Skip to main content

What is the WebP file format?

You may have noticed an online image format appearing in your browser lately, especially if you have a blog or like to save images you find online. It’s called WebP, a format that’s been around for a while but is now starting to be adopted more broadly by websites around the world. If you’re curious, we’ve got the answers. Our FAQ covers how it works and what you should know about using it!

What is the WebP file format?

WebP is an image format designed by Google in 2010, created specifically for online images on websites and targeted at web developers. WebP was built to be a lighter, speedier file format that could help save precious space on servers and make it easier to support high-quality images without causing loading issues in busy browsers. It has a number of advantages including the use of predictive code to create image files and offers both lossless (focused on preserving detail) and lossy (focused on saving space with smaller file sizes) compression support.

Using Google Photos album.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

What is predictive coding?

This is a very effective method of creating or converting images. It uses an algorithm that analyzes pixels and predicts what nearby pixels should be like — their colors and other important information. That prediction is based on an analysis of many different web images and how they are likely to behave. It’s a little like the dynamic upscaling DLSS and AMD’s FSR that we’ve seen from the major graphics card manufacturers.

Recommended Videos

The advantage of using predictive coding for images is that pixel information only needs to be included if it does not meet the prediction. With fairly accurate predictive modeling, this can save a significant amount of space on image files.

What browsers support WebP?

WebP is supported by most major browsers. Currently, it works with Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge, and Opera, along with a wide variety of extensions and tools. As the popularity of WebP has started to grow in recent years, more support continues to be added.

Getty images on Google.
Google

What advantages does WebP have over formats like PNG or JPEG?

  • Lossless images using WebP save space. They are about 26% smaller than PNGs while still allowing for transparency. That means that websites, especially those with lots of images, can load faster for users and may even improve search engine rankings.
  • Likewise, lossy images also save space with WebP. WebP lossy images are between 25% to 34% smaller than similar JPEG images. They can also perform better than JPEGs when it comes to scaling images down without serious sacrifices in appearance.
  • Google has made the full source code available for WebP and included tools to make using the format particularly easy for developers.
  • WebP can also be used to create animated images the same way that GIFs can, with even greater potential for better compression than static images.

Are there any disadvantages to using WebP?

  • WebP is made for online images. That means it’s not really compatible with photo apps or other photography software. Photographers will generally want to use higher-quality lossless formats that they know will work with their preferred platforms.
  • While many popular browsers support WebP, others do not. Browsers like Tor or Internet Explorer struggle to support these images.
  • While WebP may be able to help make animated files smaller than GIFs, some have complained that decoding the animated image takes much longer than decoding a GIF.
  • Some online development tools don’t yet support WebP. The most notable example is WordPress. Those working with software like this can’t rely on WebP images at this time, although hopefully, support will continue to increase.

What software can open WebP files?

There are plenty of options to open WebP files. The browsers we mentioned, like Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge, will natively open WebP files for you, so you can always work with them in a browser. Online image editing tools, like ImageMagick or Pixlr, can also handle them. Adobe Photoshop and Paintshop Pro can deal with WebP, too.

Saving a WebP file in Pixlr.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Can I convert WebP files?

Yes, easily. The editing tools we mentioned above, like Photoshop, ImageMagick, and many others, will give you an option to convert your WebP files into something like JPEG or PNG. Look for the Save As option when you are ready to convert, and you should see options to change the format before you save the image. This trick also works on native apps like Preview on MacOS and Paint on Windows. For developers, Google has a precompiled cwebp conversion tool that can be added to applications.

Are WebP files safe to use?

WebP files are as safe as JPEGs and other image formats. Links to image files can still lead you to malware, and image files may be implanted with viruses. Only download WebP images from a trusted source and you should be fine.

Topics
Tyler Lacoma
Former Digital Trends Contributor
If it can be streamed, voice-activated, made better with an app, or beaten by mashing buttons, Tyler's into it. When he's not…
The M5 MacBook Pro may be another boring update
MacBook Pro with M4

The recently announced 2024 MacBook Pro lineup is not even on the market yet, but there is already buzz about the next two generations of the laptop series. Speculation suggests that there likely won’t be any exciting features on the Apple device until 2026.

There have already been rumors circulating, which indicate the MacBook Pro may upgrade from a mini-LED display to an OLED display in 2026, has been speculated for many months. Industry analysts, including Ming-Chi Kuo and Ross Young, have stated that the 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models are set to remain as mini-LED displays in 2025.

Read more
Perplexity unveils an AI-powered ‘election information hub’
perplexity ai information hub 2024 elections harris trump screenshot 11 04 144125

As Americans turn out to the polls on Tuesday to vote, AI startup Perplexity is launching an election information hub, powered by data from the Associated Press, to provide live updates on the results.

"We want to do our part to support an informed electorate," the company announced Friday, "so we’ve built the election hub on Perplexity’s answer engine: an entry point for understanding key issues, voting intelligently, and tracking election results."

Read more
This Alienware gaming PC with RTX 4090 is almost $1,000 off
Alienware Aurora R16 sitting on a coffee table.

Is your current gaming PC on its last legs? If you need an upgrade, check out Dell's offer for the Alienware Aurora R16 gaming desktop with the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 graphics card. From its original price of $4,695, the machine is down to $3,700. It's still pretty expensive, but you won't always get the chance to buy such a powerful gaming PC with a nearly $1,000 discount. However, if you want to pocket the savings of $995, you're going to have to be quick with your purchase as there's no telling when this bargain expires.

Why you should buy the Alienware Aurora R16 gaming desktop
The Alienware Aurora R16, which received a rating of four out of five stars in our review, sits on top of our list of the best gaming PCs. Compared to the Alienware Aurora R15, this latest version of the gaming desktop is around half the size without compromising power or thermals, with upgraded internals for even better performance. In addition to the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4090 graphics card, this configuration of the Alienware Aurora R16 features the 14th-generation Intel Core i9 processor and 64GB of RAM, which our guide on how to buy a gaming desktop says would be useful for those who will use their machine for other purposes beyond gaming, such as editing videos.

Read more