WebP is a modern image format developed by Google that provides superior compression for images on the web. If you're still serving JPG and PNG files exclusively, you're likely leaving significant performance gains on the table.
What is WebP?
WebP is an image format that provides both lossy and lossless compression. It was designed specifically for the web, offering smaller file sizes compared to JPG and PNG while maintaining comparable quality.
The numbers speak for themselves: Google's own studies show WebP lossless images are 26% smaller than PNGs, and WebP lossy images are 25-34% smaller than comparable JPGs at equivalent quality.
Benefits of WebP
- Smaller file sizes: WebP images are typically 25-35% smaller than equivalent JPG or PNG files
- Transparency support: Like PNG, WebP supports alpha channel transparency
- Animation support: WebP can replace animated GIFs with much smaller file sizes
- Wide browser support: All modern browsers now support WebP
Browser Compatibility
WebP is now supported by all major browsers including Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, and Opera. Safari added support in 2020, making WebP viable for virtually all web traffic. This means you can confidently use WebP for most web projects without worrying about fallbacks.
When to Use WebP
- Website images: Reduce bandwidth and improve page speed
- Web applications: Faster image loading improves user experience
- E-commerce: Product images load faster without quality loss
Performance tip: For the best results, serve WebP with appropriate quality settings—80-85% quality typically provides an excellent balance between file size and visual fidelity for photographs.
Converting to WebP
Ready to start using WebP? Konverter makes it easy to convert your images. Try our JPG to WebP or PNG to WebP converters to get started.