ICO to PNG
Turn a favicon or cursor file back into a PNG, with transparency kept.
- Runs on your device — the file is never sent anywhere
- No sign-up, no watermarks, no daily quotas
- Free, with no limit on how often you use it
How it works
ICO is a container format from early Windows that survives because it is still what a favicon.ico is. Getting a normal image back out of one is awkward in most software and trivial here.
An ICO holds several images at once
That is the whole point of the format: one file carries 16, 32, 48 and 256 pixel versions so the system can pick the right one for a taskbar, a tab or a desktop. When the browser decodes it you get one of those, normally the largest. The tool tells you how many were inside, so you know what you are not getting.
Transparency is preserved
Icons are almost always transparent around the edges, and PNG keeps that. Choosing JPG instead would flatten it onto a solid colour, which is why only PNG is offered.
Resizing on the way out
You can take the icon at its own size or resample it to a standard one. Scaling a 16-pixel icon up to 256 will be blocky — there is no detail to recover — but scaling a 256 down is clean.
Cursor files too
The .cur format is the same container with a different type flag, so cursors convert as well. The hotspot information a cursor carries is not part of the picture and is not preserved.
ICO to PNG — questions
Which size do I get from a multi-size icon?
The one your browser decodes, normally the largest. The summary says how many the file contained.
Is transparency kept?
Yes. PNG supports it, which is why it is the only output offered.
Can I convert a .cur cursor file?
Yes. It is the same container format. The cursor's hotspot is not part of the image and is not kept.
Why did my file fail to decode?
A few very old ICO files use encodings browsers no longer support, and some files named .ico are really PNGs or GIFs.
Is my file uploaded?
No. It is decoded in your browser.