WEBP vs PNG vs JPG: Which Image Format Should You Use?

By Thiago · Updated September 25, 2026 · 4 min read

Three formats cover almost every image you will ever save, send or upload. Each one is the best choice for a different job, and picking the wrong one is why photos look blurry, screenshots look smudged or a website refuses your file.

The short answer

• Photos you want to send, print or post: use JPG.
• Screenshots, logos, text and graphics, or anything with a transparent background: use PNG.
• Images for your own website: use WEBP, which is usually the smallest file for the same quality.
• A WEBP you downloaded that won't open somewhere: convert it to JPG (photos) or PNG (graphics).

Side-by-side comparison

JPG: the universal photo format

JPG (also written JPEG) has been the standard photo format for decades. It uses lossy compression: it throws away detail your eye is unlikely to notice, which is why a 12-megapixel photo can fit in a few megabytes. Every phone, computer, printer, email client and website accepts it.

The catch is that the compression is designed for smooth, natural images. On sharp edges, like text in a screenshot or the lines of a logo, it leaves faint blotches around the edges (called "artifacts"). JPG also has no transparency: a transparent area becomes a solid color.

When ConvertKiwi saves a JPG, it uses quality 90 out of 100 with the MozJPEG encoder. At that level the file stays compact and the loss is very hard to see, even when you zoom in. If the source image had a transparent background, we fill it with white, because JPG cannot store transparency.

PNG: pixel-perfect and transparent

PNG is lossless: every pixel you save is exactly the pixel you get back. That makes it ideal for screenshots, diagrams, charts, logos, icons and anything with text. It also supports transparent backgrounds, which is why logos and stickers are almost always PNGs.

The downside shows up with photos. Because nothing is thrown away, a photo saved as PNG is often three to five times larger than the same photo as a JPG, with no visible benefit. If a site rejects your image for being "too large", a PNG photo is a common reason.

WEBP: small files for the web

WEBP was created by Google to make web pages load faster. It can work like JPG (lossy) or like PNG (lossless), and it supports transparency in both modes. For the same visual quality it usually produces a noticeably smaller file than either of them, which is why so many websites now serve their images as WEBP.

That is also why you run into it: when you right-click and save an image from a website, you often get a .webp file. Current versions of Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari all display WEBP, and so do Windows 11 and recent macOS versions. But plenty of older editors, printing kiosks, government and job-application forms and some messaging apps still don't accept it. Converting to JPG or PNG solves that in seconds.

How to choose in practice

You're sending or printing a photo

Use JPG. It's compact, it looks great and nobody will have trouble opening it. If you have a WEBP photo, convert WEBP to JPG.

You're sharing a screenshot or something with text

Use PNG so the text stays crisp. If a screenshot was saved as JPG and looks smudged, converting it to PNG won't restore the lost detail. Take the screenshot again and keep it as PNG from the start.

You need a transparent background

Use PNG (or WEBP if it's only for the web). A WEBP logo with transparency can be converted to PNG and the transparent areas are preserved.

You're putting images on your own website

Use WEBP. Smaller images make pages load faster, and page speed is one of the things Google looks at. Keep your original JPG or PNG files as the master copies and convert JPG to WEBP or PNG to WEBP for publishing. When ConvertKiwi creates a WEBP, it uses quality 85, a common setting for websites that balances size and sharpness.

Mistakes to avoid

• Converting a JPG to PNG to "improve quality". The detail JPG removed is gone for good. PNG will preserve what's left exactly, but the file will simply get bigger. It is only worth it if an app specifically requires PNG.
• Saving the same JPG over and over. Every lossy save loses a little more detail. Edit from the original and export once at the end.
• Converting a logo to JPG. You lose the transparent background and the edges get fuzzy. Keep logos as PNG or WEBP.
• Uploading huge PNG photos to a website. Convert them to JPG or WEBP first. The page will load much faster.