Compress HEIC photos without uploading them
To compress HEIC photos means turning large iPhone pictures into small, universal JPG files that fit through e-mail limits, messaging apps and upload forms. A modern iPhone takes 12-megapixel photos or more. That is great for memories, but far more detail than you need to send a picture to a friend, attach it to an application or post it on a website. This page is set up to make your photos as light as possible in one step.
All the work happens in your browser. A WebAssembly build of libheif decodes the photos on your own device, so nothing is uploaded, there is no account, no watermark and no limit on the number or size of files.
Why reduce photo size?
- E-mail attachments – mail services cap the total size of a message, so full-size photos quickly hit the limit. Shrinking photos for e-mail lets you send a whole set in one go.
- WhatsApp and other messengers – small files send faster on mobile data and take less space on the recipient’s phone.
- Web forms with size limits – job portals, government sites, school platforms and insurance claims often reject photos above a certain size.
- Website uploads – lighter images make blogs, shops and listings load faster.
- Cloud storage – smaller copies save space when you archive or share albums.
The compress preset: JPG, quality 80, max 1920 px
This page starts with settings chosen for small files that still look good:
| Setting | Value on this page | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Format | JPG | Opens everywhere, unlike HEIC |
| Quality | 80 | Strong compression, sharp on screens |
| Size | Max. 1920 px | Long side reduced, proportions kept |
With these settings a 12 MP iPhone photo often ends up under 1 MB. That is a big step down from a full-size JPG at the standard quality of 92, which is usually 3–6 MB.
Need it even smaller? Choose Max. 1280 px and set the quality to 70. That is enough for messaging, online forms and most web pages. The Size menu also offers 3840, 2560 and 800 px, or “Original size” if you only want to lower the quality. Photos are never enlarged, so a picture that is already smaller than the chosen size keeps its dimensions.
How to compress iPhone photos on any device
On iPhone and iPad: tap “Choose photos”, pick the pictures from your library or the Files app and download the compressed JPG files. They are saved to Files › Downloads, from where you can attach them to an e-mail or share them.
On Android: open this page in Chrome or Samsung Internet, tap “Choose photos” and save the small JPGs to your phone. It works for HEIC photos sent by iPhone users as well as for your own camera JPGs.
On Windows and Mac: drag the photos onto the drop zone, or use “Choose a folder” to compress a whole folder, then click “Download all (ZIP)”.
Tip: on a phone, compressing about 20–50 photos at a time is comfortable. For large libraries, see our guide to batch converting HEIC files.
What happens to metadata and orientation?
Orientation is applied correctly, so portrait shots stay upright. By default the photo information (EXIF) keeps the date, camera and lens but removes the GPS location, which matters when you send pictures to strangers or upload them to public forms. If you want to clean location data from photos without making them smaller, use the tool to remove the location from a photo.
Other ways to make photos lighter
For websites, WebP is often 25–35 % smaller than JPG at similar quality – try the HEIC to WebP converter if your site supports it. If you need several photos as a single attachment, such as receipts or the pages of a form, combine them with JPG to PDF. And if you want full-size copies with the highest quality, use the standard HEIC to JPG converter.
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