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HEIC to ICO converter

Convert HEIC to ICO in your browser. No upload and no account: the file never leaves your device, so the only size limit is your device’s memory.

I want ICO
90%
Icon sizes
How to make the SVG

Tracing suits logos, icons and flat artwork and scales cleanly. Photos are better kept as pixels inside the SVG.

16
50%
Dither Scatters black dots to suggest gray, instead of a hard cut-off.
Advanced 5
Keep the animation For animated GIF, WebP and APNG sources. Turn off to save just the first frame.
Rotate
Mirror horizontally
Mirror vertically

For an exact width and height, use the Resize Image tool instead.

Bytes of your files sent anywhere: 0 B

Related conversions

Other ways to convert HEIC

Convert other formats to ICO

Read more about the HEIC format and the ICO format, or see every image tool and all image conversions.

Should you convert HEIC to ICO?

Yes, if you need a favicon or a Windows icon. Start from a square HEIC of at least 256 pixels, with a transparent background if it has one, so every size inside the ICO comes out crisp.

ICO is also the more widely supported of the two: it opens almost everywhere, while HEIC is mainly an Apple format.

HEIC is the iPhone’s photo format, built on the HEVC video codec; ICO is a small container that holds the same icon at several sizes. Use ICO for a favicon.ico at the root of a website, or an icon for a Windows program or shortcut.

HEIC and ICO compared
Property HEIC ICO
Compression Lossy Lossless
Transparency No Yes
Animation No No
Support Mainly an Apple format Opens almost everywhere
Best for Storing photos on Apple devices without using much space Website favicons and Windows shortcuts
Introduced 2017 1985

How to convert HEIC to ICO

  1. 01

    Add your HEIC

    Drop your HEIC image onto the box, or click to choose it. It is read from your disk and stays there.

  2. 02

    Check the settings

    The output is already set to ICO. Change the quality if you want to; the defaults suit most files.

  3. 03

    Save the ICO

    Press convert and save the ICO. Several files come back together as a ZIP.

What changes when HEIC becomes ICO

ICO can’t add back what HEIC removed

The HEIC was compressed when it was saved, and that detail is gone. ICO records exactly what the HEIC contains now, compression marks included, and keeps it that way however often you edit and re-save.

iPhone photos convert with their orientation

Portrait photos stay upright, and Live Photos become a still ICO. Location and camera details aren’t copied into the new file.

One ICO, every size

The ICO holds 16, 24, 32, 48, 64, 128 and 256 pixel versions, each scaled from your HEIC and centered on a transparent square. Browsers and Windows pick the size they need.

Expect a much larger file

ICO is far bigger for the same content. Choose it because something needs ICO, not to send or store the file. HEIC: An iPhone photo is usually 1–3 MB. ICO: A full favicon with every size is usually under 100 KB.

This page is put together from our notes on each format, choosing only what is true of HEIC and ICO, so every pairing states the same facts the same way. How these pages are made.

Why it doesn’t upload

Changing a picture’s format is work your browser already knows how to do. Sending your photos to a server first only adds waiting and risk, so nothing is sent.

How to check for yourself

Worth knowing

  • About the HEIC. AirDrop and iCloud often convert photos to JPG for you, but cables, email and “Files” copies keep HEIC, so the same photo works on one computer and not another.
  • About the ICO. Renaming a PNG to favicon.ico works in some browsers and silently fails in others. A real ICO holds several sizes so each place picks the right one.
  • DDS, PSD, EXR, XWD and JPEG 2000 are read by the FFmpeg engine, a one-time 31 MB download.

Questions

Will converting HEIC to ICO lose quality?

No further quality is lost: ICO keeps exactly what is in the HEIC. It can’t undo compression the HEIC already has.

Will the ICO be smaller than the HEIC?

Expect a much larger file. ICO is far bigger for the same content. Choose it because something needs ICO, not to send or store the file. HEIC: An iPhone photo is usually 1–3 MB. ICO: A full favicon with every size is usually under 100 KB.

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