You right-click an image on a website, choose "Save image," and end up with a file called something like photo.webp. Then your usual photo editor, an office document, or a print shop's uploader refuses to touch it. The file is fine. It is just in a format called WebP that not every program has caught up with, and converting it takes a few seconds.
What is a WebP file?
WebP is an image format created by Google to make web pages faster. It compresses photos noticeably smaller than JPG and graphics smaller than PNG, while still supporting transparency, so websites increasingly serve their images as WebP to save bandwidth. That is why, more and more, saving an image from the web hands you a .webp instead of the familiar .jpg or .png.
Why some apps won't open it
Every modern web browser displays WebP perfectly, which is why the image looked fine on the site. The gap is in software outside the browser. Some older desktop photo editors, certain versions of office suites, a few social and marketplace upload forms, and some print services still do not accept WebP. When one of them meets a .webp file, it simply does not recognise it, and you get an error or a blank. The fix is to convert the file into a format everything understands.
Convert WebP to JPG or PNG
Which one you choose depends on the image:
- Convert to JPG for photographs, or anything you need to upload to a form or share widely. JPG is the most universally accepted format. Use WebP to JPG.
- Convert to PNG if the image has a transparent background you need to keep, or it is a logo, screenshot, or graphic with sharp edges. Use WebP to PNG. Note that a JPG cannot hold transparency, so PNG is the right choice when the background must stay see-through.
Both converters run entirely in your browser. Drop the .webp file in and it comes back as a standard JPG or PNG you can open anywhere. Nothing is uploaded to a server, and there is no limit on how many you convert.
Going the other way
If you are building a website and want your own images to load faster, you can convert toward WebP instead, which is the whole reason the format exists. Turn photos into WebP with JPG to WebP, or shrink transparent graphics with PNG to WebP. Just remember that anyone you hand the file to directly may hit the same compatibility wall you did, so keep a JPG or PNG copy for sharing.
Should you keep the WebP?
If the image is only ever going to be displayed in a browser, on your own website for example, WebP is the better choice because it is smaller and loads faster. If it is heading anywhere else, into an editor, a document, a print job, or an upload form, convert it to JPG or PNG so it opens without a fight. In short: WebP for the web, JPG or PNG for everything else.