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WebP vs PNG

WebP is the web’s space-saver; PNG is the format everything understands. The right answer depends on what’s in the picture and where it’s going.

WebPPNG
CompressionLossy or losslessLossless only
TransparencyYesYes
AnimationYesOnly APNG (separate extension)
Maximum size16,383 × 16,383 px2³¹−1 px per side
Browser supportAll current browsersUniversal
Desktop apps & upload formsPatchy in older softwareUniversal
Best forWeb delivery of photos and graphicsScreenshots, logos, editing, archives

Measure it yourself: lossy vs lossless on two kinds of image

This encodes a photo and a flat chart with your browser’s own encoders, live. Move the quality slider and watch which format wins for which picture.

ImagePNG (lossless)JPGWebP
Encoding…
Zoom into the chart’s text (4×) as
Smallest size in each row is highlighted. Lossy formats win big on the photo; on the flat chart, PNG stays pixel-exact and at low quality the lossy formats smear the edges of the letters. Sizes are exact byte counts from this browser (1 kB = 1,000 bytes).

Lossy vs lossless, in one paragraph

Lossless formats (PNG, lossless WebP) store exactly the pixels you gave them; they shrink files by finding repetition, so flat colours compress superbly and camera noise hardly at all. Lossy formats (JPG, lossy WebP) discard detail your eye is unlikely to miss, which makes photos dramatically smaller but blurs hard edges such as text at low quality. The live test above shows both effects on real bytes.

When to use which

  • WebP for images on your own website: photos, product shots, even logos.
  • PNG for screenshots, UI mock-ups, images you’ll keep editing, and anything headed to Word, PowerPoint, email or print.
  • Both keep transparency, so neither will add a white box behind a logo.

Convert WebP to PNG · Convert PNG to WebP · WebP to JPG

Questions people ask

Is WebP better than PNG?

For web delivery usually yes: lossless WebP averages about 26% smaller than PNG in Google’s tests, and lossy WebP is far smaller for photos. PNG wins on compatibility with older software and is the safer archival format.

Does WebP support transparency?

Yes, in both lossless and lossy modes.

Why did my downloaded image save as WebP?

The website served WebP to your browser to save bandwidth. Convert it to PNG or JPG if another program won’t open it.

Should I convert my PNG logos to WebP?

For a website, yes (keep the PNG original). For documents, email signatures and print, stay with PNG.