What is WebP? Why Websites Use It
You right-click an image to save it. Instead of photo.jpg you get photo.webp. What is this thing?
WebP is Google's image format. They created it to make web pages load faster, and it's been slowly taking over the internet since around 2010.
Why websites use it
WebP files are smaller than JPG at similar quality. Depending on the image, you might see 25-35% smaller files. That might not sound like much, but when a website has dozens of images, it adds up.
Faster loading pages means:
- Better user experience
- Lower bandwidth costs for the website
- Better search rankings (Google factors in page speed)
So websites have been gradually switching to WebP. Whats in it for them is pretty clear.
The catch
Most programs outside of web browsers don't handle WebP very well.
- Photo editors might not open it
- Preview apps might show nothing
- Email attachments might get rejected
- Older software has no idea what it is
So you save an image from a website, try to use it somewhere else, and run into issues.
What to do about it
If you just need to use the image somewhere: Convert it to JPG. You can do this right in your browser without installing anything. Takes a few seconds.
If you're saving images from websites regularly: You'll be doing this conversion fairly often. Might want to bookmark a converter.
If you're a web developer: WebP is great for your site, but consider providing JPG fallbacks for users who might save your images.
WebP vs JPG vs PNG
Quick comparison:
JPG — The universal format. Works everywhere. Good for photos. Loses some quality when compressed.
PNG — Larger files but supports transparency. Good for graphics, screenshots, logos. No quality loss.
WebP — Smaller than both, supports transparency like PNG, works in all modern browsers. Limited support outside browsers.
For photos on websites, WebP makes sense. For sharing images with other people or using them in other software, JPG is still the safer choice.
Is WebP better than JPG?
Technically? Yes. WebP gives you smaller files at equivalent quality. Or better quality at equivalent file size.
Practically? Depends on what you're doing. For websites, WebP is clearly better. For everything else, JPG's universal compatibility still wins.
The format war is mostly relevant to web developers. For everyone else, the main thing to know is that WebP is a real format, it's not broken, and you can convert it to JPG whenever you need to use it somewhere that doesn't support it.