Why you end up with WebP files
Most large websites now serve images as WebP because the files are smaller. When you right-click and save such an image, you get a .webp file, even if the page seemed to show an ordinary photo.
Renaming photo.webp to photo.jpg does not convert it: the bytes are still WebP, and apps that do not read WebP will refuse the file or show a broken thumbnail. The image has to be decoded and re-encoded as JPG, which is what this page does.
WebP vs JPG
- WebP — lossy or lossless, 8-bit alpha transparency and animation. Supported by about 97% of browsers in use (caniuse), but still refused by some older photo viewers, office suites, print services and upload forms.
- JPG — lossy only, no transparency or animation, accepted practically everywhere.
Both are lossy in everyday use, so converting WebP to JPG is a second round of compression. Use quality 85–90 so the JPG does not add visible damage on top of the WebP.
Why the JPG is larger than the WebP
WebP packs the same picture into fewer bytes. In our tests the same photos were 1.4 to 2 times larger as JPG at quality 85 than as WebP at quality 80 (213,965 vs 157,026 bytes for a 1280×575 landscape; 58,328 vs 29,640 bytes for a 768×512 portrait).
So a bigger JPG is the expected price of compatibility, not a fault, and the row note says so. If size matters, lower the quality to 80 or reduce the dimensions under Resize.
Transparent and animated WebP
A WebP can contain transparency. JPG cannot, so transparent areas are filled with the background colour you pick, and the row reports what share of the image was transparent.
An animated WebP is detected by reading its file structure. Only the first frame is converted, and the row shows how many frames the animation had.
Colour shifts and sites that still reject the file
- Colours shift slightly: both formats pass through sRGB, and repeated lossy saves add small changes. Convert from the WebP only once.
- A site still rejects the file: check its size limit and use Max width to shrink the image.
- Mixed downloads: if some saved images are already JPG, PNG or HEIC, drop them in anyway — they are converted to JPG too.