How long conversion usually takes
Typical timing for a single file:
- Small image (under 2 MB): 1–3 seconds total — most of which is the round-trip to the server.
- Medium photo (2–10 MB): 3–7 seconds.
- Large file (10–50 MB): 8–20 seconds.
- Multi-page document → JPG batch: roughly 1–2 seconds per page.
Times include upload, processing and download. The actual encoder step is usually a fraction of the total — the network is the slowest part for small files, and the CPU for large ones.
What makes it slower
- Slow upload connection. A 30 MB file on a 10 Mbps line takes ~24 seconds just to upload.
- Very large dimensions (e.g. 60-megapixel camera RAWs). Decoding and re-encoding scales roughly linearly with pixel count.
- Free-tier queue depth. When the cluster is under load, free jobs queue behind premium ones. Premium and Pro Plus get priority workers — that's the main paid-tier speed difference.
- Multi-step pipelines (e.g. RAW → JPG with white-balance presets, or multi-page document → JPG). Each step adds a few seconds.
How to make it faster
- Crop or resize the image before uploading if you don't need the full resolution.
- Convert in batches — uploading 10 files at once saves 9 round-trip handshakes vs. one-at-a-time.
- For huge files, consider compressing first then converting (e.g. compress JPG to 5 MB, then convert to PNG — much faster than converting a 30 MB JPG to PNG directly).
- If you do this every day, a Premium plan removes both the daily cap and the queue priority delay.