WebP is Google's image format designed to replace JPEG and PNG. At equivalent visual quality, a WebP file is typically 25–35% smaller than a JPEG — meaning faster loading, less storage, and lower bandwidth costs.
Converting your existing JPEG images to WebP is one of the fastest wins you can get for website performance.
Smaller file sizes — A JPEG at 80% quality might be 400 KB. The same image as WebP at 80% quality is typically 250–300 KB. That's a 30%+ reduction with no visible difference.
Browser support — WebP is supported by 97%+ of browsers: Chrome (since 2014), Firefox (since 2019), Safari (since 2020), Edge, Opera, and all Android browsers. The only stragglers are very old IE and Safari versions.
Both lossy and lossless — Unlike JPEG (lossy only) or PNG (lossless only), WebP supports both modes. For photos, use lossy WebP. For graphics with transparency, use lossless WebP.
Transparency support — Unlike JPEG, WebP supports alpha transparency — like PNG, but smaller.
Using imgshrnk (recommended — no file uploads):
All processing happens in your browser using WebAssembly — your images are never uploaded to any server.
For most web use cases:
| Use case | Recommended quality |
|---|---|
| Hero / banner images | 82–88% |
| Product photos | 80–85% |
| Blog post images | 78–82% |
| Thumbnails | 72–78% |
| Background images | 68–75% |
80% is a safe default for most images. The file size reduction from 100% → 80% is enormous (often 60–70%), while the quality difference is invisible in a browser at typical display sizes.
Going below 70% may introduce visible artefacts in smooth gradients (sky, skin tones). Going above 90% saves very little compared to 100%.
For modern browsers: No. WebP is well-supported everywhere.
For older browsers: If you need to support IE11 or Safari < 14, serve WebP with a JPEG fallback using the <picture> element:
<picture>
<source srcset="image.webp" type="image/webp">
<img src="image.jpg" alt="Description">
</picture>
Most web projects today don't need IE fallbacks. Check your analytics — if fewer than 1% of your users are on unsupported browsers, WebP-only is fine.
| Format | File size | Browser support | Transparency |
|---|---|---|---|
| JPEG | Baseline | Universal | No |
| WebP | 25–35% smaller | 97%+ | Yes |
| AVIF | 50%+ smaller | 95%+ | Yes |
WebP is the safe choice for most websites in 2026 — excellent compression, near-universal support, handles both photos and graphics.
AVIF is better if you want maximum compression and your audience is on modern browsers. It's supported in Chrome 85+, Firefox 93+, and Safari 16+.
To convert to AVIF instead: same steps as above, just select AVIF as the output format in imgshrnk.
imgshrnk lets you upload multiple files at once and convert them all in a single session. Drop 50 images, select WebP, and download them all — each file is renamed with the correct extension automatically.
There's no file count limit per session, and each file can be up to 50 MB.
imgshrnk automatically renames files with the .webp extension when you select WebP as the output format. The file name is preserved — product-photo.jpg becomes product-photo.webp.
If you're batch processing and need to keep original filenames for CMS uploads, the files come out already correctly named.
Yes. WebP supports alpha transparency just like PNG, but typically produces smaller files. If you have a PNG with a transparent background, converting it to WebP (lossless mode) will usually save 30–50% of the file size while preserving the transparency perfectly.
When you convert a PNG to WebP in imgshrnk, transparency is preserved automatically.