Does converting to PNG improve quality? No. But it can freeze the quality you have, so it never gets worse.
We converted our standard test photo (3000×2000 JPG, 3.70 MB) to PNG with two free tools and compared each downloaded file with the original, pixel by pixel. 1 Oct 2026, Chrome, not signed in.
Our take: Both kept every pixel (0 difference) — and both made the file 3–3.3× bigger.
- ✓ Result file checked for both
- 0/255 pixel difference
- ! File grows 3× or more
The short answer
- Keep the photo off servers → Squoosh. It converted right in the browser and gave a 12.7 MB PNG (+226%). No account.
- Slightly smaller PNG → EZGIF. 10.5 MB (+183%), 1.7 MB smaller than Squoosh — but the file is uploaded (kept up to 1 hour, per its policy).
- Want a transparent background? Changing the format keeps the background. See our background remover test.
Convert with Squoosh (4 steps)
- Open Squoosh and drop in your JPG.
- In the Compress menu on the right, change MozJPEG to Browser PNG.
- Leave Resize and Reduce palette off (they change size and colors).
- Download the PNG with the blue button at the bottom right.
With EZGIF: upload to EZGIF JPG to PNG, click “Upload!” → “Convert to PNG!” → “Save” in the row under the converted image. The upper Save belongs to the original. Tip: if the PNG is too big, check whether the destination really needs PNG; if not, keep the JPG.
Results at a glance (by our pick score)
| Tool | Go to site | Our pick score | Result file | Size · quality | Where it runs |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Squoosh | Open ↗ | ★★★★★ 5 Highly recommended | 12,675,917-byte PNG (+226%) | 3000×2000 · 0 pixel difference | In your browser (official) |
| EZGIF | Open ↗ | ★★★★☆ 4 Recommended | 10,996,853-byte PNG (+183%) | 3000×2000 · 0 pixel difference | Uploaded, kept up to 1 hour (official) |
Our pick score (out of 5) is an editorial judgment based on what we verified: results, free terms and drawbacks. We also tried FreeConvert, but file selection did not complete, so it has no result and no score.
Try it yourself
Download our standard test photo and try it with any tool.
How we tested
- Input: SiteCurio standard synthetic photo, 3000×2000 JPG, 3,884,296 bytes, SHA-256 37351c0c…
- Quality check: we decoded the JPG and each PNG to RGB and compared every pixel. Both: maximum difference 0/255 (identical).
- Measured by: the EZGIF file was downloaded by an external agent (ChatGPT Dots) and re-checked by Claude (SHA-256 7b558cee…); the Squoosh file was converted by Claude the same day (SHA-256 b3a07d20…).
- Conditions: 1 Oct 2026, Chrome, not signed in. We did not time processing or trace network traffic; where each tool runs follows its official documentation.