How do I open a WebP file?

Any browser displays one: drag it onto a browser window. To edit it in a program that refuses to load it, convert it to JPG or PNG first.

Is WebP better than JPG?

It is smaller at a similar quality, and it can hold transparency and animation, so as a format it does more. JPG is opened by everything, which for a file you are sending to somebody else is often worth more than the bytes.

Does converting WebP to JPG lose quality?

A little, because JPG is lossy too and the picture is being encoded a second time. At a high quality setting it is not visible. Converting to PNG avoids that second loss and produces a much larger file.

Can a WebP file have a transparent background?

Yes, in both of its modes, and that is one of its real advantages over JPG. Keep the transparency by converting to PNG rather than to JPG.

Why does my phone or camera not make WebP files?

It is a format for delivering images over the web rather than for recording them. Cameras write JPEG, and Apple devices write HEIC. WebP shows up on the receiving end.

IMAGE FORMATS

What Is a WebP File

The format you did not choose, saved from a web page, and now something will not open it.

Checked August 6, 2026

The short answer

WebP is an image format from Google. It stores the same picture in fewer bytes than JPG or PNG, it can hold transparency and animation, and every current browser displays it. You almost certainly have one because you saved an image from a web page. If a program refuses to open it, convert it to JPG or PNG and carry on.

What it can and cannot do

	WebP	Notes
Size against JPG	Roughly 25 to 35% smaller	At a quality most people call equivalent. It varies a lot with the picture.
Transparency	Yes	In both its lossy and its lossless mode, which JPG cannot do in either.
Animation	Yes	It replaces an animated GIF at a fraction of the size.
Lossy and lossless	Both	One format, two modes. PNG and JPG are one mode each.
Browsers	All current ones	Chrome, Firefox and Edge for years, Safari from version 14.
Older desktop software	Often not	Which is the entire reason anybody looks this format up.

None of this is a reason to convert your photo library. It is a reason to convert the one file that will not open.

Why you have one

Sites serve WebP because it is smaller, and smaller pages load faster. Right click, save image, and what lands in your downloads folder is whatever that site was serving, which is increasingly this. Nobody chose it at your end, which is exactly why it arrives as a surprise.

Why the program you opened it with refuses

Support in browsers is complete and support in desktop software is patchy, particularly in older versions of image editors and in the built in viewers of older operating systems. The format is from 2010, and its adoption on the web ran well ahead of its adoption everywhere else.

The fix is a conversion, not a hunt for a plugin. Turn it into JPG for a photograph, or PNG when the transparency matters, and the receiving program stops complaining.

The thing to watch when converting

WebP carries transparency and JPG does not. Convert one to the other and every transparent pixel has to become some colour, which is usually white and occasionally, unpleasantly, black. If the image has a transparent background you want to keep, PNG is the destination.

The other thing is that a lossy WebP has already thrown information away. Converting it to PNG makes a larger file and brings none of that back. Lossless is only lossless from that point forward.

Converting one

Drop it into the converter, pick JPG or PNG, download it. It runs on your own machine using codecs your browser already carries, so nothing is uploaded, there is no account, and there is no limit on how many you do.

More guides

Guides

FAQ

How do I open a WebP file?: Any browser displays one: drag it onto a browser window. To edit it in a program that refuses to load it, convert it to JPG or PNG first.
Is WebP better than JPG?: It is smaller at a similar quality, and it can hold transparency and animation, so as a format it does more. JPG is opened by everything, which for a file you are sending to somebody else is often worth more than the bytes.
Does converting WebP to JPG lose quality?: A little, because JPG is lossy too and the picture is being encoded a second time. At a high quality setting it is not visible. Converting to PNG avoids that second loss and produces a much larger file.
Can a WebP file have a transparent background?: Yes, in both of its modes, and that is one of its real advantages over JPG. Keep the transparency by converting to PNG rather than to JPG.
Why does my phone or camera not make WebP files?: It is a format for delivering images over the web rather than for recording them. Cameras write JPEG, and Apple devices write HEIC. WebP shows up on the receiving end.

Convert a WebP

To JPG, PNG or AVIF. Nothing is uploaded and there is no batch limit.

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