How to Save WebP Images as JPG in Chrome

You right-click an image on a website, hit "Save image as," and instead of a JPG you get a .webp file. Annoying, right?

This happens because websites are increasingly serving images in WebP format to reduce load times. Chrome saves whatever format the website sends, which is often WebP.

The quick fix

Save the WebP, then convert it to JPG. Takes about 10 seconds total. Not elegant, but it works.

Why this happens

Websites want to load fast. WebP images are smaller than JPGs, so pages load quicker. When your browser requests an image, modern websites often send WebP to browsers that support it.

Chrome supports WebP, so Chrome gets WebP. The website might have a JPG version too, but you're not getting it.

Other options

Screenshot it. If you just need the image and don't care about exact quality, take a screenshot and crop it. You'll get a PNG which works everywhere.

Check if there's a JPG version. Sometimes you can modify the image URL. If it ends in .webp, try changing it to .jpg or .jpeg. Doesn't always work, but worth a shot.

Use an extension. There are Chrome extensions that can force saving as JPG or automatically convert. I'm not going to recommend specific ones because extensions come and go, but they exist if you're saving lots of images.

Disable WebP in Chrome. Technically possible through flags, but not recommended. You'd be making your browsing slower just to avoid this one annoyance.

The real solution

Accept that WebP is the future of web images and just convert when needed. It takes a few seconds with the right tool, and WebP is actually a good format—your downloads are smaller even if they're slightly less convenient.

This is the same situation as HEIC on iPhones. Better format, compatibility catches up eventually. In the meantime, conversion is easy.

Batch converting

If you're saving lots of images from a website, save them all as WebP first, then batch convert them all at once. Way faster than dealing with them one at a time.