HEIC Has to Be Exported Before This Tool Can Read It

Export without throwing the picture away

On a phone, the share sheet or the export command can write JPEG, and sometimes PNG. Choose the highest quality and turn off any option that also shrinks the long edge. A HEIC that becomes a 1600-pixel JPEG has already lost the samples you wanted the upscaler to use. If the camera roll still has the HEIC, you can export again. If a chat app sent you only a small JPEG, the HEIC is gone and the JPEG page is the one that matches the file you actually hold.

We decode JPEG, PNG, WebP, and AVIF. AVIF is a cousin of the HEIC family and it does decode here, which is useful when a converter offers it and does not offer a gentle JPEG. TIFF does not decode. A desktop app that can open HEIC can also save any of the four we read. Do that conversion on your machine. Do not expect the upload form to transcode a .heic filename, and do not rename the extension and hope. The decoder looks at the bytes.

After a clean export, the defect is whatever the photograph had: blur, grain, or a low pixel count. Follow those pages. The HEIC container was never the defect. 2×, denoise, and unblur are available to guests three times a day. 4× and face restore are Pro. 8× is Studio. The preview of a successful job is not watermarked.

What we will not pretend

There is no HEIC decoder on this page, and the public API does not add one. Bigjpg publishes an API page. Ours is at /docs/api and it accepts the same formats as the tool. If a workflow needs HEIC in and HEIC out, this tool is the wrong tool until you are willing to convert. That is a fair reason to use something else, and the comparison pages say so without inventing their prices.

The rest of the policy is the same as every other format. Free pages show ads. Free downloads capped at 3,200 px on the long edge. Full-size downloads on Pro at $12 a month and Studio at $29. No rollover. Cancel anytime, fee not refunded. Failed jobs are not charged. Uploads and results, including the JPEG you exported and then uploaded, are deleted after 24 hours. Your camera roll is the copy that lasts.

If the exported file is still soft because the phone missed focus, unblur is the mode. If it is noisy because the phone climbed ISO, denoise is the mode. If it is simply a crop of a face from a group, 2× is the test and you should compare the result to the person, not to a sharpness number. None of those modes require the original to have been HEIC.

A last look at the export settings

The failure we want you to avoid is a successful upload of the wrong file: a HEIC exported at 1600 pixels because the share sheet was helpful. Check the long edge in the camera roll and in the exported JPEG. They should match. Then diagnose blur, grain, or size on the pages that talk about those defects. The format page is only the gate.

Paying does not open the gate. Pro and Studio change credits, batch, and megabytes. They do not add a HEIC decoder, a TIFF decoder, or an API. If a pipeline needs HEIC in and HEIC out, Bigjpg’s API or another tool is the honest alternative, and our comparison page quotes their caps without pretending we share them. A decode error here is not a charged job.

What to keep beside the slider

The phone saved HEIC because it is smaller at a similar quality. This server reads JPEG, PNG, WebP, and AVIF only. Export one of those at the original long edge. Do not rename the extension. Do not expect Pro or Studio to grow a decoder in exchange for $12 or $29. A refused file is not a charged job. After a clean export, the picture is blur, grain, or a low count, and those pages take over. If your pipeline needs HEIC in and HEIC out, this tool is the wrong tool and the Bigjpg comparison says so without borrowing their API. The exported JPEG you do upload is still deleted after 24 hours. The camera roll is the copy that lasts.

The decision you can defend

Match the long edge in the camera roll to the long edge of the JPEG, PNG, WebP, or AVIF you export. Paying does not add a HEIC decoder. A refused upload is not charged. After the export, use the page for the actual defect. The camera roll remains the archive. Our copy of the export lasts 24 hours.