WebP is an image format developed by Google that stores the same picture in a smaller file than JPG or PNG — typically 25 to 35 percent smaller at comparable quality. It is a genuine image format, not a corrupted download or a trick. Websites serve it to make pages load faster, which is why you keep receiving one when you save a picture from the web.

Why can't I open a WebP file?

You almost certainly can — every current browser opens WebP, and both Windows and macOS have supported it in their built-in image viewers for years. When something refuses, it is usually older software that stopped being updated: an old Photoshop version, a desktop app from before 2020, or an upload form whose list of accepted extensions was written years ago and never revisited.

How do I convert a WebP to a JPG?

Open it in a converter and save it as JPG. It takes a couple of seconds and needs no software installed. Bear in mind that WebP can hold transparency and JPG cannot, so a WebP with a transparent background will come back with that area filled in — convert to PNG instead if the transparency matters.

Is WebP better than JPG?

For putting images on a website, yes: smaller files at the same visible quality, and it can do transparency and animation, which JPG cannot. For sending a photo to someone, or uploading it to a form, JPG remains the safer choice simply because everything accepts it. The better format is the one the destination can actually read.

Does converting WebP to JPG lose quality?

A little, because both are lossy formats and re-encoding always costs something. In practice the loss is small and usually invisible at normal viewing size. The change worth thinking about is not quality but transparency: JPG has no alpha channel, so anything see-through becomes solid.

What is a WebP file?

WebP is a Google image format that stores the same picture in a noticeably smaller file — which is why websites serve it and why you keep ending up with one you did not ask for.

By Free Image Lab · August 6, 2026

The short answer

A .webp file is an image, in the same sense a JPG or a PNG is an image. It was created by Google and it exists for one reason: to make the same picture take up less space.

Typically it is 25–35% smaller than a JPG that looks the same, and often far smaller than the equivalent PNG. On a page carrying twenty photographs that is the difference between loading quickly and not.

Nothing is wrong with your download. It is not corrupted, it is not a virus, and it is not a proprietary format designed to trap you. It is just newer than the software that is refusing it.

Why you ended up with one

You right-clicked a picture on a website, chose Save Image As, and got a .webp instead of the .jpg you expected.

That is because the site is not storing a JPG. Page speed affects search rankings and how many visitors stay, so most modern publishing platforms convert uploaded images to WebP automatically and serve that version to any browser that can read it. WordPress, Shopify, Squarespace and every major CDN do this by default now.

So the file you saved is the file the site actually has. There is no JPG hiding behind it to save instead.

What can and cannot open it

The support situation is much better than its reputation suggests. WebP has been readable in every major browser since 2020, and in Windows and macOS image viewers for years.

Opens it without complaint: Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge. Windows Photos and macOS Preview. Google Docs and Slides. Most current photo editors, including Photoshop from 2022 onward, Affinity, GIMP and Figma. Social platforms accept WebP uploads.
Often refuses it: Software that stopped receiving updates: older Photoshop, Office versions from the 2010s, and a long tail of desktop applications. Upload forms are the most common offender — not because they cannot handle the file, but because someone wrote a list of allowed extensions years ago and nobody has touched it since. Some printing services and photo labs also reject it outright.

Renaming it to .jpg does not work

This is the first thing people try, and it fails in a way that wastes time. The extension is only a label; the bytes inside are still WebP, and anything that reads the file properly will still reject it — often with a confusing error about the file being damaged. Converting actually rewrites the image data. Renaming just lies about it.

Converting out of WebP

If something will not take your WebP, convert it. The only decision is which format to convert to, and it comes down to one question:

Does the image have a transparent background?: If yes, use WebP to PNG. WebP can carry transparency and so can PNG. JPG cannot, so converting a cut-out logo to JPG fills the transparent area with a solid color and there is no getting it back.
Is it a photograph with no transparency?: Use WebP to JPG. It is the format that everything accepts, and for a photograph the file size difference is small enough not to matter.

Both run entirely in your browser here, so the picture is never uploaded anywhere — which matters more than usual for a file you got off someone else’s website and may not want to hand to a third party. If you are not sure what you have, the general converter takes anything and lets you pick the output.

Should you be using WebP yourself?

For images on a website, yes, and the case is not close. Smaller files for the same visible quality, with transparency and animation support that JPG does not have. Converting your images with JPG to WebP or PNG to WebP is one of the cheapest page-speed improvements available. PNG screenshots and flat-color graphics often shrink dramatically.

For anything else, the honest answer is no:

Sending a file to someone. You do not know what they will open it with. JPG never causes this conversation.
Uploading to a form. Job applications, government portals and printing services are exactly the software least likely to have been updated.
Archiving your own photographs. Keep the originals in whatever your camera produced. WebP is a delivery format, and re-encoding an archive to save space costs quality you cannot recover.

The useful way to hold it: WebP is for publishing, JPG is for handing to a human being. That is why the JPG naming muddle still matters thirty years on, and WebP has not replaced anything yet.

Frequently asked questions

What is a WebP file?: WebP is an image format developed by Google that stores the same picture in a smaller file than JPG or PNG — typically 25 to 35 percent smaller at comparable quality. It is a genuine image format, not a corrupted download or a trick. Websites serve it to make pages load faster, which is why you keep receiving one when you save a picture from the web.
Why can't I open a WebP file?: You almost certainly can — every current browser opens WebP, and both Windows and macOS have supported it in their built-in image viewers for years. When something refuses, it is usually older software that stopped being updated: an old Photoshop version, a desktop app from before 2020, or an upload form whose list of accepted extensions was written years ago and never revisited.
How do I convert a WebP to a JPG?: Open it in a converter and save it as JPG. It takes a couple of seconds and needs no software installed. Bear in mind that WebP can hold transparency and JPG cannot, so a WebP with a transparent background will come back with that area filled in — convert to PNG instead if the transparency matters.
Is WebP better than JPG?: For putting images on a website, yes: smaller files at the same visible quality, and it can do transparency and animation, which JPG cannot. For sending a photo to someone, or uploading it to a form, JPG remains the safer choice simply because everything accepts it. The better format is the one the destination can actually read.
Does converting WebP to JPG lose quality?: A little, because both are lossy formats and re-encoding always costs something. In practice the loss is small and usually invisible at normal viewing size. The change worth thinking about is not quality but transparency: JPG has no alpha channel, so anything see-through becomes solid.

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