PNG to ICO Converter

Convert PNG to ICO: What This Tutorial Covers

ICO is the native Windows icon container, and it is what a browser fetches when it asks any site for /favicon.ico. This walk-through takes a PNG and turns it into a clean ICO at the icon size you need — for a website favicon, a Windows application or shortcut icon, or a desktop launcher. ICO can store a 32-bit image (24-bit color plus an 8-bit alpha channel), so the transparency in your PNG is carried through and the icon stays crisp on any tab color or wallpaper.

How to Convert PNG to ICO

1. Upload Your PNG File: Drag and drop your PNG onto the page or click "+ Add Files". A square source works best — start from at least a 256x256 PNG so the icon is sharp at every size.
2. Pick the Icon Size: Open Advanced Options and, under Image resolution, open the Preset dropdown. It offers 16, 24, 32, 48, 64, 128, 180, 192, and 256 pixels; 256 is the default. This is the one control that matters for ICO — quality, palette, and bit-depth settings do not apply here.
3. Confirm Transparency (Optional): No setting is needed — alpha from the PNG is preserved automatically. Just make sure your PNG already has a transparent background if you want one.
4. Convert and Download: Click "Convert" and download your .ico file. No sign-up, no watermark.

Walk-through: Choosing the Right Icon Size

xconvert writes a single, square ICO at the resolution you choose from the Preset dropdown, so pick the one that matches where the icon will live:

• Website favicon (broad compatibility): pick 48 or 32. Browsers downscale a larger icon cleanly, so a 48x48 favicon.ico displays well in tabs, bookmarks, and the Windows taskbar for pinned sites.
• Crisp favicon on high-DPI screens: pick 256. Modern browsers happily pull a single large icon and scale it down; 256 keeps edges clean on Retina and 4K displays.
• Windows app / shortcut icon: pick 256 for the main icon. Windows Vista and later support 256x256 32-bit icons and scale between 32 and 256 as the display context changes.
• Tiny UI / toolbar icon: pick 16 or 24 and start from artwork that still reads at that size — fine detail disappears below 32 pixels.

To use the file as a favicon, drop the downloaded favicon.ico in your site root. Most browsers request it automatically, and you can also point to it explicitly with <link rel="icon" href="/favicon.ico" />.

Common Icon Sizes and Where Each Is Used

Microsoft's own guidance is that a Windows app icon should include, at a bare minimum, 16, 24, 32, 48, and 256 pixel sizes so the OS almost always scales down rather than up.

PNG vs ICO at a Glance

Common Errors and How to Fix Them

• "My favicon looks blurry or jagged" — the source PNG was smaller than the icon size, so it was upscaled. Re-export the PNG at 256x256 (or larger) and convert again at the size you need.
• "The icon is a rectangle, not a square" — the PNG was not square. Nothing is stretched, cropped or padded: the preset fixes the height and the width follows your source's proportions. Crop or pad your PNG to a 1:1 ratio first with the Image Resizer before converting.
• "The background is white instead of transparent" — the PNG itself had a solid background. ICO preserves alpha but cannot invent it; the source file needs an actual transparent background.
• "My browser still shows the old favicon" — browsers cache favicons aggressively. Hard-refresh, or load /favicon.ico directly and refresh that, to see the new icon.
• "I need one icon that has both a JPG-style photo and a logo" — start from the artwork you actually want as the icon; converting a photo to a 16 or 32 pixel ICO rarely reads well because detail collapses at that size.

When This Doesn't Work

This converter outputs one ICO at a single size, which is all most favicons and shortcuts need. If you want one .ico that bundles several resolutions (16 + 32 + 48 together) so the OS can pick per context, that requires a dedicated multi-size packer — convert each size here and combine them, or use a multi-resolution generator. If your starting art is a vector logo rather than a raster PNG, convert it from SVG to ICO instead to keep edges perfectly sharp. And if you only need a quick set of favicon tags and sizes from scratch, the Favicon Generator builds the markup for you. To go the other way and pull the image back out of an icon, use ICO to PNG.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does PNG to ICO preserve transparency?

Yes. ICO supports 32-bit images — 24-bit color plus an 8-bit alpha channel — so the transparency in your PNG is carried through. Semi-transparent edges and soft shadows survive, which is what keeps an icon looking clean against any tab color or desktop wallpaper. Windows has supported 32-bit alpha icons since Windows XP, so this works across every modern OS.

What size should my favicon.ico be?

For a single-size favicon, 48x48 or 32x32 is the safe choice and downscales well; pick 256x256 if you want it crisp on high-DPI screens. A browser will scale a larger icon down to fit a tab, so you do not have to match the display size exactly — starting bigger and letting the browser shrink it looks better than upscaling a tiny source.

What's the best PNG size to start from?

Start from a square PNG of at least 256x256. In our testing, a 512x512 source produced noticeably cleaner 48x48 and 32x32 icons than a 64x64 source, because downscaling from a larger image keeps edges smooth — whereas upscaling a small PNG bakes in blur that no icon size can hide.

Can I put multiple sizes inside one ICO here?

No — this tool writes a single square ICO at the one size you pick from the Preset dropdown, which covers most favicons and shortcuts. The ICO format itself can hold several images at different sizes and color depths in one file, but bundling them requires a multi-resolution packer. If you need that, convert each size here and combine them, or use a dedicated multi-size generator.

Where do I put the favicon.ico file on my site?

Place it in your site's root directory as favicon.ico. Most browsers automatically request /favicon.ico even without any HTML, but you can declare it explicitly with <link rel="icon" href="/favicon.ico" /> in the page <head> for full control over which file is used.

Why use ICO instead of a PNG favicon?

ICO has the widest browser support for favicons and is the format browsers fetch by default from the site root, even with no HTML tag. It can also hold multiple resolutions in one file, which PNG cannot — useful when a single icon needs to serve both a 16-pixel tab and a larger taskbar slot. Many sites ship both a favicon.ico and PNG icons for belt-and-suspenders coverage.

Will this ICO work as a Windows application or shortcut icon?

Yes. A 256x256 32-bit ICO is exactly what Windows expects for an application or shortcut icon, and Windows scales it down to the size each context needs. For a polished result across every context, Microsoft recommends bundling 16, 24, 32, 48, and 256 pixel images in one icon — this single-size export covers the most common case, and you can pack additional sizes with a multi-resolution tool if you need the full set.

Is the PNG to ICO converter free, and what happens to my file?

It is free with no sign-up and no watermark. Your PNG is uploaded over an encrypted connection, converted on our servers, and the files are deleted automatically a few hours after conversion — never shared or made public.