What happens when you convert ICO to JPG
- The image is decoded and written as a baseline JPEG at 90 percent quality.
- JPG has no transparency, so transparent areas are filled with white.
- ICO is lossless and JPG is not, so the file shrinks a lot, at the cost of some fine detail around sharp edges.
How to convert ICO to JPG online
- Press "Choose ICO files" and select one or more files, or drag them onto the box. You can add files of any size your device can hold in memory.
- Adjust the settings if you need to. Lower quality gives a smaller file.
- Press "Convert to JPG". Images convert in a second or two each.
- Save each JPG with its download button. Close the tab and every trace of the files is gone from memory.
Why convert ICO to JPG?
ICO files usually come from website favicons and Windows program icons. People convert them to JPG because JPG opens everywhere and keeps photos small, which is why upload forms and email favour it.
In short, ICO is good at what it was made for, and JPG is the more practical choice when the file has to open, upload or print somewhere else. ICO shown by browsers as a favicon; opening one directly depends on the viewer, while JPG opens in every browser and image viewer.
How to convert ICO to JPG on Windows, Mac, iPhone and Android
On Windows
Open this page in Chrome, Edge or Firefox, drag your ICO files in from File Explorer, and press Convert. Each JPG is saved to your Downloads folder. Paint can also re-save an image as JPG with Save as, provided Windows can open the ICO in the first place.
On a Mac
Safari, Chrome and Firefox all work. Drag the ICO files from Finder onto the drop zone and the JPG files land in Downloads. Preview can do single images too: open the file, choose File, then Export, and pick JPEG.
On iPhone and iPad
Open the page in Safari and tap Choose ICO files. You can pick from Photos or from the Files app. The converted JPG appears in Files, in the Downloads folder; to put it in your photo library, open it there, tap Share and choose Save Image.
On Android
Open the page in Chrome, tap Choose ICO files and pick them from Files or your gallery. The JPG is saved to the Download folder, where any file manager can find it.
Best settings for ICO to JPG
JPG is lossy, so the Quality setting trades file size against detail. Best is 95, High is 90, Medium is 80 and Small file is 65 on the usual 0 to 100 scale. At High the difference from the ICO is invisible for photos; at Small file you may see softness around text and fine patterns.
The Maximum width setting shrinks large images before encoding. A 4000 pixel phone photo reduced to 1920 pixels loses three quarters of its pixels and most of its size, yet still fills a laptop screen.
ICO vs JPG: the differences
| ICO | JPG | |
|---|---|---|
| Full name | Windows icon | Joint Photographic Experts Group image |
| Type | image | image |
| Created by | Microsoft | the Joint Photographic Experts Group |
| First released | 1985 | 1992 |
| Compression | Lossless | Lossy |
| Transparency | Yes | No |
| Animation | No | No |
| Vector or raster | Raster | Raster |
| Colour | up to 32-bit colour with alpha, at most 256 by 256 pixels | 24-bit colour, 16.7 million colours |
| In a browser | shown by browsers as a favicon; opening one directly depends on the viewer | opens in every browser and image viewer |
| Common uses | website favicons and Windows program icons | camera photos, web images and email attachments |
| MIME type | image/x-icon | image/jpeg |
About ICO and JPG files
What is an ICO file?
An ICO file is a small container that can hold several sizes of the same icon, and since Windows Vista each size may be stored as an embedded PNG. The largest size an ICO can hold is 256 by 256 pixels.
What is a JPG file?
JPG discards fine detail the eye is least sensitive to, which is why a photo shrinks to a tenth of its raw size but text and sharp edges pick up blocky artefacts. Every re-save at a lossy setting throws away a little more.
ICO to JPG not working? Common problems
- Colours look slightly different. Browsers convert images to the standard sRGB colour space when they decode them, so wide-gamut and CMYK images can shift a little.
- A phone photo comes out upright even though it looked sideways elsewhere. That is correct: the rotation stored in the photo is applied during conversion, so the JPG is always the right way up.
- Transparent areas turned white. JPG cannot store transparency; convert to PNG or WebP instead if you need it.
Convert ICO to JPG from the command line
If you work in a terminal, ImageMagick converts ICO to JPG in one line:
magick input.ico -quality 90 output.jpgTo convert every ICO in a folder at once, use magick mogrify -format jpg *.ico. The converter on this page does the same job without installing anything.
ICO to JPG converter FAQ
Will I lose quality converting ICO to JPG?
A little, because JPG is lossy. At the default setting the difference is hard to see, and the file is much smaller.
Why is the JPG a different size from the ICO?
The JPG is usually far smaller, because lossy compression discards detail the ICO kept.
Are my ICO files uploaded anywhere?
No. The conversion runs inside this browser tab using your browser's own image decoder, so your files stay on your device. You can disconnect from the internet after the page has loaded and it still works.
Can I convert several ICO files to JPG at once?
Yes. Select or drop as many files as you like; they are converted one after another and each gets its own download button.
How do I open a JPG file?
JPG opens in every browser and image viewer. JPG is common for camera photos, web images and email attachments.
Is this ICO to JPG converter free?
Yes. There is no sign-up, no watermark and no limit on how many files you convert. The site is paid for by advertising, and because conversions run on your device there is no server cost per file.
Can I convert ICO to JPG on my phone?
Yes. The converter works in Safari on iPhone and iPad and in Chrome on Android. Converted files are saved to the Downloads folder.