Best Free HEIC Converter (Compared in 2026)
Why HEIC Conversion Is Still a Pain in 2026
Apple made HEIC (High Efficiency Image Container) the default camera format way back with iOS 11. By now, most of us are sitting on thousands of them. The format itself is great—a typical iPhone 15 Pro HEIC is just 3–5 MB, while a JPEG of the same quality would be 8–12 MB. The problem? Universal support is still a mess. Windows won't open HEIC files without a $0.99 codec from its store. Most WordPress sites reject them. Even some versions of Adobe Illustrator still choke on them. Anyone who has tried to upload vacation photos to a family blog knows this pain well. 'Good format' and 'universally supported format' are two very different things, and in 2026, HEIC is still only the former. That gap created a whole industry of free online converters, all fighting for your clicks. So which one is actually the best? We'll compare the four heavyweights—CocoConvert, iLoveIMG, Convertio, and CloudConvert—on the things that matter: free limits, account requirements, quality control, format options, and API access. Full disclosure: we're CocoConvert. But we're not going to pretend we're the best at everything. If a competitor has us beat, we'll say so.
The Contenders: A Quick Overview
Let's meet the contenders. Here's the quick rundown of what each tool brings to the table. **CocoConvert** is our browser-based tool for converting HEIC to JPEG, PNG, WebP, AVIF, and PDF. You don't need an account, and the free tier gets you 20 files a day (up to 50 MB each). Our Pro plan at $6/month unlocks unlimited use and batch ZIP downloads. **iLoveIMG** is all about images. Their HEIC converter is free and handles batches of up to 30 files, but it only outputs to JPEG. No PNG, no WebP. It's account-free for basic use, but files are capped at 30 MB. There's no API to speak of. **Convertio** is a beast of a converter, handling over 300 format pairs. When it comes to HEIC, the free tier gives you 10 conversions per day (up to 100 MB per file) and a wide range of outputs: JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP, TIFF, WebP, and others. You'll need to create a free account if you want to see your conversion history. Paid plans start at $9.99/month. **CloudConvert** is easily the most powerful tool in this lineup. It can turn a HEIC file into over 200 other formats and provides deep control over quality and DPI. It also has a fantastic REST API. The free tier is based on time—25 conversion minutes a day, which is enough for about 50–80 standard HEIC files. You don't need an account for simple conversions, but you do for API access. Paid credits start at $8 for 500 minutes. These four represent the real choices for most people. Other tools like Zamzar and FreeConvert are out there, but their free tiers are stingy (5 conversions a day) and they don't offer anything special to make up for it. We're focusing on the serious players.
Free Tier Limits: What You Actually Get Without Paying
This is where the marketing meets the road. Let's break down exactly what 'free' means for each service as of May 2026. **CocoConvert** lets you convert 20 files per day without an account, with a 50 MB size limit per file. Batch uploads are supported, but free users get sequential processing. This means a batch of 20 HEIC files will take about 90 seconds, not the 15 seconds you'd get with parallel processing. You also have to download files one by one; a Pro upgrade is needed for the ZIP batch download feature. **iLoveIMG** is the most generous by raw file count, letting you convert 30 files per batch with no daily cap mentioned in their terms. There are two catches: a 30 MB file size limit (which won't work for 4K ProRAW HEICs from newer iPhones) and the fact it only outputs JPEGs. If all you need is a pile of JPEGs from standard HEICs, iLoveIMG is honestly your best bet for high-volume free conversion. **Convertio** puts a hard cap on free users: 10 conversions per day. That's it. However, it boasts the most generous per-file limit at 100 MB, making it a solid choice for massive ProRAW files (which can hit 50–75 MB). You also get the widest variety of formats on the free tier. **CloudConvert** has a different model based on time, not file counts. You get 25 free 'conversion minutes' per day. This sounds vague, but a typical 4 MB HEIC-to-JPEG conversion takes only 3–5 seconds, so in practice, this gets you 40–60 files daily. The model does penalize large or complex files more than simple ones, so keep an eye on your usage if you're batch-converting ProRAW files. For a quick job—say, converting 15 vacation photos—any of these tools will work just fine for free. The real differences only show up when you start pushing the limits with large batches or huge files.
Output Quality and Format Options
Everyone needs HEIC to JPEG, but these days format flexibility is more important than ever. With WebP and AVIF now standard in all browsers, and Google PageSpeed dinging sites for using old-school JPEGs, having more output options is a huge plus. **CocoConvert** handles HEIC to JPEG (with a 1–100 quality slider), lossless PNG, WebP (with a quality slider), AVIF (also with a quality slider), and PDF (either one image per page or a combined batch). The AVIF output is a killer feature for web developers: a 4 MB HEIC becomes a crisp 900 KB AVIF at quality 75. The free tier doesn't have DPI control, though; output is always 72 DPI. For 300 DPI print work, you'll need our Pro plan. **iLoveIMG** is a one-trick pony here: it outputs JPEG only. The quality is chosen for you and can't be changed. Our test of a 4.2 MB HEIC from an iPhone 15 Pro yielded a 2.8 MB JPEG. That's a reasonable result, but the total lack of control is a deal-breaker for print workflows or serious web optimization. **Convertio** provides the widest list of output formats on its free tier, including JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP, TIFF, WebP, and ICO. It offers quality sliders for JPEG and WebP. It can also convert HEIC to PDF and even SVG—though be warned, the SVG is just a traced approximation of the original image, not a true vector. Don't expect to scale it up without it looking messy. **CloudConvert** is the undisputed champion of output control. Before you even click 'Convert,' you can tweak JPEG quality (1–100), PNG compression (0–9), output DPI (72, 96, 150, 300, 600), strip EXIF metadata for privacy, and resize the image. If you're a photographer sending files to a print lab that demands 300 DPI TIFFs, CloudConvert is the only free tool on this list that can do it without needing an account. It's a massive advantage.
Privacy, Signup Requirements, and File Retention
Uploading personal photos to a random website should make you think about privacy. The file retention policy is a big deal. Here's what each service promises in their documentation as of early 2026. **CocoConvert** takes a simple approach: all uploaded and converted files are deleted after 1 hour. Period. No account is needed for the free tier. For GDPR purposes, it's good to know all files are processed on EU-based servers in the Frankfurt region. Our privacy policy is also explicit: we don't use your files for training or anything beyond anonymous, aggregate conversion counts. **iLoveIMG** holds onto your files for 2 hours before deletion. Like us, they don't require an account and use EU-based servers. Their privacy policy is clear and simple, though it doesn't specifically mention whether files are used for aggregate processing analysis. **Convertio** keeps your files for a full 24 hours by default, the longest on this list. While this enables their conversion history feature (if you create a free account), a 24-hour window is a genuine privacy red flag if you're converting sensitive images. Their servers are in both the EU and US, and the policy states data could be processed in either location. **CloudConvert** also has a 24-hour default retention on its free tier. However, they offer a fantastic 'delete after download' option right in the conversion settings, and you don't even need an account to use it. If you're handling private data, enabling this makes CloudConvert the top choice for privacy, despite the long default. Look for the 'Delete input files after conversion' checkbox in the options panel. For your vacation photos, a 24-hour retention period probably doesn't matter. But if you're converting medical scans, legal documents, or anything else you wouldn't post publicly, you should stick with either CocoConvert's 1-hour auto-deletion or CloudConvert with the 'delete after download' feature enabled.
API Access for Developers
For developers building an app, a CMS plugin, or any automated pipeline that has to deal with user-uploaded HEICs, the API is everything. This is where the tools really separate themselves. **CocoConvert** has a REST API currently in beta (as of Q1 2026). It's tied to a Pro account ($6/month) and uses standard API key authentication. You can convert HEIC to JPEG, PNG, WebP, and AVIF. The basic Pro plan gets you 500 conversions/month, with higher tiers available. We have docs at docs.cococonvert.com with a Postman collection to get you started. It's functional, but we'll be honest: the docs are a work in progress. For example, the webhook for async jobs is documented, but the error code reference is still incomplete. **iLoveIMG** has no public API. Full stop. If you need programmatic access, look elsewhere. **Convertio** offers a mature, well-documented REST API on its paid plans, which start at $9.99/month for 100 conversions. Crucially, they provide official client libraries for Python, PHP, Node.js, and Ruby on GitHub. For a developer who wants a battle-tested API with great language support, Convertio is a safer bet than our beta API. **CloudConvert** has the best API in this space, and it's not even a close race. It's built on a powerful task-based model where you chain together jobs like input, conversion, and export. They actively maintain SDKs for Node.js, PHP, Python, Laravel, and Java. You even get 25 free conversion minutes per day for the API, same as the web tool. For production, you buy credits ($8 for 500 minutes, $40 for 3,000 minutes). If an API is your main reason for choosing a service, just start with CloudConvert. They are the industry standard for a reason.
When to Pick Each Tool
Enough with the feature lists. Here are our straightforward recommendations based on what you're actually trying to do. **Pick CocoConvert if:** You need modern web formats like AVIF, want a clean interface that doesn't bombard you with popups, or need to turn HEICs into PDFs in one shot. Our free tier is great for under 20 files a day. At $6/month, the Pro plan is also the cheapest paid upgrade if you need to do daily batch processing. A fair warning: our API is still in beta, so don't bet your production app on it just yet. **Pick iLoveIMG if:** You have a mountain of standard iPhone photos and just need them all to be JPEGs. Fast. Its 30-file batch limit and lack of a daily cap make it the king of high-volume, no-frills JPEG conversion. Just don't pick it if you need quality settings, other formats like WebP/AVIF, or have files larger than 30 MB. **Pick Convertio if:** You need a weird format. If you need TIFF, BMP, or GIF output for free, this is your tool. It's also the best choice for single, massive files thanks to its 100 MB limit. The 10-file daily cap is brutal, but their API is mature and well-supported by language SDKs, making the $9.99/month plan a decent value for developers. **Pick CloudConvert if:** You're a pro who needs control. This is the tool for setting print-ready 300 DPI, tweaking every quality setting, using privacy-first features like 'delete after download,' or building a rock-solid production integration. Their API is the best, period. The time-based pricing can feel weird, but 25 free minutes a day is more than enough for most personal use. There's no single winner here, and that's the truth. A developer building a real product should go straight to CloudConvert. Someone converting 200 vacation photos to JPEGs just once will be happiest with iLoveIMG's speed. And for a web developer who needs free AVIF output, CocoConvert is the only game in town. Choose the tool that fits the job.