Convert BMP to JPG
Convert BMP images to JPG free, in your browser.
Change the format. Drop an image, a PDF or a Word document.
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BMP files turn up from old Windows software, from scanners with a default nobody changed, and from equipment that has been running unattended in a corner since about 2004. They are enormous, because a BMP is usually not compressed at all: a ten megapixel picture is thirty megabytes, every time, whatever is in it.
JPG is the obvious fix and the reduction is dramatic. Falls of ninety-five per cent or more are ordinary, because you are moving from a format that stores each pixel as three raw bytes to one that was designed for photographs and is very good at them. There is no realistic case for keeping a photographic BMP once you have the JPG.
The only thing worth checking first is whether the picture is a photograph at all. If it is a screenshot, a scanned line drawing or a diagram, JPG will soften the edges and add faint haloes around text while saving less than you would hope. Those belong in PNG, which is lossless and handles flat colour well. BMP has no transparency, so there is nothing on that front to lose.
How to convert BMP to JPG
- Drop your BMP files onto the box above, or paste them with Ctrl+V.
- Save each file from its tile, or take them all at once.
What changes
Detail is discarded
BMP keeps every pixel exactly and JPG does not, so the encoder throws away the fine detail your eye is worst at noticing. At high quality this is invisible.
BMP and JPG side by side
| BMP | JPG | |
|---|---|---|
| Where it came from | 1987, as part of Windows | 1992, from the Joint Photographic Experts Group |
| Throws detail away | No, every pixel is kept | Yes |
| Transparency | No | No |
| Where it opens | Windows software. Rare on the web, because the files are enormous. | Everywhere, on everything, including hardware old enough to vote |
| Best at | Almost nothing today. It exists because old Windows tools still emit it. | Photographs, and anything going somewhere you cannot predict |
More on choosing between JPG, PNG, WebP and AVIF.
Questions about BMP to JPG
Why are BMP files so enormous?
Because a BMP normally stores every pixel raw, with no compression whatsoever. Three bytes per pixel, multiplied by the width and the height, plus a small header. That is the whole format. It was designed in 1987 for Windows to hand images to the screen quickly, at a time when the alternative was slow to decode, and file size mattered less than a program being simple. Nothing about it was ever meant for storage or for sending.
How much smaller will the JPG be?
Usually between twenty and fifty times smaller for a photograph, which is the largest saving of any conversion here. A 30 MB BMP routinely becomes a 700 KB JPG that nobody could tell apart from it in a side-by-side comparison. The saving is smaller for flat graphics and screenshots, where JPG is working against the grain of the image; those do better as PNG, which will still be a fraction of the BMP.
Do I lose anything real?
Detail, in principle, and almost nothing you would notice in practice on a photograph at the default quality. It is worth being honest that this is a one-way step: the BMP held every pixel exactly and the JPG will not, so keep the original if it is a master copy of something that matters. For the far more common case of a file that is merely large and awkward, convert it and delete the BMP.
Should I use PNG instead?
If the image is a screenshot, a diagram, a scanned drawing or anything with text and hard edges in it, yes. PNG is lossless, so nothing is softened, and it will still be a small fraction of the BMP because it compresses flat colour well. JPG is the right answer for photographs specifically, and the wrong one for pictures of a screen. The content of the image decides this, not the fact that it started as a BMP.