JPG vs PNG vs WebP — which one should you use?
JPG vs PNG vs WebP — which one should you use?
Three formats dominate the web. Picking the wrong one can mean a 10× larger file — or a visibly broken image. Here's the short version.
JPEG (.jpg)
Use for: photographs, complex gradients, anything with millions of colours.
JPEG is lossy — it throws away data that human eyes are unlikely to notice. At quality 75-85 it's nearly invisible for photos, and the file shrinks dramatically.
Don't use for: logos, screenshots, text, anything with sharp edges. JPEG smears edges into blocks.
PNG (.png)
Use for: logos, icons, screenshots, images that need transparency.
PNG is lossless — the pixels you save are the pixels you get back. That makes it perfect for line art and UI graphics but terrible for photos. A 4 MB photo saved as PNG can balloon to 20 MB.
WebP (.webp)
Use for: almost everything, honestly.
WebP was released by Google in 2010 and has been supported in every major browser since 2020. It offers:
- Lossy mode that beats JPEG by 25-35% at the same visual quality
- Lossless mode that beats PNG by 20-30%
- Full transparency support
- Animation (replaces GIF)
The only reason not to use WebP is if you need to support a very old browser — and at this point, that's essentially nobody.
The decision tree
- Photo? → WebP, fall back to JPEG if the WebP encoder isn't available
- Logo or icon with transparency? → WebP, fall back to PNG
- Screenshot with text? → WebP lossless, fall back to PNG
- Animated? → WebP, fall back to MP4
Try it yourself
Our compressor converts any JPG or PNG to WebP with one toggle. On a typical photo you'll see 30-50% smaller output with no visible difference.
Toggle WebP on in the settings panel and compare a few of your own photos. The savings add up fast on a website with hundreds of images.