Convert ICO to PNG
The reverse trip: pull the image out of a favicon or Windows .ico so you can edit, upscale or reuse it. The browser decodes the icon file and the tool saves it as a lossless PNG with transparency preserved. One honest note — when an ICO contains several sizes, the browser hands over the one it considers primary, typically the largest.
Need the other direction? Convert PNG to ICO (favicon)
How it works
Drop in .ico files from favicons, desktop apps or old asset folders; the browser picks each file’s primary entry.
That entry — typically the largest, often 32 or 48px — is written out as a lossless PNG with its alpha untouched.
Download the extracted images singly or zipped, and resist upscaling them; small icons stay small honestly.
ICO vs PNG
The .ico is a container, PNG is a citizen: once extracted, the icon can be edited, upscaled, embedded and version-controlled like any ordinary image. Nothing is lost in the move — only the multi-size packaging, which image editors never understood anyway.
| ICO | PNG | |
|---|---|---|
| Compression | Lossless (BMP or PNG entries) | Lossless |
| Transparency | Yes (full alpha) | Yes (full alpha) |
| Animation | No | No |
| Support | Universal for favicons | Universal — every browser, editor and OS |
| Best for | Favicons and Windows app icons | Logos, screenshots, graphics with transparency |
Frequently asked questions
No — that is the whole reason I built this. The conversion runs in your browser using WebAssembly, so your files never leave your device; there is no server in the loop at all. It also means the tool keeps working offline once the page has loaded, and there is no file size limit beyond your device’s memory.
The one your browser selects as primary when decoding, which is typically the largest image in the file. If you specifically need the 16px version of a multi-size icon, a dedicated icon editor gives you per-entry access — this tool is built for the common "just give me the image" case.
Yes — icon transparency (including full 8-bit alpha in modern ICOs) carries into the PNG exactly. The extracted image drops onto any background cleanly.
Because favicons are small — many older sites ship only a 16 or 32px icon, and no converter can invent detail that was never there. The PNG faithfully preserves what the ICO contains; if you need something bigger, look for the site’s apple-touch-icon.png, which is usually 180px.
The .ico rarely tops 48px, so check the alternatives first: apple-touch-icon.png is usually 180px, and many sites ship a 512px PWA icon in their manifest. The extraction shines when those don’t exist — legacy sites, internal tools, desktop .ico files — or when you specifically want the tiny sizes exactly as drawn.
It won’t upscale — a 32px favicon becomes a 32px PNG, and enlarging it afterwards just makes soft mush. It also hands over one entry (the largest), not all of them; per-size access needs an icon editor. For dropping a site icon into a document at native size, though, it is exactly right — with ICO to WebP as the lighter sibling for web pages.
Related tools
Convert PNG to ICO (favicon)
Convert PNG to a multi-size ICO favicon in your browser — free, no upload. One file with 16, 32 and 48px icons with full alpha, ready for any site root.
Convert ICO to JPG
Convert ICO to JPG in your browser — free, private, no upload. Extract a favicon or Windows icon as a JPG that any app, upload form or CMS will accept.
Convert ICO to WebP
Convert ICO to WebP in your browser — free, private, no upload. Extract an icon as a compact WebP with transparency preserved — ideal for use in pages.
Convert ICO to AVIF
Convert ICO to AVIF in your browser — free, private, no upload. Extract a favicon into the smallest modern image format, alpha channel kept fully intact.