Updated · Built and checked by the PlinzoTools team, formulas tested against published sources
Convert a Windows .ico icon file to JPG instantly, right in your browser.
Upload a ICO file to convert it to JPG.
This tool converts a Windows .ico icon file to JPG entirely in your browser. ICO is a container format built for Windows icons and website favicons -- a single .ico file can bundle several resolutions of the same image (e.g. 16×16, 32×32, 256×256) so the operating system or browser picks whichever fits. This tool reads the real ICO byte structure and extracts the largest embedded image, then re-encodes it as JPG.
Click the upload area and choose an .ico file. The converted preview appears immediately; click Download to save it as a real JPG file.
Need to go the other way? Use the JPG to ICO tab above, or open the JPG to ICO converter directly.
JPG is a far more widely supported, general-purpose image format than ICO -- most photo editors, social platforms, and websites don't accept .ico uploads at all, so converting to JPG is usually the first step to actually using an icon's artwork somewhere else (editing it, sharing it, or repurposing a favicon's image as a regular graphic).
The biggest thing to understand about converting an icon to JPG is what happens to see-through pixels. Icons usually have transparent corners or a transparent background, and JPG cannot store transparency at all. Before drawing your icon, this tool fills the canvas with solid white, and then draws the icon on top. Anywhere the icon was transparent, you get white in the JPG. An icon with a dark logo and a transparent background will therefore look like a dark logo on a white square.
If white is the wrong background for your purpose, for example you want the icon on a dark page, use the ICO to PNG tool to keep transparency and add your own background in an editor.
An .ico file may hold several images at once. The converter reads the icon directory, picks the largest embedded PNG entry, and uses that as the source. If the biggest entry is 64x64, your JPG will be 64x64 pixels. Nothing is scaled up, so a tiny icon will produce a tiny JPG that looks pixelated if enlarged.
JPG is a lossy format, and the tool encodes at a quality setting of 0.92 out of 1. That is high, but flat-color artwork with sharp edges, which is what most icons are, is exactly where JPEG compression shows faint fuzzy halos or ringing around edges and text. For a 256x256 icon this is usually subtle. For very small icons like 16x16, a single pixel of noise is a large fraction of the image, so the effect is more noticeable.
The result may also be larger than you expect for a simple graphic, because JPG is not efficient at encoding large areas of one color the way PNG is. If file size matters more than compatibility, PNG may be the better output for an icon.
Say you have a favicon with a blue circular logo on a transparent background whose largest entry is 128x128, and you need a JPG for an upload form that rejects everything else. The output will be a 128x128 JPG showing the blue circle on a white square. The corners outside the circle are white, not transparent. If the form displays the image on a gray page, you will see a white box around the circle. Nothing in this tool changes that, so decide up front whether a white box is acceptable.
Avoid JPG if you plan to edit the image again, because each re-save of a JPEG adds more compression loss. Convert once and keep the original .ico as your master copy.
No -- the whole conversion happens locally in your browser. Your file never leaves your device.
The largest embedded image is used, so you get the highest-resolution version the icon file contains.
JPG has no transparency. The tool paints the canvas white before drawing the icon, so any transparent area becomes white.
The JPG is encoded at 0.92 on a scale of 0 to 1. You cannot change this value in the tool.
Not directly. The background is always white. To use another color, convert to PNG and add a background in an image editor, then export to JPG.
Only when a JPG is required. For sharp-edged artwork PNG is normally sharper and keeps transparency, while JPG is best reserved for photographs and for places that accept nothing else.
ICO and JPG (JPEG) aren't interchangeable: ICO works well for favicons and Windows application icons, whereas JPG (JPEG) is the better fit for photographs and images with smooth colour gradients.
| ICO | JPG (JPEG) | |
|---|---|---|
| File extension | .ico | .jpg |
| Compression | a container holding PNG or BMP images | lossy |
| Transparency | Full transparency (alpha channel) | No transparency |
| Animation | Single image | Single image |
| Colours | up to 32-bit colour with alpha | 16.7 million (24-bit) |
| Best for | favicons and Windows application icons | photographs and images with smooth colour gradients |
| Support | all browsers for favicons and Windows for icons | every browser, phone, camera and editor |
The conversion happens in your browser; the file is never uploaded.