How it works
- Drop your PNG files.
- Pick lossy quality or lossless.
- Download the WebP files or a ZIP.
Why use it
- Lossy or lossless WebP.
- Transparency kept.
- Optional resize while converting.
- Batch with ZIP, all local.
PNG to WebP: lossy or lossless, and how much it saves
Why WebP
WebP is the format browsers now prefer for pictures on the web: it keeps transparency like PNG, compresses photos far better than PNG, and every current version of Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari shows it. Converting a site's PNGs to WebP is one of the simplest ways to make its pages load faster.
Lossy or lossless
WebP has two modes, and the right one depends on the picture. We converted six photos and a chart with text, all as PNG to start with:
| Picture | PNG | WebP lossy, 85 | WebP lossless |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cat, soft background | 2.07 MB | 101 KB | 1.66 MB |
| Lake and forest | 4.80 MB | 563 KB | 4.16 MB |
| Coffee in knitted gloves | 2.74 MB | 168 KB | 2.07 MB |
| Neon sign at night | 3.17 MB | 253 KB | 2.49 MB |
| Macaw feathers | 2.96 MB | 190 KB | 2.31 MB |
| Sunset | 1.92 MB | 124 KB | 1.64 MB |
| Chart with text | 43.5 KB | 29.5 KB | 17.2 KB |
For photos, lossy is the obvious choice: a tenth to a twentieth of the PNG size, and at quality 85 hard to tell from the original. For screenshots, charts, logos and anything with text or flat colour, switch on Lossless: our chart came out 60 percent smaller than the PNG with every pixel identical, and even smaller than the lossy version, which also softens the edges of letters slightly.
The settings
- Quality, for lossy WebP: 85 by default. 75 to 80 suits photos on websites; above 90 the files grow quickly for little visible gain.
- Lossless keeps every pixel. Bigger than lossy for photos, smaller than PNG for everything.
- Longest side caps large pictures at 3840 down to 800 pixels. A photo shown 1200 pixels wide on a page does not need 4000.
Transparent areas stay transparent in both modes, so logos and cut outs can go straight onto a page with any background.
Where WebP still causes trouble
Browsers are fine; some other software is not. Older versions of Photoshop and Microsoft Office, some email apps, print services and upload forms still refuse WebP. Keep the PNG originals, and use WebP for what you publish on the web. To turn WebP files back into something every program opens, use WebP to PNG or WebP to JPG.
For the smallest files of all, AVIF goes further than WebP on most photos, at the cost of slower encoding; compress image writes both, and our comparison of JPG, PNG, WebP and AVIF measures the four side by side.
If something goes wrong
- Text in a screenshot looks soft. Switch on Lossless.
- The lossy WebP is barely smaller than the PNG. The picture is a graphic, which PNG already stores well. Use Lossless.
- A program will not open the file. It does not support WebP yet. Keep a PNG copy for it.
How we tested. Six CC0 photos scaled to 2048 pixels wide and a 1600 by 1000 pixel chart, saved as PNG and converted with the libwebp encoder and settings of this tool in Chrome. PNG sizes are after OxiPNG optimisation.
Questions and answers
Is WebP better than PNG?
For web use, usually yes: it is smaller at similar quality. PNG remains the safest choice for editing and for tools that do not read WebP.
Can I keep it lossless?
Yes, switch on Lossless and the WebP keeps every pixel exactly.
Do all browsers support WebP?
All current browsers do. Very old software may not.
Related guides
JPG, PNG, WebP or AVIF: which format to use
We saved six photos and a graphic in all four formats at the same visual quality and compared the sizes. The newer formats win on photos by a wide margin, but each format still has a job.