Convert Image to ICO Online Free
Turn JPG, PNG, WebP or BMP into .ico files in every size at once. Batch conversion, transparency preserved, and nothing ever leaves your browser.
How to convert an image to ICO
Start by dragging your files onto the dashed area at the top of the page, or click it to open your system file picker. The tool accepts JPG, PNG, WebP, BMP and GIF, and you can upload several images at once — each one becomes an independent .ico file. As soon as the upload finishes, the first image shows up in the enlarged preview and the full list appears just below the options, so you can switch between files with a single click.
The next step is deciding how the image sits inside the icon square. Fill scales the picture up until it covers the whole frame and crops the overflow, which is ideal for rectangular photos. Contain fits the entire image inside the square and leaves empty bands on the sides, preserving wide logos without cutting anything off. Stretch distorts the image to match the frame exactly, which is only useful when the distortion does not matter.
Right beside it you will find the background colour and the corner rounding. Leave the background transparent to keep the PNG alpha channel intact, or pick a solid colour when the icon has to read well on any surface. The rounding ranges from a plain square to a perfect circle and is applied identically across every size generated.
Then look over the size list, which comes fully ticked. Every ticked resolution becomes its own .ico file: 16×16, 32×32 and 48×48 cover browsers and File Explorer, 128×128 and 256×256 handle the large Windows views, and the 96×96 to 512×512 options cover Google TV, iOS home screen shortcuts and Android PWA icons. Untick whatever you will not use — the total weight and the file count update live in the stats panel. Finally, hit the download button: with a single size ticked the .ico downloads directly, and with two or more the icons arrive together in a ZIP, each one named with its resolution at the end. If you uploaded several images, the button next to it packs the entire batch in one go.
What the ICO format is and when to use it
ICO is a container format created by Microsoft back in the 1980s and still supported in every version of Windows. What sets it apart from PNG and JPG is simple: instead of holding a single image, it stores several versions of the same artwork at different resolutions inside one file. Whatever displays the icon picks the version closest to the size it needs, avoiding the blur you get when a system brute-force shrinks a large image.
Where .ico is still required
The most common use is the favicon.ico at the root of a website, which browsers fetch automatically even without a single HTML tag pointing to it. It is also the format required for Windows executable icons, custom shortcuts, folders with a customised look and installers built with tools like Inno Setup, NSIS or Electron Builder.
ICO with bitmap or PNG inside?
Since Windows Vista the format accepts PNG-compressed entries, which cuts the weight substantially at high resolutions. This tool uses the recommended strategy: sizes up to 64×64 are written as 32-bit bitmaps for compatibility with older software, while 128×128 and larger use PNG inside so the file does not balloon.
ICO, PNG or SVG for a favicon?
The ideal setup combines all three. The .ico covers older browsers and the automatic root lookup, PNG handles iOS and Android shortcuts, and SVG delivers perfect sharpness on high-density screens. If you want the complete set with the HTML code ready to paste, use the favicon generator; if all you need is the .ico file, this page sorts it out in two clicks.