Is HEIF the same as HEIC?

Not exactly. HEIF is the container format and HEIC is a HEIF file whose images use HEVC compression. Every HEIC is a HEIF, but a HEIF can also use other codecs.

A .hif file is a HEIF image, usually from a dedicated camera such as recent Canon, Sony or Fujifilm models. These are often 10-bit HEVC images and can be converted like any other HEIF file.

Is AVIF a type of HEIF?

Yes, in structure. AVIF uses the same HEIF container but stores images compressed with the AV1 codec instead of HEVC. That's why AVIF is often described as HEIF's royalty-free cousin.

Why do iPhones save .heic and not .heif?

Apple uses the .heic extension because its photos are HEVC-compressed HEIF files. The .heic extension tells software exactly which codec is needed to decode the image.

Can I convert HEIF to JPG the same way as HEIC?

Yes. The converter on this page decodes HEIF and HEIC files, including camera .hif files, and outputs a standard JPG. Everything runs in your browser.

HEIC vs HEIF: What's the Difference?

The quick fix

Got a .heif, .heic or .hif file that won't open? It doesn't matter much which one it is. Drop it into the converter on this page and you'll get a JPG that opens anywhere. The decoder runs inside your browser, so the file stays on your device.

The one-line answer

HEIF is the box. HEIC is the box with HEVC-compressed photos in it.

That's the whole distinction. The rest of this page is detail, but useful detail if you've ever wondered why one HEIF file opens and another doesn't.

Container vs codec

Image and video formats usually have two layers:

A container that organises the data: which images are in the file, how big they are, what metadata goes with them, how they relate to each other.
A codec that does the actual compression of the pixels.

You already know this from video. An .mp4 file is a container. Inside it, the video might be H.264, HEVC or AV1. Two .mp4 files can need completely different decoders.

HEIF works the same way. It was standardised by MPEG (as ISO/IEC 23008-12) and is built on the same ISO base media file format family as MP4. It describes how to store images, image sequences and their metadata. It doesn't, on its own, say how the pixels are compressed.

What HEIF can hold

The HEIF container is flexible. A single file can include:

one image or many
an image split into a grid of tiles (which is how iPhones store their photos)
thumbnails
auxiliary images such as depth maps and alpha (transparency) masks
image sequences, like a burst or a short animation
EXIF and XMP metadata
colour profiles

That flexibility is why HEIF is called a "container format" and not just an image format.

Where HEIC comes in

HEIC stands for High Efficiency Image Container, and in practice it means: a HEIF file whose images are compressed with HEVC (H.265). When Apple adopted HEIF in iOS 11, it chose HEVC as the codec and saved files with the .heic extension.

So all iPhone photos are both HEIF and HEIC. "HEIF" describes the structure; "HEIC" tells you the codec.

File extensions

Extension	What it usually is	Where you'll see it
.heic	HEIF with HEVC-coded images	iPhone and iPad photos, many Android phones
.heics	HEIF image sequence with HEVC	Bursts and animations (rare)
.heif	Generic HEIF; codec could be HEVC or something else	Some Android phones, software exports
.hif	HEIF from a dedicated camera, often 10-bit HEVC	Recent Canon, Sony and Fujifilm cameras
.avif	HEIF-style container with AV1-coded images	Websites, newer apps and browsers

Extensions are just labels, and software doesn't always use them consistently. A .heif file from one phone may be byte-for-byte the same structure as a .heic from another.

Brands: how software really identifies the file

Inside every HEIF file, near the start, is a small header that lists brands: short four-letter codes that declare what the file contains and what a reader needs to support. A few you might meet:

mif1: a general HEIF still image
msf1: a general HEIF image sequence
heic and heix: HEVC-coded still images (heix covers extended profiles such as 10-bit)
hevc and hevx: HEVC-coded image sequences
avif: AV1-coded still images

Well-written software reads the brands, not the file extension, to decide how to open a file. That's why renaming a .hif to .heic generally changes nothing: the brands inside are what count.

Where AVIF fits in

AVIF (AV1 Image File Format) is the same idea with a different codec. It uses the HEIF container structure but compresses images with AV1, a royalty-free codec developed by the Alliance for Open Media.

That makes AVIF a sibling of HEIC:

Same box, so the same kinds of features: transparency, high bit depth, HDR, image sequences.
Different contents, so different decoders and different licensing.

The licensing difference matters. HEVC is covered by patents, which is a large part of why HEIC support is patchy outside Apple. AV1 was designed to be free to use, so modern browsers have adopted AVIF much more widely than HEIC. If you want a small, modern file that browsers can display, HEIC to AVIF is an option. If you want maximum compatibility, JPG still wins.

Why some HEIF files open and others don't

Because HEIF is just a container, "supports HEIF" can mean very different things:

Codec support. A viewer may understand the container but lack an HEVC decoder. On Windows, this is exactly the gap that Microsoft's HEVC Video Extensions fill.
Grid support. iPhone photos are made of tiles. Some basic readers only show the first tile, or a jumbled mosaic.
Bit depth. A 10-bit .hif file from a camera may defeat software that only expects 8-bit images.
Extras. Depth maps, alpha masks and sequences are often ignored or cause errors in simpler apps.

Our converter uses libheif, a widely used open-source HEIF library, so it handles grids, 10-bit images and alpha.

How to convert a HEIF or HEIC file

Drop your .heif, .heic or .hif files onto the converter on this page.
Pick JPG for maximum compatibility, or HEIF to PNG if you need lossless output.
Download the results individually or as one ZIP.

Which name should you use?

In everyday conversation, either. Most people say HEIC because that's what's on their iPhone files. If you're being precise, use HEIF for the format family and HEIC for the HEVC flavour. Want the bigger picture? Start with what is HEIC.

HEIC vs HEIF