# ICO to PNG > Convert ICO favicon to PNG format **Canonical:** https://trydocsy.com/convert/ico-to-png **Last updated:** 2026-09-17 **Privacy:** Runs in your browser; the file is never uploaded. --- ICO is the icon container format Windows and browsers use for favicons and app icons, and a single .ico file can bundle several sizes of the same picture inside it. Clicking "Open Universal Image Converter" takes you to TryDocsy's shared conversion tool, where your browser decodes the icon file into one image and this tool exports that as a single PNG — it does not split a multi-size .ico into a separate PNG for every embedded resolution. Which of the icon's sizes your browser resolves during decoding isn't something this tool controls or exposes. As with other formats routed through the shared converter, two things aren't preselected for you: the output format defaults to JPG rather than PNG, so you'll need to click PNG explicitly, and the upload limit is 20 MB per file. Because PNG is lossless and keeps transparency, an .ico built with a transparent background — the common case for favicons — comes out with that transparency intact. ## How it works 1. **Open the Universal Image Converter** — Click "Open Universal Image Converter" — the actual ICO-to-PNG conversion happens there. 2. **Drop your ICO** — Use the "Drop any image here" upload area to add one or more .ico files, up to 20 MB each. 3. **Choose PNG as the output** — Click "PNG" in the Convert To row — it isn't selected by default, JPG is. 4. **Convert and download** — Press "Convert N Image(s) to PNG," then download the result, or download all of them together as one ZIP if you uploaded more than one. ## When you'd use it - **Reusing a site's favicon as a PNG** — Browsers still serve favicons as .ico. Saving one and converting it to PNG gives you a usable image file for a mockup, a comparison document, or a quick brand reference. - **Extracting a downloaded desktop icon** — Icon files downloaded for apps or shortcuts are commonly .ico. Converting to PNG lets you drop the icon into a slide deck, a design tool, or documentation that doesn't open ICO directly. - **Editing an old icon in a modern tool** — Many current photo and design apps don't open .ico at all. Converting to PNG first makes the image editable in essentially any image editor. - **Getting one consistent icon image for a style guide** — When you just need a single representative image of a favicon or app icon for documentation, converting the .ico to PNG gives you a normal image file rather than a multi-size container. ## One PNG per ICO, not one per embedded size A multi-resolution .ico can hold, for instance, 16x16, 32x32, and 48x48 versions of the same icon in a single file. This converter doesn't parse the ICO's internal directory of sizes; it hands the whole file to the browser's own image decoder, which resolves it to one bitmap, and that single bitmap is what gets exported as your PNG. If you need each embedded size as its own file, this specific conversion isn't the way to get that — see the favicon generator link below for a tool that does produce a full set of sizes, just starting from a plain image rather than an existing .ico. ## Transparency in favicons carries over Most favicons and app icons are designed with a transparent background so they sit cleanly on a browser tab or taskbar regardless of theme. Because PNG supports transparency and this converter only fills a solid background for formats that can't represent it, choosing PNG as the output keeps that transparency rather than replacing it with a solid color. ## If you need specific sizes, or the reverse direction TryDocsy's favicon generator does the opposite job: give it a plain image and it produces a fresh set of six PNG sizes, from 16x16 up to 256x256, plus a combined multi-size .ico. That's the tool to use when you're starting from an image and need a proper favicon set, rather than trying to pull individual sizes back out of one that already exists. ## Frequently asked questions **Q: Does this give me every size stored inside my ICO?** A: No. The browser's decoder resolves the file to a single image, and that's what gets exported as one PNG — there's no per-size extraction. Use the favicon generator if you need a fresh set of sizes from the original image instead. **Q: Will my favicon's transparent background be kept?** A: Yes. Choosing PNG as the output format preserves transparency, since PNG supports it and this converter only fills a solid background for formats that don't, like JPG. **Q: Why does clicking the link take me to a different tool?** A: ICO to PNG shares TryDocsy's Universal Image Converter with several other format pairs rather than having its own dedicated uploader, so the link opens that shared tool. **Q: Do I need to select anything before converting?** A: Yes, click "PNG" in the Convert To row — the converter opens with JPG selected regardless of which page you arrived from. **Q: What's the largest ICO file this accepts?** A: Up to 20 MB per file through the Universal Image Converter. **Q: Can I convert more than one ICO file at a time?** A: Yes. Upload several, convert them together, and download the results individually or as a single ZIP. ## Related tools - [Favicon Generator](https://trydocsy.com/image/favicon-generator) - [Universal Image Converter](https://trydocsy.com/convert/universal-image-converter) - [BMP to PNG](https://trydocsy.com/convert/bmp-to-png) - [PNG to JPG](https://trydocsy.com/convert/png-to-jpg) - [Crop Image](https://trydocsy.com/image/crop) - [Image to Base64](https://trydocsy.com/convert/image-to-base64) --- ## About TryDocsy TryDocsy is a free website of PDF, image and file-conversion tools that run entirely in your web browser, so your files are processed on your own device and never uploaded. It also includes photo and signature resizers preset to Indian government-exam specifications. - Website: https://trydocsy.com - Privacy Policy: https://trydocsy.com/privacy - Terms of Service: https://trydocsy.com/terms - Contact: https://trydocsy.com/contact