The Best HEIC to JPG Converter for Mac in 2026

Open the HEIC in Preview, choose File → Export, set Format to JPEG, and save. Apple’s guide lists HEIC, JPEG, JPEG-2000, OpenEXR, PDF, PNG and TIFF in the Format menu, with a quality control for JPEG. Nothing is installed, nothing is uploaded, and there is no account.

It also handles more than one file. Open the photos in one Preview window, select them in the sidebar, and export; you choose one format for the set. For a trip’s worth of pictures that is plenty.

The limits are real. Apple’s guide documents a quality control for JPEG but no numeric value, so repeating a setting exactly is hard, and it lists no resize or metadata options. In our measurements, a sips conversion at default quality made a 4752 × 2988 photograph 47.5% larger than its HEIC, so watch the quality control if size matters. Past a few dozen photos, the clicking gets old. Pick Preview if you convert occasionally and want no new software.

Control-click an image in Finder, choose Quick Actions → More → Convert Image, then pick a format and a size. Apple describes it as converting an image to another format or a smaller size, and its example is a .heic iPhone photo to .jpeg. The same buttons appear at the bottom of the Preview pane (View → Show Preview).

This is the fastest free route when you have a handful of files and want them converted in one gesture. Select several photos, run the action once, and the converted copies land beside the originals. Because the size is a menu choice, it doubles as a quick way to make a smaller JPEG.

Apple’s page does not list every format or document how the quality is set, so treat it as a simple tool. If you need an exact JPEG quality, a repeatable setting or metadata control, use sips or a paid app instead. If you want to build your own version in Automator, our Finder Quick Action guide shows the steps, including how to avoid replacing originals.

sips is the converter that ships with every Mac. One line converts a folder at a fixed quality, for example sips -s format jpeg -s formatOptions 80 *.HEIC --out jpg/. Because the quality is a number, you get the same result every time, and you can put the command in a script or a shell alias. Our sips guide covers the options.

It is also fast and compact. In our HEIC to JPG guide, on fifty 12-megapixel files, a plain sips loop took 17.35 seconds and produced smaller JPEGs than Smol’s convert operation (2,642,575 bytes each against 3,669,303, SSIM 0.994484 against 0.994325). Running it in parallel with xargs -P 8 took 2.65 seconds. In the same guide, EXIF capture date, make, model and copyright survived a plain sips conversion, though the file’s own created date becomes today’s.

The cost is Terminal. Leave off --out and it rewrites your originals in place. There is no preview, no progress bar and no undo. If you are comfortable in Terminal, this is the best free tool on the list; if you are not, skip to the next.

Smol is a Mac app that works on your own Mac with no upload and no account. Drag in HEIC files or whole folders, choose JPG, and it writes a copy next to each original. It also installs its own Finder Quick Action, so you can right-click and convert without opening the app. It is not a plain converter, and for a bare format flip it is not the best value.

Two details matter. First, the Convert operation to JPG ignores the quality setting and writes a large, high-quality JPEG. If you want a small JPG, use Compress with the output format set to JPG, where quality runs 0 to 100 (default 75). Second, image compression resizes to fit inside 2000 × 2000 px unless you change it, and it strips metadata by default, including GPS. Both can be switched off, and both are useful if the goal is photos for a website or an email.

Where it wins: one pass can convert, cap the dimensions, and remove location data across a mixed folder, with per-file progress and savings. Where it loses: sips makes smaller JPEGs for a plain flip and is faster (see the figures above), and Preview costs nothing. It is macOS only, and there is no free trial and purchases are not refundable, so decide with the free options in hand. Solo is $29 once for one Mac; see the options. More on the workflow in batch converting HEIC to JPG.

iMazing’s own page calls it a tiny, free app for Mac and PC, available from the Mac App Store and the Microsoft Store. It converts HEIC to JPG or PNG, accepts dragged files or folders, and lets you adjust resolution and quality. It can also preserve or remove EXIF metadata and supports color profiles, including wide-gamut. It lists HEVC to H.264 video conversion as well.

For someone who finds Preview too manual and Terminal too much, this is the obvious free step up: a window you drop a folder into, with choices for size, quality and metadata. The same app on a Windows PC is handy if you convert on both.

iMazing does not state where processing happens, so read the Mac App Store listing before you use it on private photos. It also does less than a paid tool: it is a converter, not a compressor, resizer or batch cleanup tool for other file types. If you want free and a window, it is a sensible pick.

If the pictures are in your Photos library, you do not need to find files at all. Select them, choose File → Export → Export [number] Photos, and pick JPEG in the Photo Kind menu. The disclosure arrow beside it opens JPEG Quality, Color Profile and Size. That is one of the few built-in routes that offers a size setting and a color profile together.

The other export command, Export Unmodified Original, keeps the original format, so use the first one for conversion. Apple notes that Export Unmodified Original writes a Live Photo as two files, a still image and a video, while the standard export can write it as a still.

The limit is the library itself: it only works on photos Photos already holds, and importing a folder of loose HEIC files just to convert them is a detour. Choose it when the photos are there already, and you want edits baked in or a specific size.

Compresto is a native Mac app for macOS 13 or later, on Intel and Apple Silicon. Its site says all processing happens offline on your Mac. Its own HEIC guide describes dropping files or a whole folder into the window, choosing JPEG, setting a quality level (it suggests 85 to 95% for photography), and keeping or stripping EXIF metadata.

Its pricing page lists a Personal plan at $49 as a one-time payment for one Mac, with lifetime updates, and a Standard plan at $69 for two Macs. It is the closest alternative to Smol on this list, and it costs more for one Mac. We cannot say how it compares on output size, since we have not run it; the Compresto comparison covers the differences we can document.

Choose it if you want an app with an explicit quality number for HEIC conversion and prefer its interface. For a one-off conversion, the free tools above are enough.