Guide
JPG vs PNG vs WebP: Choosing the Right Format
Last updated October 5, 2026
An image that looks wrong, or weighs far more than it should, is usually saved in the wrong format. JPG, PNG and WebP make different trade-offs between file size, quality and what they can represent. This guide explains the trade-offs, shows what they cost in bytes on three kinds of picture, and lists the situations where a conversion makes things worse.
The short version
- A photograph that does not need transparency: JPG, or WebP if the destination supports it.
- A screenshot, logo or diagram with sharp edges or transparency: PNG, or WebP for a smaller file.
- Unsure and the picture is for a web page: try WebP, and keep a JPG or PNG copy for anything that does not open it.
What each format is
JPG is lossy: it throws away fine detail to save space, tuned so the loss is hard to see in photographs. It cannot store transparency, so a transparent area is filled with a solid colour (white, on this site) when you convert to it. Everything can open a JPG. PNG is lossless: every pixel is kept exactly, and it supports transparency. That suits screenshots, logos and text, but a photograph saved as PNG is large. WebP can be lossy or lossless, supports transparency, and is usually smaller than the equivalent JPG or PNG. All current major browsers open it, but some older programs, print workflows and upload forms still do not.
What it costs in bytes
We converted three generated pictures with this site's converters, from a PNG to JPG at quality 85 and to WebP at quality 85:
| Picture | PNG | JPG, quality 85 | WebP, quality 85 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Photo-like image, 1200 × 800 | 1.55 MB | 80 KB | 23 KB |
| Flat screenshot with text, 1280 × 720 | 27 KB | 49 KB | 12 KB |
| Small transparent logo, 300 × 200 | 1.3 KB | 5.3 KB (no transparency) | 1.9 KB |
Generated locally; not a benchmark; not a guaranteed result. The photo-like image is smooth, so it compresses unusually well; a real camera photo gives smaller differences. The pattern still holds: PNG is enormous for photos, and JPG is bigger than PNG for flat screenshots and tiny graphics, because JPG is built for continuous tones, and it also adds faint blurring around edges and text. WebP was the smallest in all three here, which is why it is attractive for web pages.
Mistakes that make things worse
- Converting a screenshot or logo to JPG. The file often gets bigger and the text gets fuzzy. Keep PNG or use WebP.
- Converting a JPG to PNG to "improve quality". The detail already lost does not come back. You only get a much bigger file of the same picture.
- Re-saving a JPG or WebP repeatedly. Each save loses a little more. Work from the original and save once at the end.
- Expecting a JPG to keep transparency. It will not. A transparent PNG converted to JPG here gets a white background.
- Forgetting that conversion drops camera data. The tools here that re-save a picture do not copy EXIF or GPS. That is often good for privacy; see what image metadata reveals.
Converting between them
Each direction has its own tool: JPG to PNG, PNG to JPG, JPG to WebP, WebP to JPG, PNG to WebP and WebP to PNG. For other source formats there are GIF to JPG, BMP to JPG, TIFF to JPG and HEIC to JPG. To make a file smaller without changing its format, use the Image Compressor, and read how to reduce an image for email and the web for the order of steps that saves the most.