What is WebP, and why does it matter?
WebP is a modern image format developed by Google that packs the same picture into a much smaller file than the older formats most of us grew up with. It was designed specifically for the web, where every kilobyte you save means a page that loads faster and feels lighter. In practice, a photo saved as WebP is typically 25–35% smaller than the equivalent JPEG, and a graphic or screenshot can be dramatically smaller than the same image as a PNG (often less than half the size), with no visible loss in quality.
The clever part is that WebP is genuinely flexible. It supports full transparency like a PNG, animation like a GIF, and photographic colour depth like a JPEG, all within a single format. That is why so many sites now standardise on it: instead of juggling three or four formats for different jobs, you can convert almost everything to WebP and get smaller files across the board. If you would like a deeper side-by-side, our WebP vs JPG vs PNG comparison breaks down exactly where each one wins.
Is WebP supported everywhere?
Yes, WebP is now a safe default. Every modern browser reads it, including Chrome, Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Safari on both macOS and iOS, Samsung Internet and Opera. Support has been universal across current browsers for several years, so you can serve WebP images to the vast majority of visitors without a fallback. WordPress, Shopify, Squarespace and virtually every modern content platform accept WebP uploads directly, which makes it painless to adopt.
Why converting to WebP helps your website
Images are usually the heaviest thing on a page, so shrinking them is the single most effective way to speed a site up. Smaller WebP files mean faster load times, less mobile data used, and better Core Web Vitals, particularly Largest Contentful Paint, which Google measures as part of its page-experience signals. A quicker site keeps visitors engaged and can quietly help your search rankings, because speed is part of how pages are judged.
- Faster pages: lighter images render sooner and improve your Core Web Vitals scores.
- Better SEO: page speed is a ranking factor, and optimised images reduce bounce.
- Lower bandwidth: smaller files cut hosting costs and are kinder to mobile data plans.
- One format for everything: WebP handles photos, graphics, transparency and animation together.
Lossless and lossy WebP, side by side
WebP comes in two flavours, and our converter gives you both so you never have to guess. Lossless WebP rebuilds the image pixel-for-pixel, ideal for logos, screenshots, line art and anything with sharp edges or text. Lossy WebP (we use a sensible quality of 80) discards detail the eye barely notices in exchange for a much smaller file, which is perfect for photographs and rich backgrounds. For every image you drop in, the tool produces a lossless version and a lossy version, shows the file size of each, and lets you pick the one that suits the job. If the trade-off is new to you, our guide to lossless vs lossy compression explains it in plain English.
Which formats convert to WebP?
Our converter accepts a wide range of inputs and turns each of them into an optimised WebP:
- JPG / JPEG to WebP: shrink photographs further while keeping them crisp.
- PNG to WebP: big savings on screenshots, logos and images with transparency.
- GIF to WebP: convert simple graphics and animations to a lighter format.
- AVIF to WebP: move to a format with broader tooling support where you need it.
- TIFF to WebP: compress large, uncompressed source files for the web.
- BMP to WebP: turn bulky bitmaps into tiny, web-ready images.
- SVG to WebP: rasterise vector artwork into a fixed-size WebP when you need a pixel image.
You can drop several files at once, and when the batch is done you can grab everything in a single Download-All ZIP. If you work mostly with one format, our dedicated pages for compressing JPG files and compressing PNG files cover the finer points of each.
How our tool converts privately, with no upload
Most online converters send your pictures to a remote server, process them there, and send them back, which means your files leave your device and sit on someone else's computer, however briefly. We do it differently. The conversion runs entirely inside your browser using the real libwebp encoder compiled to WebAssembly, the very same engine that powers professional tooling. Your images are decoded, resized and re-encoded on your own machine and never travel across the network.
That design has three happy consequences: it is completely private, it works even on a flaky connection once the page has loaded, and it is fast because there is no upload or download queue to wait for. It is free forever, needs no account, adds no watermark, and offers four output sizes, Original, Small, Smaller and Smallest, so you can shrink dimensions as well as file weight. More output options, including AVIF export, are on the roadmap. When you are ready, the step-by-step how-to guide walks through a first conversion.
Frequently asked questions
Is converting to WebP free?
Completely. There is no sign-up, no watermark and no limit on how many images you convert. Because the work happens in your browser, there is nothing for us to charge you for.
Do my images get uploaded?
No. Everything is processed locally in your browser and nothing is sent to a server, so your files stay private on your own device.
Which formats can I convert to WebP?
JPG and JPEG, PNG, GIF, AVIF, TIFF, BMP and SVG. You can convert a batch in one go and download all of the results together as a ZIP.
Ready to lighten your images? Open the compressor and convert your first file to WebP; it takes seconds and never leaves your browser.