WebP Format Explained — Should You Switch?

WebP is Google's image format that produces files 25–35% smaller than equivalent JPGs at the same visual quality. If you're maintaining a website, switching to WebP is one of the easiest wins for page speed you can make. For offline use, social sharing, or sending files to people who might have older software, JPG and PNG are still the safer choice.

Quick answer: WebP = smaller file, same quality. A 350KB JPG becomes about 220KB in WebP. Use it for website images. All modern browsers support it. For sharing or printing, JPG is fine.

What exactly is WebP and what makes it different?

WebP is an image format created by Google in 2010. The goal was simple: make images smaller without making them look worse.

The format supports:

• Lossy compression (like JPG) — for photographs
• Lossless compression (like PNG) — for graphics with sharp edges
• Transparency (like PNG) — fully supports alpha channel
• Animation (like GIF) — but much smaller files

In practical terms: a WebP image is typically 25–35% smaller than an equivalent JPG at the same visual quality. For lossless images, WebP is about 25% smaller than PNG.

Why does image file size actually matter?

Smaller images = faster websites = better user experience = better SEO.

Google's Core Web Vitals scoring (which affects search rankings) includes page load speed. Images are usually the biggest contributors to page size. A gallery page with 20 unoptimized photos might be 15MB. The same gallery with WebP images might be 5MB — loading 3x faster.

For mobile users on slower connections, this difference is the gap between a page that loads and one that people give up on.

Which browsers support WebP?

As of 2024, WebP works in all modern browsers:

• Chrome ✅ (has supported it since 2013)
• Firefox ✅ (since 2019)
• Safari ✅ (since macOS Big Sur and iOS 14)
• Edge ✅
• Opera ✅

The old problem of "Safari doesn't support WebP" is resolved. The only situation where you'd need a fallback is if you're supporting very old iPhones (pre-iOS 14) or old Safari versions — a very small percentage of users now.

How much smaller are WebP files compared to JPG in practice?

Here are typical file size comparisons for a 1920x1080 photograph at equivalent visual quality:

The WebP lossy version is about 37% smaller than JPG for the same quality. Over many images, this adds up significantly.

I converted a client's photography portfolio site from JPG to WebP last year. The average page had 12–15 images. Before the switch, pages were weighing in at around 4–5MB. After WebP conversion (using the same quality settings), they came down to 2.5–3MB. The Lighthouse performance score went from 68 to 89. More importantly, the time to display the first visible image dropped from about 4 seconds on mobile to under 2 seconds. For a photographer whose entire business depends on people seeing their work, that difference matters.

When should you use WebP and when should you skip it?

Use WebP when:

• You're building or updating a website
• You want faster page loads
• You're optimizing for mobile users
• Storage or bandwidth costs matter

Skip WebP when:

• You need maximum compatibility (sending to clients on very old devices)
• You're submitting photos to platforms that don't accept WebP (some still don't)
• You're printing — use high-quality JPG or TIFF for print
• You're archiving originals — keep in the highest-quality format you have

How do I convert existing images to WebP?

Browser-based converter: A JPG to WebP converter handles single files or batches. Files stay on your device. Good for occasional conversions.

Command line (cwebp): Google provides a free command-line tool. Good for batch processing hundreds of files.

cwebp -q 80 photo.jpg -o photo.webp

ImageMagick: Free, powerful, handles batches well.

convert photo.jpg -quality 80 photo.webp

Squoosh: Google's web app with visual quality comparison. Great for fine-tuning quality settings.

Do I need a JPG fallback for WebP on websites?

If your website needs to support old browsers, you can serve WebP to browsers that support it and fall back to JPG for those that don't:

<picture>
  <source srcset="image.webp" type="image/webp">
  <img src="image.jpg" alt="Description">
</picture>

But honestly, in 2025-2026, the browsers that don't support WebP represent less than 0.5% of web traffic. A fallback is a nice-to-have, not a necessity, for most sites.

How do I download a WebP image as JPG?

Sometimes you right-click a website image to save it and get a .webp file. If you need it as JPG or PNG:

1. Use a WebP to JPG converter in your browser
2. Drop the .webp file → download as JPG or PNG

Or, in Chrome: the Inspect tool lets you find the original image URL — some sites have JPG and WebP versions.

Is AVIF better than WebP?

AVIF (AV1 Image Format) is even newer and compresses even better — roughly 50% smaller than JPG vs WebP's 35%. But browser support is still catching up, and encoding speed is slower.

For most websites now, WebP is the right choice. AVIF is worth watching for future use.

Should you switch to WebP?

If you're maintaining a website and haven't switched to WebP yet, it's worth doing. The file size savings are real, browser support is now solid, and the conversion process is straightforward. Your pages will load faster, your users will have a better experience, and your hosting bandwidth costs will decrease.

For offline use, social sharing, or anything where compatibility matters more than size, JPG and PNG are still fine.

Frequently asked questions

Will WebP images look different from JPG on my website? At equivalent quality settings, most people can't tell the difference between WebP and JPG. The compression artifacts look slightly different under very close inspection, but at normal viewing sizes, WebP at quality 80 is visually equivalent to JPG at quality 80-85. You can use tools like Squoosh to do side-by-side quality comparisons before committing to a quality setting.

Is this completely free? Yes — no account, no payment, no watermark needed. You can use it as many times as you want.

Do my files get uploaded to a server? No. Everything runs directly in your browser using WebAssembly. Your files never leave your device.