HEIC vs WebP
| Property | HEIC | WebP |
|---|---|---|
| Full name | High Efficiency Image File Format (HEIF) with HEVC compression | WebP (Google image format) |
| File extensions | .heic, .heif | .webp |
| Created by | MPEG (ISO/IEC 23008-12); Apple made it the iPhone default | |
| Introduced | 2015 (iPhone default since iOS 11, 2017) | 2010 |
| Compression | Lossy (HEVC / H.265), about half the size of a similar JPG | Lossy or lossless; Google measured lossy WebP 25–34% smaller than JPG |
| Transparency | Supported, rarely used by cameras | Yes, in both lossy and lossless mode |
| Animation | Image sequences supported; Live Photos store their video separately | Yes |
| Typical size | About 1–2.5 MB for a 12-megapixel iPhone photo | — |
| Opens on | iPhone, iPad, Mac and Safari; Windows needs an extension; most websites and Chrome reject it | All current browsers, Windows 10+, macOS 11+; some older apps and upload forms reject it |
| Best for | Storing phone photos in less space | Fast-loading images on websites |
Why convert HEIC to WebP?
HEIC is great for storage on a phone but useless on the web: Chrome, Edge and Firefox cannot display it, and most content management systems refuse the upload. WebP is the opposite. Every current browser shows it, and WordPress, Shopify, Squarespace and most site builders accept it.
Going straight from HEIC to WebP also avoids an extra step. Converting to JPG first and then to WebP compresses the photo twice; doing it in one pass keeps more detail at the same size. As a rule of thumb, a 12-megapixel iPhone photo at quality 82 comes out at roughly the size of the HEIC. If it is going on a web page, shrink the dimensions too with Resize Image: a 4032-pixel-wide photo is far larger than any screen needs.
WebP is less useful outside the web. If the photo is for someone to open in Windows Photos, Word or an email, choose HEIC to JPG instead.