Convert HEIC to WebP Online
Turn iPhone HEIC photos into WebP images every modern browser can display.
Drop your HEIC file here
or click to select
How HEIC to WebP works
Upload HEIC
Drag & drop or click to select your HEIC file.
Choose Options
Adjust quality, size, or other output settings if needed.
Download WebP
Click Convert and your WebP file downloads instantly.
About HEIC to WebP conversion
HEIC and WebP are both modern, highly efficient image formats - But they live in different worlds. HEIC is Apple's camera capture format; no web browser will display it in an tag. WebP is Google's web delivery format with over 97% global browser support. Converting HEIC to WebP is the natural step when iPhone photos need to be published on a website: you keep small, efficient files while gaining universal browser compatibility.
Because both formats use sophisticated modern compression, the size change is modest - Unlike converting to JPG or PNG, a WebP is typically only slightly larger than the source HEIC at equivalent visual quality. WebP also supports alpha transparency, so any transparency in the HEIC carries across. For web developers, small WebP files translate directly into better Core Web Vitals scores - Particularly Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) - And lower bandwidth costs.
As of 2025, WebP is supported in all versions of Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Opera, and Safari 14+. That makes WebP the safe choice for serving iPhone photography on the web, where uploading raw HEIC files would simply fail to render for every visitor.
Where WebP comes from
WebP was released by Google in September 2010, derived from the VP8 video codec the company acquired with On2 Technologies earlier that year. The initial spec only supported lossy compression; lossless and alpha-channel support were added in 2011, and animated WebP arrived in 2012. Adoption stalled until Apple finally shipped WebP support in Safari 14 (September 2020) and macOS Big Sur, which made WebP viable as a primary web format. It is the natural delivery partner for HEIC: both are video-codec-derived image formats of the mid-2010s, but WebP won the browser while HEIC won the camera roll - so iPhone photos headed for a website almost always make this exact hop.
HEIC vs WebP at a glance
| HEIC | WebP | |
|---|---|---|
| Compression | Lossy HEVC / H.265 (10-bit) | Lossy VP8 or lossless |
| Transparency | Yes | Yes (alpha channel) |
| Typical file size (12 MP photo) | 1.4-2 MB | 1-1.8 MB at Q80 (roughly comparable) |
| Browser display | Effectively none (recent Safari only) | Universal since 2020 (Safari 14+) |
| Animation support | No (still images) | Yes (animated WebP) |
| Best for | iPhone capture, Apple ecosystem storage | Web/mobile hero images, e-commerce |
Real-world workflow — Shopify store owner ships iPhone product photography straight to the web
- Shoot 240 product photos on an iPhone 15 Pro; the camera saves 10-bit HEICs totaling about 420 MB.
- Batch-convert HEIC to WebP at Q80 through heic.now - browsers can't display HEIC, so a web-native format is mandatory.
- Upload the WebP set to Shopify's CDN; total payload lands around 380 MB with no visible quality change.
- Run PageSpeed Insights on the catalog page; every image now renders in Chrome, Firefox, and Safari without a fallback chain.
- Keep the original HEICs in Photos as the compact archive masters - they stay smaller than any JPG backup would be.
Recommended conversion settings
| Use case | Settings |
|---|---|
| E-commerce product photos | Lossy Q80, sharp YUV, strip metadata |
| Blog hero images | Lossy Q75, 1600 px wide, convert P3 to sRGB |
| Transparent cutouts from HEIC | Lossless, alpha-quality 100 |
| Image-heavy gallery thumbnails | Lossy Q65, 400 px, no metadata |
| Social preview cards (OG images) | Lossy Q80, 1200x630 px, sRGB |
Where will your WebP file open?
| Platform | HEIC | WebP |
|---|---|---|
| macOS Preview | ✓ | ✓ |
| Windows Photos | ~ | ✓ |
| Gmail (web) | ~ | ✓ |
| Outlook desktop | ~ | ~ |
| iOS Photos | ✓ | ✓ |
| Android Gallery | ~ | ✓ |
| Adobe Photoshop | ✓ | ~ |
| Chrome / Safari 14+ / Firefox | ~ | ✓ |
| Slack / Discord | ✗ | ✓ |
When to convert HEIC to WebP
Web browsers cannot be relied on to display HEIC - Uploading an iPhone photo to a website usually means converting it first. WebP is the web-native counterpart to HEIC: a modern, efficient format supported by Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Safari 14+. Converting HEIC to WebP is the direct path from an iPhone camera roll to fast-loading web pages without giving up the small-file advantage.
Bloggers, e-commerce sellers, and content teams who shoot product photos and article images on iPhone convert to WebP before uploading to their CMS. The result keeps page payloads small, improves Core Web Vitals scores, and avoids the outright HEIC rejection that WordPress, Shopify, and most upload forms still enforce.
Because both formats use modern lossy codecs, the size change is modest - Unlike converting to JPG, where files often grow. Converting at 80–90% quality preserves the visual quality of the original while producing a file every browser can render natively.
HEIC to WebP tips
- Target 80–85% WebP quality for web images - This preserves the visual quality of the iPhone original at web-appropriate file sizes.
- Use WebP for hero images, product photos, and any image loaded above the fold - These have the greatest impact on page load speed.
- Transparency in the HEIC source is preserved in the WebP output - Both formats support a full alpha channel.
- Run a quick visual comparison before deploying - Open the original and the WebP side-by-side at 1:1 zoom to confirm quality is acceptable.
- If your CMS or upload form rejects HEIC (most do), converting the whole shoot to WebP in one batch is the fastest route to web-ready assets.
Related tools
Formats involved
HEIC – High Efficiency Image Container
WebP – Web Picture Format (Google)
HEIC to WebP — frequently asked questions
Related guides & articles
Maybe you wanted something else?
- If you need even smaller web files → HEIC to AVIF
- If recipients need maximum compatibility → HEIC to JPG
- If you need lossless editing output → HEIC to PNG
- If the HEIC itself is just too large → Compress HEIC