Convert Images Between JPG, PNG and WebP Instantly

When to convert — and when not to bother

Format conversion is one of those optimisations that sounds complicated but pays off immediately once you understand the basic rules. The single most impactful change most websites can make right now is converting their JPG photos to WebP — typically a 25 to 35 percent size reduction with no visible quality difference. All major browsers have supported WebP since 2020, so compatibility is almost never an issue anymore.

When you should convert to PNG instead: any time you need to preserve transparency (logos, icons, cutout images), or when you're dealing with screenshots or graphics containing text where JPEG's lossy compression creates visible artifacts around sharp edges. PNG is lossless, so it stores every pixel exactly as it was — the cost is larger file sizes for photographic content.

One conversion to avoid: JPG to PNG for photographic content on the web. It makes the file bigger without recovering quality that was lost in the original JPEG compression, since JPEG is a lossy format and that data is gone permanently. If you need to edit a JPEG image and re-save it multiple times, convert to PNG as an intermediate editing format to avoid generational quality loss — but convert back to WebP or JPG for the final web version.

What about transparency?

Both PNG and WebP support transparent backgrounds (alpha channels). JPG does not — if you convert a PNG with transparency to JPG, the transparent areas will be filled with white. If you're working with product cutouts or logos on transparent backgrounds, use WebP or keep the PNG format.

Common questions