Convert ICO to PNG
Get the picture out of an icon file, with its transparent background.
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How it works
Add your images
Drag and drop, paste, or pick files. They upload over an encrypted connection.
Pick a quality or a target size
Use the quality slider, or tell it exactly how many KB or MB you need.
Download
Save each file, or grab them all at once as a ZIP.
An ICO file is a small container. It holds the same icon several times over, at 16, 32, 48 and often 256 pixels, so that Windows or a browser can pick the size it needs. That makes it awkward as a picture: most programs will not place an .ico in a document, a slide or a web page. This page opens the container and gives you the icon as an ordinary PNG.
The largest picture stored in the file is the one that is converted, since it holds the most detail. Transparency is kept exactly, including the soft edges of modern icons. Windows cursor files ending in .cur are read the same way.
Twenty icons convert at once without an account. Files are sent over an encrypted connection, converted on our own servers and deleted, with their results, within one hour.
What is inside an icon file
Open an ICO in a hex editor and you find a short directory followed by the pictures it lists. Older icons store each size as a small bitmap with a separate one-bit mask for transparency, which is why icons from the 1990s have hard, jagged outlines. Since Windows Vista the large sizes are stored as PNG data inside the ICO, with full transparency.
An icon drawn by a designer does not contain one picture scaled five times. The 16 pixel version is often drawn separately, with fewer details and thicker lines, so that it stays legible in a taskbar. This matters when you extract: the largest size is the richest version, and it is not always what the small sizes look like.
Getting the size you need
Because the largest stored picture is used, the PNG is as big as the icon allows, which for most files means 256 by 256 pixels and for old ones only 48 or 32. If you need a smaller PNG, set the size in the Resize panel before downloading, and it is made from that largest version.
Going larger is harder. An icon is small by nature, and enlarging 48 pixels to 512 gives a blur. If the icon belongs to an application or a brand, look for its logo as an SVG or a large PNG. If only the ICO exists, the AI upscaler on this site can double a PNG, which is sometimes enough for a slide or a help page.
Favicons and other people's icons
The common reasons to convert an icon are practical ones: documentation that shows which button to click, a slide listing the tools a team uses, a link list with each site's favicon beside it. For those, a PNG of the icon is what you need, and such descriptive use is normally unproblematic.
Remember, though, that icons are logos, and logos belong to somebody. Showing a product's icon to refer to that product is one thing. Using it as the face of your own product, or changing it, is another, and for that you need the owner's brand guidelines or permission.
Frequently asked questions
Which size do I get from an ICO with several sizes?
The largest one stored in the file. Use Resize in the editor if you want it smaller.
Is the transparent background kept?
Yes. The PNG has the same transparency as the icon, soft edges included.
Can I extract all sizes as separate files?
No. One picture is produced for each icon file. Make other sizes by resizing the largest.
Does it read .cur cursor files?
Yes. The cursor's picture is converted. Its hotspot, the point that does the clicking, has no place in a PNG and is not kept.
Why is my PNG only 32 pixels wide?
Because that is the largest picture the icon contains. Older icons were made for small sizes only.
How do I make an ICO from a PNG again?
With the PNG to ICO page on this site, which writes all the standard sizes into one file.