form: iOS usually hands over a JPG.
• AirDrop to a Mac: stays HEIC (which is fine, macOS reads it natively).
• USB cable to a Windows PC: depends on Settings › Photos › Transfer to Mac or PC. Automatic converts to JPG on the way out; Keep Originals copies raw .HEIC files that older Windows apps may refuse.
• Downloading from iCloud.com: there is a toggle for Most Compatible vs Unmodified Originals in the download dialog.

In other words, HEIC problems are concentrated in two places: dragging originals off a cable to a Windows or Linux machine, and the occasional stubborn web uploader or print service. Both are fixable in thirty seconds, which we will come to.

High Efficiency vs Most Compatible: what the setting actually changes

The iphone camera format setting explained in one line: it changes what the camera writes to disk at capture time, nothing else.

• High Efficiency — photos saved as HEIC, video as HEVC. Smaller files, 10-bit, HDR intact.
• Most Compatible — photos saved as JPEG, video as H.264. Bigger files, 8-bit, no HDR gain map, and some capture modes are limited (4K 60 fps and 1080p 240 fps need HEVC).

Crucially, switching to Most Compatible does not convert your existing library. Yesterday's photos stay HEIC forever. So flipping the switch to solve a compatibility problem you already have is the wrong tool — it only affects tomorrow's shots.

The decision rule: should I use HEIC or Most Compatible?

Leave your iPhone on High Efficiency by default. Switch to Most Compatible only if one of these is true:

• You routinely pull photos off the phone by cable into a Windows workflow that chokes on HEIC and you cannot change the apps.
• You shoot for a client, publisher or insurance/claims portal that demands JPEG straight out of camera, same day.
• You hand your phone to someone else to shoot with and they will transfer the files themselves.
• You are travelling with a camera-to-tablet workflow where every conversion step costs you time.

Everyone else: keep the ~45% storage saving and convert the handful of files that actually need converting. You will convert maybe ten photos a month; you would be paying the JPG tax on all two thousand.

One more setting worth changing while you are in there: set Transfer to Mac or PC to Automatic. That single toggle eliminates the most common source of "my PC won't open this" without touching your capture quality at all.

Converting the few files that need it

The fast route. Drop the files into this HEIC to JPG converter, pick JPG, download. It handles batches, so a folder of holiday shots for a relative on Windows 8 takes one pass. If you need the output in something else — PNG for a document, WebP for a site — the wider image converter hub covers the other formats.

On a Mac, no install needed. sips ships with macOS:

sips -s format jpeg -s formatOptions 90 IMG_4821.HEIC --out IMG_4821.jpg

# whole folder
for f in *.HEIC; do sips -s format jpeg -s formatOptions 90 "$f" --out "${f%.HEIC}.jpg"; done

With ImageMagick (needs a libheif-enabled build) and copying the metadata across with exiftool:

magick IMG_4821.HEIC -quality 90 IMG_4821.jpg
exiftool -tagsFromFile IMG_4821.HEIC -all:all IMG_4821.jpg

magick identify -format "%f %b %[bit-depth]-bit\n" IMG_4821.jpg
# IMG_4821.jpg 2.6MB 8-bit

Quality 90 is the sweet spot: no visible loss against the original, and still smaller than Apple's own JPG export. Drop to 80 if you are emailing a batch; stay at 95+ only if the file is going to be edited again.

Note that the converted JPG is 8-bit and the HDR gain map is gone. That is unavoidable — it is the price of universal compatibility. Keep the HEIC as your master copy and treat the JPG as a disposable delivery file.

Three changes to make in the next five minutes

• Confirm Settings › Camera › Formats is on High Efficiency unless one of the four exceptions above applies to you.
• Set Settings › Photos › Transfer to Mac or PC to Automatic so cable transfers come off as JPG.
• Bookmark a converter for the odd file that a website or an older PC rejects, instead of changing your capture format for everyone's sake.

That combination gives you the smaller library, the better colour, the HDR, and a JPG whenever someone genuinely needs one.

FAQ

Does converting HEIC to JPG lose quality? Technically yes — you drop from 10-bit to 8-bit and re-encode with a lossy codec — but at quality 90 or above the difference is invisible on screen and in print. Keep the HEIC original and you lose nothing permanently.

Will switching to Most Compatible convert my existing photos? No. It only affects photos taken after the change. Existing HEIC files stay HEIC.

How much storage does HEIC actually save? In my test, 1.9 MB versus 3.4 MB for the same shot — about 45%. Expect 40–50% on typical photos, less on very noisy low-light images.

Can Windows open HEIC? Windows 11 and recent Windows 10 builds can with the HEIF extension installed; many third-party and older apps still cannot. If you share with Windows users often, set cable transfer to Automatic or convert before sending.

HEIC vs JPG vs PNG — which should I store my photos in? HEIC for camera originals, JPG for sharing and uploads, PNG only for screenshots and graphics with flat colour. Storing photographs as PNG wastes roughly ten times the space for no quality gain.

Is HEIC bad for editing? No — Photos, Lightroom, Affinity and Pixelmator all read it, and the extra bit depth helps. Only older or niche software is a problem.