WebP is a modern image format developed by Google that delivers significantly smaller file sizes than JPG and PNG at equivalent visual quality. On a typical website, switching images from JPG to WebP reduces image bandwidth by 25–35%, resulting in faster page loads, better Core Web Vitals scores and improved Google Search rankings. For image-heavy websites — e-commerce stores, photography portfolios, news sites — the cumulative improvement from converting to WebP can be dramatic.

WebP vs JPG vs PNG — A Practical Comparison

Understanding when to use each format helps you make the right conversion decision:

  • WebP: Best for modern websites. Smallest file sizes, supports both lossy and lossless compression, supports transparency (like PNG) in the same format. The right choice for any image that will be served in a browser.
  • JPG: Best for universal compatibility. Works everywhere — email, Office documents, print services, older apps, all devices. Higher file sizes than WebP but the safest choice for sharing outside of a website context.
  • PNG: Best for images that require lossless quality with sharp edges — logos, icons, screenshots, text-heavy graphics. Larger files than both JPG and WebP for photographic content, but lossless. WebP can also handle this use case with its lossless compression mode.

WebP Browser Support in 2026

WebP is now supported by all major browsers — Chrome, Firefox, Safari (since version 14), Edge and Opera — covering over 97% of global browser usage. For production websites, there is no longer a meaningful reason to avoid WebP. The remaining ~3% of users on very old browsers can be served JPG fallbacks using the HTML <picture> element. Use the WebP to JPG tool to generate those fallback versions.

Which Quality Setting to Use

  • High quality (90): Minimal compression. Best for hero images, full-width photography and images where fine visual detail is critical. File sizes are larger but quality is near-original.
  • Balanced (82, recommended): The best default for most website images. Delivers a significant file size reduction over JPG with no visible quality difference on typical desktop and mobile screens. Use this for product images, article photos and general page content.
  • Smaller file (72): Maximum compression for the smallest possible files. Ideal for thumbnails, preview images, lazy-loaded content and background images where fine detail is not the priority.

How Much Smaller Are WebP Files?

In practice, WebP files are typically:

  • 25–34% smaller than equivalent JPGs (lossy comparison)
  • 26% smaller than equivalent PNGs (lossless comparison)

The savings depend on image content. Highly detailed photographs see the most benefit. Simple flat-colour graphics see less improvement since PNG already compresses those efficiently. For a website with 50 product photos averaging 200 KB as JPG, converting to WebP typically reduces the total to around 130–150 KB per image — saving real bandwidth on every page load.

WebP in a Website Performance Workflow

For the best results when preparing website images, follow this workflow: First use the Image Resizer to scale images to their correct display dimensions — don't serve a 3000px image if it displays at 800px. Then use the Image Compressor if needed to reduce the source quality. Finally convert to WebP here for the web-ready output. This three-step process minimises file size at every stage.

After converting: Test your WebP images with Google PageSpeed Insights or GTmetrix to measure the actual performance improvement. WebP is explicitly recommended by Google's Lighthouse performance auditing tool.

Batch Converting Multiple Images

Upload multiple JPG or PNG files at once (up to 80 MB total). All converted WebP files are bundled into a single ZIP archive for download. This is useful for converting an entire product catalogue, image gallery or set of blog post images in one pass rather than repeating the process for each file individually.