Using WEBP Images on WordPress and Modern Websites
What WEBP is and why it matters for websites
WEBP is a modern image format developed by Google that combines the best features of JPG and PNG into a single format. It supports lossy compression for photographs, lossless compression for graphics, and transparency for both. In most test cases, WEBP produces files that are 25 to 35 percent smaller than equivalent JPG files and significantly smaller than PNG files.
For WordPress sites and other content management systems, where pages often contain multiple images, those savings add up quickly. A blog post with five images might save 500 KB or more by switching to WEBP, which directly improves page load times for every visitor.
Browser support in 2026
WEBP is now supported by all major modern browsers, including Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, Opera, and their mobile versions. Global browser support exceeds 97 percent of web users, which means the vast majority of your visitors can view WEBP images without any issues.
The remaining edge cases include very old browser versions, some specialized enterprise software, and certain email clients. For most websites, these edge cases affect such a small percentage of visitors that WEBP can be used as the primary format without concern.
How to use WEBP on WordPress
WordPress has supported WEBP uploads since version 5.8. You can upload WEBP images directly through the media library just like JPG or PNG files. WordPress will display them in your posts, pages, and galleries without any additional configuration.
Many WordPress hosting providers and optimization plugins also offer automatic WEBP conversion. Plugins like ShortPixel, Imagify, and Smush can convert your existing JPG and PNG images to WEBP automatically, and some even serve WEBP to supported browsers while falling back to the original format for older browsers.
If you prefer to convert images before uploading, you can use a browser-based converter to create WEBP versions of your photos, then upload them directly to WordPress. This gives you more control over quality settings and lets you preview the result before it reaches your site.
Quality considerations when converting to WEBP
WEBP compression works differently from JPG compression, so the same quality percentage may produce different visual results. A JPG at 80 percent quality and a WEBP at 80 percent quality will not look identical, though both should look acceptable for most web uses.
Always inspect the converted WEBP file before publishing, especially for product photos, portraits, and images with fine detail. Look at skin tones, gradients, sharp edges, text overlays, and transparent areas. If the quality is not acceptable, increase the quality setting or keep the original format for that particular image.
When to keep JPG or PNG instead of WEBP
Despite its advantages, WEBP is not always the right choice. Keep JPG or PNG when you need to share images by email, because many email clients do not display WEBP inline. Keep the original format when uploading to platforms that do not accept WEBP, such as some government forms, print services, and older content management systems.
Also keep original JPG or PNG files as backups. If you convert all your source images to WEBP and later need to create a different size or use them in a non-web context, having the original format available prevents quality loss from re-encoding.
Fallback strategies for maximum compatibility
The HTML picture element allows you to serve WEBP to browsers that support it while providing a JPG or PNG fallback for browsers that do not. This approach gives you the performance benefits of WEBP without breaking the experience for any visitor.
Many WordPress themes and page builders support this pattern automatically. If yours does not, you can use a plugin that handles WEBP serving with fallbacks, or you can add the picture element markup manually in your theme templates.
Measuring WEBP impact on your site
After converting your images to WEBP, run a speed test to measure the improvement. Compare total page weight, individual image sizes, and loading times. For image-heavy pages like galleries, portfolios, and product listings, the impact of WEBP conversion can be substantial.
Check your Core Web Vitals in Google Search Console to see if the format change improves your Largest Contentful Paint scores. Even small improvements in these metrics can positively influence your search rankings over time.
Try these PixelXTrim tools
- PNG to WEBP — convert PNG graphics to WEBP for faster pages
- JPG to WEBP — convert JPG photos to smaller WEBP files
Why use PixelXTrim?
PixelXTrim is free, needs no signup, adds no watermark, and processes supported images in your browser. Keep your original, preview the result, download a copy, and check that copy where it will be used.