Converts JPG to lossless PNG; since JPG never had transparency, the result stays fully opaque and can be larger than the original.
Introduction
A JPG and a PNG store image data very differently. JPG uses lossy compression that discards some visual detail every time the file is saved, in exchange for a much smaller file. PNG uses lossless compression: once an image is inside a PNG, nothing more is thrown away, no matter how many times it's re-saved. Converting a JPG to PNG switches the file over to that lossless format going forward — but it's worth being clear about what that conversion can and can't do to the image itself.
How the Conversion Works
This tool reads your JPG's pixel data and writes it back out as a PNG using standard lossless PNG compression — there's no intermediate image-editing step. It accepts .jpg and .jpeg files up to 15 MB; there's no separate dimension limit beyond that file-size cap.
What Converting to PNG Does — and Doesn't — Fix
JPEG's lossy compression, defined by the Joint Photographic Experts Group standard, discards some image detail at the moment a JPG is saved — by a camera, phone, or editing tool. That loss happens once, and it's permanent: no later conversion can restore detail that JPEG compression has already thrown away. Converting to PNG doesn't add loss on top of that (PNG's own compression is lossless), but it also can't undo what's already gone. The PNG you download will faithfully preserve whatever JPEG artifacts — blotchy colour blocks around sharp edges, soft blurring in fine detail — were already present in the source file, just without losing anything further from this point on.
One consequence worth knowing: for photographic images, a PNG is often larger than the JPG it came from, sometimes noticeably so. Photos have continuous, gradually shifting colour and tone across the image, which is exactly the kind of data JPEG's lossy scheme is built to compress efficiently by discarding detail the eye won't easily notice. PNG's lossless compression can't take that shortcut — it has to represent the data it's given without throwing anything away, so it often can't shrink photographic content as effectively. Don't expect a smaller download just because PNG sounds like the more modern or capable format; for a photo, the reverse is common.
Converting to PNG Doesn't Add Transparency
A common assumption is that switching an image to PNG format will let you make its background transparent. It won't. A JPG never has an alpha (transparency) channel to begin with, so there's nothing for the conversion to carry over — the resulting PNG is exactly as opaque as the JPG it came from, just stored in a format that's technically capable of transparency it doesn't yet have. If you need an actual transparent background, that requires removing the background from the image itself as a separate editing step, not just changing the file format.
After the Conversion
The result shows whether the PNG came out smaller or larger than your original JPG, labelled as compression or expansion. As explained above, expansion is common for photographic images specifically because of how the two compression methods differ — it isn't a sign that anything went wrong.
What to Check Before You Use the Result
- The PNG won't look better than the JPG did. Any blurring, blockiness, or colour banding already present in your JPG carries straight through — PNG can't remove JPEG compression artifacts, only stop adding new ones.
- No transparency is added. As covered above, this conversion changes the file format, not the image content — a fully opaque JPG produces a fully opaque PNG.
- The file has to genuinely be a JPEG, not just named like one. The upload is checked against the actual JPEG file signature, not just the file extension, so renaming a different image format to end in
.jpgwon't get it past validation. - Camera or phone metadata isn't carried over. If your original JPG had embedded details like the date taken or device information, that data isn't part of the pixel information this tool converts, so it won't appear in the resulting PNG.
- Multiple files convert separately. Drop several JPGs at once and each becomes its own PNG; "Download all" bundles the separate results into a single ZIP file rather than combining the images themselves.
When This Is the Right Tool
- A destination requires PNG specifically: some upload forms, templates, or design tools only accept PNG files regardless of what the source image actually needs.
- You want to guarantee no further quality loss from this point on: once an image is a PNG, repeated saves and edits won't compress it any further, which JPG can't guarantee.
- You're about to add transparency yourself: converting to PNG first is a reasonable step before using an image editor to remove the background, since PNG is the format that will actually store the transparency once you add it.
If your only goal is a smaller file, converting a photographic JPG to PNG usually won't help and can make the file larger — Image Compressor is a better fit for reducing file size while keeping the same format.
Example
A teacher has a photo saved as a JPG and needs to drop it into a document template that only accepts PNG uploads. Converting it here produces a PNG that looks identical to the original photo — same detail, same colours, same file size ballpark — ready to use wherever PNG is required, though it won't gain transparency or lose any of the JPEG compression already baked into the original photo.
FAQs
What JPG files can I convert?
.jpg or .jpeg files, up to 15 MB. There's no separate dimension limit beyond that file-size cap.
Will converting to PNG improve my image's quality?
No. Any detail already lost to JPEG compression stays lost — PNG can't recover it. The conversion simply stops any further compression loss from this point forward.
Does converting to PNG make the background transparent?
No. A JPG has no transparency to begin with, so the PNG that comes out is just as opaque as the JPG that went in. Adding transparency requires editing the image itself.
Why is my PNG bigger than my original JPG?
This is expected for photographs. PNG's lossless compression generally can't shrink photo-like images as much as JPEG's lossy compression can, so a size increase is common, not a sign of a problem.
Is my file kept afterward?
No. Files are processed only to complete the conversion and are automatically deleted within 2 hours — see the Privacy Policy for details.
What if I need to go the other way?
Use PNG To JPG to convert a PNG back to JPG.
