Convert to WEBP Image

Making a website lighter, one image at a time

Images are usually the heaviest part of a web page. Swapping them to WEBP is one of the simplest ways to cut page weight without redesigning anything. Convert to WEBP Image takes your JPG, JPEG, PNG, GIF, JIFF, BMP or existing WEBP files and re-encodes them as .webp on our server, so you can upload the lighter versions to your site, store, blog or app.

The tool is aimed at people who publish on the web: bloggers trimming a media library, shop owners optimising product photos, developers preparing assets, and anyone whose page-speed report keeps saying "serve images in next-gen formats".

What WEBP brings to the table

WEBP was created by Google as a single format that could replace JPEG, PNG and GIF on the web. It supports lossy compression for photographs, an alpha channel for transparency and frame sequences for animation, all in one container. Its lossy mode typically produces noticeably smaller files than JPEG at similar visual quality.

On this page the encoder is set to its slowest, most thorough compression method, which spends a little extra processing time to squeeze files further. The Quality slider decides how much detail is kept.

Source by source

• From JPG/JPEG photos: the most common case. Expect a lighter file at similar appearance; start at 75% to 80%.
• From PNG: photos stored as PNG shrink dramatically. Screenshots and graphics with text need a higher Quality to stay crisp. WEBP can carry transparency, so this is a reasonable target for transparent PNGs too; preview the result to confirm the edges.
• From BMP: enormous savings, since bitmaps are mostly uncompressed. Keep the upload under 10 MB.
• From GIF: still GIFs convert cleanly. For animated GIFs the server processes every frame, but whether the WEBP keeps the motion depends on the server's image library; always preview the result before replacing the GIF.
• From WEBP: useful for resizing or recompressing an existing WEBP at a different quality.

Is WEBP right for your destination?

Modern browsers display WEBP, and many content management systems accept it. The format is less welcome outside the browser. Older image viewers, some office software, certain print labs, social media schedulers and government or exam portals may reject it or not open it at all. For those destinations, convert to JPG or PNG instead, for example with Convert to JPG. A good habit is to keep your originals and treat WEBP as the published copy.

Configuration choices for web images

The Configuration card opens with Convert Format set to WEBP. Use the remaining controls like this:

• Quality: 10% to 100%, default 75%. Hero banners and product photos: 80% to 85%. Blog thumbnails: 65% to 75%. Graphics with text: 85% or more.
• Resize Unit: pick Pixel and enter the width the image is actually shown at. Resizing usually saves more than any quality tweak. Percent works too if you fill both Width and Height.
• DPI: web pages ignore it. Leave it blank unless another tool in your workflow reads it.

From upload to published WEBP

1. Set Quality and a Pixel width that matches your layout.
2. Drag your images onto the Select Images area, or click Select File and pick several at once. Any image type can be selected here.
3. To pull images straight from your existing website, click From URL, paste their addresses one per line, and press Process in that panel to queue them.
4. Process a single card first with its Process button and inspect the preview.
5. Press Process Queue for the rest.
6. For each card, compare the original and output weights; the percentage beside the new size shows the saving.
7. Download the WEBP files and upload them to your site, replacing the heavier versions.

Developers can use Copy Base64 to inline very small images such as icons directly in CSS or HTML. Avoid this for larger pictures; Base64 text is about a third larger than the binary file.

Measuring the result

Every finished card shows weight, dimensions and the format badge. A down arrow with a large percentage means real savings. If you see an up arrow, the source was probably already well compressed, perhaps a small JPEG saved at low quality, and the WEBP at your current setting keeps more detail than the original had. Lower the Quality, or keep the original for that file.

After downloading

Upload the WEBP files through your site's media library in place of the old images, then update any pages that link to the previous file names. If your platform generates its own thumbnails, it will build them from the new, lighter originals. Run your page-speed report again afterwards; the image weight figures should drop noticeably for every picture you replaced.

Recommendations for publishers

• Convert from the highest quality originals you have, not from already shrunk copies.
• Pick one Quality value per type of image and stay consistent across the site.
• Keep a JPG or PNG fallback for email newsletters and downloads, where WEBP support is less predictable.
• Rename downloads to meaningful, descriptive names before uploading; the tool adds a random prefix, and URL-sourced files lose their name.

Pitfalls

• Replacing animated GIFs without checking the preview.
• Setting the DPI field and expecting the image to appear larger or sharper on screen.
• Using very low Quality on screenshots; text edges turn soft.
• Delivering WEBP to a portal that lists only JPG or PNG.

Limitations

• Uploads up to 10 MB per file in JPG, JPEG, PNG, GIF, WEBP, JIFF or BMP format.
• Width, Height and DPI accept whole numbers.
• Inch, Centimeter and Millimeter units convert through the DPI value (96 by default) and require both dimensions.
• All files in a queue run share one configuration, and if one fails the batch returns an error.
• Metadata is removed from outputs by default and orientation is corrected automatically.
• No crop, rotate, flip or zoom controls are included.

Processing and privacy

Encoding is done on our server by a server-side image library, not inside your browser. The WEBP returns to the page as Base64 and the server deletes its temporary copy after the response is generated. No sign-in is needed.

Working only with bitmaps? BMP to WEBP covers that case in detail.

Frequently Asked Questions