What is a WebP converter?
A WebP converter re-saves an image in WebP, an image format created by Google that's designed to give smaller files than JPEG and PNG at similar visual quality. This tool converts JPG, PNG, GIF and other images to lossy WebP at quality 0.9, entirely in your browser, and keeps transparent backgrounds intact.
WebP is now an IETF standard, RFC 9649, and every current major browser can display it. Google's WebP documentation reports that in its tests lossy WebP images were 25–34% smaller than comparable JPEGs and lossless WebP images 26% smaller than PNGs. Those are Google's averages over its test sets; your own images will vary.
How to convert an image to WebP
- Click Choose File and pick a JPG, PNG, GIF, BMP or other image your browser can open.
- Click Convert.
- Check the preview, then click Download to save
converted.webp.
The pixel dimensions don't change. A 2400 × 1600 JPG becomes a 2400 × 1600 WebP.
Browser support
Converting needs two things from your browser: reading the source image, which every modern browser can do, and encoding WebP from a canvas, which not all of them can. According to MDN's browser compatibility data for toDataURL:
| Browser | Can export WebP from canvas? |
|---|---|
| Chrome, Edge, Opera, other Chromium browsers | Yes |
| Firefox | Yes, from version 96 |
| Safari (macOS and iOS) | No |
When a browser can't encode the requested type, the canvas quietly falls back to PNG. This tool checks for that and shows "Your browser does not support exporting WebP images." rather than giving you a PNG with a .webp name. On an iPhone or iPad, Chrome and Firefox are usually built on Safari's WebKit engine too, so expect the same error there and use a desktop browser instead.
What the conversion keeps and drops
The image is drawn onto an HTML canvas and exported with toDataURL('image/webp', 0.9):
| Result | |
|---|---|
| Pixel dimensions | Kept |
| Transparency | Kept (WebP supports an alpha channel) |
| Visual quality | Lossy at 0.9; very close to the source, not identical |
| EXIF, GPS, XMP metadata | Removed |
| Embedded color profile | Not copied |
| Animation | Lost; only one frame of an animated GIF or WebP is kept |
Losing metadata is often welcome on the web, since it shrinks the file a little and removes camera details and location from photos you publish. If you only want that part, the EXIF remover does it without changing format.
Worked example
A product page uses a 1600 × 1200 hero photo saved as JPG, plus a logo saved as PNG with a transparent background.
- Convert the photo. You get a 1600 × 1200
converted.webp. Compare its size with the JPG in your file manager and rename it, for examplehero.webp. - Convert the logo. The background stays transparent, so it still sits cleanly on any page color.
- Serve the WebP files. If you still need to support very old browsers, the HTML
<picture>element lets you list the WebP first with the original as a fallback, as described in web.dev's guide to serving WebP.
Getting the smallest file
Converting format is only one lever. The biggest savings on photos usually come from not sending more pixels than the page displays:
- Resize the image to its display size with the image resizer.
- Convert the result here.
If WebP isn't accepted where you're uploading, the image compressor produces a JPEG at a quality you choose, and the JPG to PNG converter covers places that insist on PNG.
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