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WEBP converter

A .webp file is Google's web-oriented image format, offering both lossy and lossless compression plus alpha and animation in one container. At equivalent visual quality, .webp files typically undercut JPEG by 25-35 percent, which is why CDNs and site optimizers convert to it aggressively.

Private for supported formats — processed in your browser

Convert supported files

Runs on your device

Drop WEBP files here

Batch files can each use a different output. Nothing uploads for local conversions.

Working inputs include camera RAW, browser-local audio/video, PDF, CBZ/CBR comics, office documents, ebooks, markup, 3D models, structured text, images, and archives.

Where WEBP comes from

Google announced WebP in 2010, deriving its lossy mode from intra-frame coding in the VP8 video codec it acquired with On2 Technologies. A separately designed lossless mode and alpha support followed in 2012, and full cross-browser coverage arrived when Safari 14 added support in 2020.

How WEBP works

  • Lossy mode encodes VP8 intra frames with block prediction; lossless mode uses its own dedicated coding with spatial predictors and color transforms
  • Lossy WebP is limited to 8-bit 4:2:0 chroma subsampling, which can soften fine color detail
  • Maximum dimensions are 16,383 x 16,383 pixels
  • Packaged in a RIFF container that also carries alpha, animation frames, and metadata chunks

When to use WEBP

  • Serving photos and graphics on websites where bandwidth and Core Web Vitals matter
  • Replacing animated GIFs with dramatically smaller animated files
  • Storing UI assets that need transparency at smaller sizes than PNG
  • Automated image pipelines that transcode uploads for delivery

Strengths and limitations

Strengths

  • Smaller than JPEG for photos and usually smaller than PNG for graphics
  • One format covers lossy, lossless, alpha, and animation
  • Supported by every current browser

Limitations

  • Mandatory 4:2:0 subsampling in lossy mode caps color fidelity below high-quality JPEG or AVIF
  • The 16,383-pixel dimension limit rules out very large panoramas and scans
  • Older desktop software and some photo printers still refuse it

Compatibility

Chrome, Edge, Firefox, and Safari (since version 14 in 2020) all decode WebP natively, as do Android and current versions of Windows and macOS system viewers. Older tools from before roughly 2020 — legacy Photoshop releases, older email clients, many kiosk printers — commonly fail on it, so JPEG or PNG remains the safer handoff format outside the browser.

EXIF and XMP travel in dedicated RIFF chunks and ICC profiles are supported, though a fair amount of conversion software strips metadata by default when writing WebP.

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Convert other formats to WEBP