The short version
HEIC is a photo file, usually ending in .heic, that stores an image compressed with the HEVC video codec (also called H.265) inside a HEIF container. If you took a photo on a recent iPhone and the file ends in .heic, that is the format. It is not a different kind of picture. It is the same kind of photo, packaged so it takes less space.
Where the name comes from
Two names get mixed up. HEIF, the High Efficiency Image File Format, is the container: Nokia’s technical overview describes it as an ISO standard (ISO/IEC 23008-12) for storing images, image sequences and their metadata in a file based on the ISO Base Media File Format. The container is not tied to one codec. According to the same page it can carry HEVC, VVC, AVC and JPEG-coded images.
HEIC is the common name for HEIF files whose image data is HEVC. The libheif project puts it the same way: HEIC and AVIF are file formats that use HEVC or AV1 image coding respectively. For the container-versus-codec distinction in more detail, read HEIC vs HEIF.
Why iPhones use it
Apple’s support page says iOS 11 and macOS High Sierra introduced HEIF for photos and HEVC for video, and that HEIF and HEVC offer better compression than JPEG and H.264, so they use less storage on the device and in iCloud Photos. Apple describes the visual quality as preserved. The page lists iPhone 7 and later as able to capture in these formats.
Apple does not publish a single savings figure on that page, and neither do we. How much smaller a HEIC is than a JPG depends on the scene, the camera and the JPG quality setting you compare against.
What can be inside one file
A HEIC is more than one picture. The HEIF design stores still images as separate items and lets a file hold several of them, along with metadata that says how they relate. In practice a single file can contain:
- the main image
- one or more thumbnails
- transparency or depth data, when the camera wrote it
- EXIF metadata such as capture date, camera settings and, if location services were on, GPS coordinates
- a colour profile, usually Display P3 on recent iPhones
You can see exactly what a particular file holds with the HEIC inspector. For the metadata side, see HEIC metadata and GPS.
Why it sometimes will not open
The most common complaint is that a HEIC will not open, preview or upload somewhere. The reasons are usually mundane: the program or website has no HEVC-based decoder, or the decoder is an optional add-on. HEVC is covered by patents and licensed through patent pools; the Via LA HEVC/VVC page describes one such licensing programme, and its page notes that Access Advance took over that programme as of 15 December 2025. That licensing background is a big part of why software vendors do not all ship HEIC support by default. Platform-specific help is in opening HEIC on Windows and HEIC on iPhone and Android.
Getting a file other people can open
Apple’s guidance is that you can set an iPhone to capture in the older formats under Settings, Camera, Formats, Most Compatible, which makes new photos JPEG. Apple also notes that when you share by AirDrop, Messages or email to a device that does not support the newer formats, the media might automatically be shared in a more compatible format such as JPEG. Existing photos stay HEIC until you convert or export them.
To convert files you already have, the HEIC to JPG converter runs in your browser. The files are decoded in a Web Worker on your device and are not uploaded. Two things to know: JPG is lossy, so converting is a second round of compression, and JPG is 8-bit, so some detail from 10-bit sources is reduced. If you want to see what a file is before converting, the HEIC viewer opens it without installing anything, and the file checker reports its real type, dimensions and codec from the file’s contents rather than its extension.
When to keep the HEIC
If you are not sending the photo anywhere that needs a different format, there is usually no reason to convert. Keep the original HEIC as your master and make JPG copies for the places that require them. The comparison in HEIC vs JPG goes through that trade-off.