WEBP file format
WebP is two codecs in one container: a lossy mode that undercuts JPEG by roughly a quarter, and a lossless mode that beats PNG — both with transparency and animation.
or drag & drop them here · images, video, audio and documents · up to 2 GB
What is WEBP?
Google released WebP in 2010, built from the intra-frame coding of the VP8 video codec. The idea was straightforward: a video encoder already has to compress a single still frame extremely well, so that machinery was extracted and wrapped in a RIFF container. Lossy WebP predicts each block from neighbouring blocks before compressing the difference, a trick JPEG never had, which is where most of its advantage comes from.
The lossless mode is a separate algorithm, VP8L, and has nothing to do with video. It combines colour transforms, a palette, backward references to repeated pixel runs and its own entropy coding, typically landing 20-30% below an optimised PNG of the same image. Both modes carry a full alpha channel, so you no longer have to choose between transparency and small files.
WebP also supports animation, and an animated WebP is usually several times smaller than the equivalent GIF while showing millions of colours instead of 256. Support is now universal in browsers, but desktop software lags: older versions of Photoshop, Office and many Windows utilities still cannot open a .webp, which is why converting back to JPEG or PNG remains a common request.
| Extension | .webp |
|---|---|
| Category | Image |
| MIME type | image/webp |
| Released | 2010 |
| Developed by | |
| Compression | Lossy or lossless |
| Transparency | Yes |
| Animation | Yes |
WEBP: frequently asked questions
- Is WebP really smaller than JPEG?
- For most photographs, yes — typically 25-35% smaller at visually equivalent quality, and the gap widens at low quality settings. On very fine-grained images the advantage narrows, and a few pictures come out larger, so a converter worth using compares both outputs rather than assuming.
- Can WebP be lossless?
- Yes. It has a completely separate lossless mode that reproduces every pixel exactly, usually about 25% smaller than an optimised PNG of the same image. Most tools expose it as a quality setting of 100 or a dedicated "lossless" checkbox, and it is the right choice for graphics and screenshots.
- Why will my software not open a .webp file?
- Browser support is universal, but desktop applications were slower. Older Photoshop releases, Office, many Windows viewers and some phone galleries either need a plugin or refuse outright. Converting to PNG or JPEG is the reliable way to hand a WebP to a program that predates it.
- Does WebP support transparency?
- Yes, a full 8-bit alpha channel in both lossy and lossless mode. That combination is its most useful trick: JPEG cannot do transparency at all, and PNG can only do it losslessly at a much larger file size, so a lossy WebP with alpha often replaces a heavy transparent PNG.
- Is animated WebP better than GIF?
- Substantially. It shows the full colour range instead of a 256-colour palette, supports smooth alpha, and files are commonly five to ten times smaller. The only reason to keep GIF is compatibility with old software and platforms that still expect it in that specific form.
- Does converting JPEG to WebP improve quality?
- No. Whatever the JPEG encoder discarded is already gone, and re-encoding cannot bring it back — it only makes the file smaller while adding a second round of loss. WebP is worth it when you re-export from the original, or when size matters more than the extra generation.