JPG to WebP Converter

This conversion is lossy to lossy, which makes it different from converting from PNG. Each pass discards detail permanently, and the losses accumulate — an effect usually called generation loss.

Two practical consequences:

• Convert from the best source you have. If you still have the original camera file or a high-quality export, use that rather than a copy that has already been saved, resized and re-saved a few times.
• Convert once. Going JPG → WebP → JPG → WebP degrades the image every time, even at high quality settings.

Choosing a quality level:

• 90–100 — Largely wasted here. You are spending file size preserving JPG compression artefacts in fine detail. Worth it only if the image will be edited or enlarged afterwards.
• 75–89 — The sensible range for photographs on the web. The default of 82 sits here and is where WebP's efficiency advantage over JPG is largest.
• 60–74 — Distinctly smaller files, still acceptable for thumbnails, background images and previews.
• Below 60 — Visible softening and colour flattening. Use only when the size budget is genuinely tight.

If a converted file comes out larger than the JPG, the original was probably already compressed hard. Lowering the quality will fix it — or the JPG is simply already efficient enough to keep.

Why convert photographs to WebP

• Page speed. Images are the largest part of most web pages. Cutting them by a third is usually the single most effective performance improvement available, and page speed feeds directly into search ranking and how many visitors stay.
• Bandwidth and hosting costs. A media library converted to WebP costs proportionally less to serve.
• Mobile visitors. Smaller files matter most on slow or metered connections, which is where a large share of traffic now comes from.
• Better behaviour under pressure. When you do need to compress hard, WebP degrades more gracefully than JPG, which turns blocky.

When to stay with JPG

Compatibility is the deciding factor. JPG is the most universally accepted image format in existence — every device, every application, every upload form, every print service. WebP is now supported by all current browsers, but outside the browser the picture is patchier: some older desktop software, certain printers, and a fair number of upload forms still reject it.

So keep JPG when you are sending a file to someone else, submitting to a form, printing, or archiving somewhere you cannot control what will open it later. Convert to WebP for images you are publishing yourself, where you control how they are displayed.

What happens to camera metadata

JPGs from phones and cameras carry EXIF data: camera model, exposure, timestamps, and often GPS coordinates recording exactly where the photo was taken. This converter does not copy that metadata into the WebP, so the output is stripped by default — useful if you are publishing photographs and would rather not broadcast your home address.

The one piece of EXIF that is honoured is the orientation flag. Phone photos are frequently stored sideways with a rotation flag attached; that rotation is applied to the actual pixels here, so the WebP appears upright everywhere rather than lying on its side.

Serving both formats

If you are publishing to the web and want WebP's savings without abandoning older software, the standard approach is to offer both and let the browser choose:

<picture>
  <source srcset="photo.webp" type="image/webp">
  <img src="photo.jpg" alt="…">
</picture>

Browsers that understand WebP take the smaller file; anything else falls back to the JPG.