HEIC vs JPG vs PNG
Measured on a 12-megapixel iPhone photo: how big each format is, how long converting takes, and how close each stays to the original. WebP and AVIF too.
The short answer: a 12-megapixel iPhone photo is 2.8 MB as HEIC. As a JPG at Balanced quality it is 2.6 MB and nearly identical (SSIM 0.983). As a PNG it is 23.3 MB, because PNG is lossless. WebP is 15–20% smaller than JPG at similar quality, and AVIF slightly smaller again, but AVIF takes about eight times longer to create.
| Format | Setting | Size | vs HEIC | SSIM | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| HEIC | Original from the iPhone | 2.8 MB | — | 1.000 | — |
| JPG | Small (75) | 1.9 MB | −31% | 0.975 | 1.7 s |
| JPG | Balanced (85) | 2.6 MB | −6% | 0.983 | 1.4 s |
| JPG | Best (95) | 4.8 MB | +70% | 0.994 | 1.5 s |
| WebP | Small (75) | 1.4 MB | −52% | 0.966 | 2.8 s |
| WebP | Balanced (85) | 2.1 MB | −25% | 0.981 | 2.9 s |
| WebP | Best (95) | 3.8 MB | +34% | 0.993 | 3.2 s |
| AVIF | Small (75) | 2.0 MB | −31% | 0.982 | 10.4 s |
| AVIF | Balanced (85) | 2.9 MB | +2% | 0.991 | 11.3 s |
| AVIF | Best (95) | 4.7 MB | +69% | 0.996 | 12.8 s |
| PNG | Lossless | 23.3 MB | +730% | 1.000 | 1.9 s |
| Format | Setting | Size | vs PNG | SSIM | Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PNG | Lossless | 3.7 MB | — | 1.000 | — |
| JPG | Small (75) | 317 KB | −92% | 0.970 | 0.09 s |
| JPG | Balanced (85) | 426 KB | −89% | 0.982 | 0.11 s |
| WebP | Small (75) | 246 KB | −93% | 0.970 | 0.25 s |
| WebP | Balanced (85) | 363 KB | −90% | 0.984 | 0.28 s |
| AVIF | Small (75) | 346 KB | −91% | 0.984 | 1.1 s |
| AVIF | Balanced (85) | 474 KB | −87% | 0.991 | 1.5 s |
Which one to use
JPG opens everywhere: every phone, computer, website and app. At Balanced quality it is about the size of the HEIC and looks the same at normal size. Best quality is only worth it if you will edit and save the photo again: it adds 70% for a small gain.
PNG keeps every pixel. Use it for screenshots, graphics, transparency and files you will keep editing, not for sharing photos: a photo as PNG is eight to nine times larger.
WebP is 15–20% smaller than JPG at similar quality and works in every current browser, but some desktop apps still can’t open it.
AVIF gives the most quality per megabyte here, but creating it in a browser is slow (11 seconds for a 12 MP photo, against 1.4 seconds for JPG), and support outside browsers is still patchy.
HEIC is what iPhones save by default. It is compact, but Windows needs add-ons to open it and many websites refuse it, which is why most people convert it to JPG. See how to stop your iPhone saving HEIC.
How this was measured
Every number comes from Tabmorph’s own converter code, the same code that runs on the converter pages, in Chrome 152 on a MacBook Pro (Apple M3 Pro, 18 GB), October 2026. Times include decoding, encoding and, for JPG, copying the date and camera details.
SSIM (structural similarity) scores how close each file is to the original, from 0 to 1, where 1 means identical. It was computed on brightness in 8 × 8 pixel blocks against a lossless decode of the original. Above about 0.98, differences are hard to see at normal size.
The iPhone photo is one of Apple’s sample photos (Display P3, 2.8 MB); the website photo is a 6-megapixel camera photo resized to 1600 pixels. Results for other photos follow the same pattern but the exact sizes differ: on a smoother photo, the 1600-pixel JPG at Balanced was 200 KB and the WebP 114 KB. Phones are slower than this laptop.
Try it with your own photos: HEIC to JPG, HEIC to PNG, WebP to JPG, AVIF to JPG or PNG to JPG. Nothing is uploaded.
Last updated October 17, 2026.
Questions
Is HEIC better quality than JPG?
HEIC compresses photos more efficiently, so it keeps more detail per megabyte. In this test, converting the iPhone’s 2.8 MB HEIC to a JPG at Balanced quality gave a 2.6 MB file with an SSIM of 0.983, which is very hard to tell apart at normal viewing size.
Why is PNG so much bigger?
PNG is lossless: it keeps every pixel exactly. That suits screenshots, graphics and images you will edit again, but a 12-megapixel photo becomes about 23 MB, roughly eight times the HEIC.
Which format is smallest for the web?
At similar quality, AVIF and WebP beat JPG: on a 1600-pixel photo, WebP at Balanced was 363 KB against 426 KB for JPG with slightly higher SSIM. AVIF matched WebP’s quality at a slightly smaller size (346 KB) but took about four times longer to create in the browser.
Can I compare the quality numbers across formats?
No. “Quality 85” means different things to each encoder: AVIF at 85 is closer to the original than JPG at 85, and bigger. Compare SSIM and size together instead.