HEIC vs JPG for iPhone photos — which format should you save in?
Compare iOS High Efficiency (HEIC) and Most Compatible (JPEG) settings by file size, image quality, and cross-device openability. When you should convert before sharing and what you lose.
Storing iPhone photos — four axes
Since iOS 11 (2017), iPhones default to saving photos in HEIC format. The setting at Settings → Camera → Formats lets you switch between “High Efficiency” (HEIC) and “Most Compatible” (JPEG), with High Efficiency on by default. JPG is the safe answer when you only care that the file can be opened anywhere, but it gives up real size and quality advantages. Which one is correct depends on where the photo is going.
Four axes carry the decision. File size directly affects iCloud quota, device storage, and backup costs. Image quality controls how much information survives at the same file size — colour gradation, shadow detail, smooth gradients. Cross-device compatibility decides whether your colleague on Windows, your friend on Android, or the print shop can actually open the file. Metadata richness controls whether HDR, Live Photo, Depth Map, and the wide-gamut P3 colour space survive — the things that make photos feel “alive” inside the Apple ecosystem.
Side-by-side comparison
| Property | HEIC | JPG |
|---|---|---|
| Compression algorithm | HEVC (H.265) repurposed for stills | DCT + Huffman (JPEG 1992) |
| Container | HEIF (ISO/IEC 23008-12) | JFIF / Exif |
| Size at same quality | About 50 % of JPG | Baseline (100%) |
| Colour depth | 10-bit (HDR-capable) | 8-bit only |
| Transparency (alpha) | Yes | No |
| Live Photo / Depth Map | Carried inside one file | No (separate .MOV) |
| iPhone / Mac (Big Sur+) | Native | Native |
| Windows | Native on Windows 11; extension needed on Windows 10 | Native |
| Android | Android 10+ (device-dependent) | Native |
| Print shops / enterprise systems | Often rejected | Accepted almost everywhere |
| Licensing | HEVC sits inside MPEG LA / Access Advance patent pools | Effectively royalty-free |
| Standardised | 2015 (HEIF) / 2013 (HEVC) | 1992 |
The “about half the size” figure traces back to Apple’s own claim and lands somewhere between 40-60 % depending on the subject and settings. HEIC’s case is size plus HDR / Live Photo fidelity. JPG’s case is compatibility plus thirty years of battle-tested implementations. HEVC took a long time to reach default support on Windows and Android because the patent pool (split between MPEG LA and Access Advance) made the licensing economics awkward for OS vendors.
When to keep HEIC, when to convert to JPG
Photos that only you, iCloud, and your Mac will ever see: keep HEIC. Half the storage cost for the same picture, and Live Photo plus Portrait-mode Depth Map stay attached to the file. Inside the Apple ecosystem there is no compatibility tax to pay.
Sending to a Windows colleague, uploading to the web, or going to print: convert to JPG first. Windows 10 does not open HEIC out of the box, many CMS upload paths reject it, and print shops rarely have a HEIC-aware workflow. Either choose “Share as JPEG” on the iPhone each time, or batch-convert once you transfer the photos.
Delivering photos professionally to clients: standardise on JPG. “Opens on every device” is a non-negotiable for a deliverable, and the support cost of HEIC-related issues quickly outweighs the storage win.
Editing with HDR or Depth Map intact: keep HEIC into Lightroom or Photos.app and choose the export format at the end (HEIC or AVIF if you want to preserve HDR; JPG for distribution). Shooting in JPG from the start throws away the 10-bit gradation and the Depth Map permanently.
Converting HEIC locally in the browser
In a typical scenario — “my iPhone photos are all .HEIC and I need to send them to a Windows client” — an upload-style converter would move every photo (with its location, capture timestamp, and possibly its subject) through a third-party server. To avoid that, heic-convert uses a WebAssembly build of libheif to transcode HEIC into JPG, PNG, or WebP entirely inside the browser. Multiple files can be batched into a single ZIP download.
One thing to watch: HEIC → JPG is a lossy conversion. Writing into 8-bit JPG drops the 10-bit HDR gradation and the Depth Map, and they cannot be recovered later. If the originals matter as editing material, keep them. To remove only location data after conversion, follow with exif-gps-strip; to wipe EXIF entirely, use image-exif-strip. The source is auditable on GitHub, and the DevTools Network tab makes it easy to confirm the photo never leaves the browser.