What Is a WebP File? The Web Image Format Explained

What makes WebP different

WebP borrows compression techniques from video encoding to squeeze more redundancy out of an image than older formats can. In lossy mode it competes with JPEG at a smaller size; in lossless mode it competes with PNG while still coming out smaller. Crucially, it can do things JPEG never could: store an alpha channel for transparency and hold multiple frames for animation — effectively a lighter-weight replacement for animated GIFs as well.

For a website with dozens of images, switching to WebP can meaningfully cut page weight and load time, which is why nearly every major site now serves images this way and why it helps search and performance scores.

Where WebP is supported — and where it isn’t

Every current web browser — Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge — displays WebP natively, so on the web it is effectively universal today. The gaps are outside the browser: some older desktop image viewers, certain print workflows, older social platforms and a few editing tools still do not accept WebP, and people occasionally download a WebP image expecting a JPG and find it will not open in their usual program.

This is the practical catch. WebP is excellent for publishing images to the web, but if you are handing a file to someone to open, edit or print outside a browser, a JPG or PNG is still the safer choice.

WebP vs JPG vs PNG

Compared with JPG, WebP gives you smaller files at similar quality plus optional transparency — but JPG remains more universally supported everywhere, not just in browsers. Compared with PNG, lossless WebP is smaller while keeping sharp edges and transparency — but PNG is the safer bet when a tool downstream might not understand WebP.

A useful rule of thumb: use WebP for images you publish on a website you control, where you know browsers will render them and the size saving is worth having. Convert to JPG or PNG when the image needs to leave the browser — to be emailed, edited, printed, or uploaded somewhere that may not accept WebP.

How to open and convert WebP

To simply view a WebP file, open it in any web browser — drag it onto a browser tab and it displays instantly. To use it elsewhere, convert it: an image converter turns WebP into JPG (for photos and universal compatibility) or PNG (when you need transparency or perfectly crisp lines). Going the other way, converting your JPGs and PNGs to WebP before publishing them online is one of the easiest ways to speed up a site. OfficePad’s converter runs entirely in the browser, so images are never uploaded.

Frequently asked questions