Short answer: HEIC (High Efficiency) photos look the same as JPEG but take about half the space, and they support HDR and Live Photos. Keep Settings › Camera › Formats › High Efficiency on. Your iPhone converts photos to JPEG automatically when you share them with apps or computers that need it, so you rarely need JPEG on the phone itself.
Steps
- Open Settings › Camera › Formats.
- Choose High Efficiency to save photos as HEIC and videos as HEVC (recommended), or Most Compatible for JPEG and H.264.
- For computers, open Settings › Apps › Photos › Transfer to Mac or PC and choose Automatic to convert to JPEG during transfer, or Keep Originals to copy HEIC files.
- To convert big JPEG or PNG photos you already have into HEIC, use a converter such as Spaceclear (iOS has no built-in way).
- To make a JPEG copy of a HEIC photo, share it to an app that needs JPEG, or use a Shortcuts automation with the Convert Image action.
HEIC vs JPEG compared
| Feature | HEIC | JPEG |
|---|---|---|
| Size of the same photo | about 1.5–3 MB (12MP) | about 3–6 MB (12MP) |
| Visible quality | same | same |
| Color depth | 10-bit, supports HDR | 8-bit |
| Live Photos, depth, edits | ✓ | — |
| Opens everywhere | Apple devices, modern Windows, Android, most web apps | everywhere |
| Camera setting | High Efficiency | Most Compatible |
On a 10,000-photo library, staying on HEIC instead of JPEG saves roughly 20–30 GB on the iPhone and the same in iCloud.
When JPEG still makes sense
- You send originals to older software, printers or websites that reject HEIC.
- You work on an older Windows PC without HEIF support and don't want to install it.
- A client or workplace requires JPEG.
In those cases it's usually better to keep HEIC on the phone and convert at export time, rather than switching the camera to JPEG and doubling the size of every photo.
PNG and other big images
Screenshots, saved graphics and images downloaded from the web are often PNG or large JPEG files, sometimes 5–15 MB each. Converting the ones you keep to HEIC saves most of that space with no visible difference.
Converting to HEIC with Spaceclear
Spaceclear finds big JPEG and PNG photos and converts them to HEIC on your iPhone, typically saving about half. Date, place and favorites stay. The new HEIC is saved first; then you review and delete the originals. It does the same for RAW photos (ProRAW file sizes). The free plan includes ten conversions a day.
Related: do Live Photos take up more space? and free up storage without deleting anything.
FAQ
Is HEIC better quality than JPEG?
At the same file size, yes; at the sizes the iPhone uses, they look the same. HEIC also keeps more color information (10-bit), which helps HDR photos and editing.
How do I make my iPhone take JPEG instead of HEIC?
Go to Settings › Camera › Formats and choose Most Compatible. New photos are saved as JPEG and new videos as H.264. Existing photos stay HEIC.
Do HEIC photos open on Windows and Android?
Recent versions of Windows open HEIC with Microsoft's HEIF extensions, and most current Android phones and web apps handle it. When you transfer with Transfer to Mac or PC › Automatic or share from the iPhone, iOS converts to JPEG where needed.
Updated 2026-11-13