JPG vs PNG vs WebP: which image format should you use?

Use JPG for photographs that have to open anywhere, PNG for screenshots, logos and anything with text or transparency, and WebP when the image is going on a web page and you want the smallest file. Picking the right format usually saves more bytes than any compression slider.

The quickest route here: drop your files into Image converter, choose the output format and download. For the two conversions people do most often there are direct tools — JPG to WebP to shrink photos for a site, and WebP to JPG when a form or an older program refuses a file you downloaded.

The short answer

You have…	Use
A photo for a web page	WebP, or JPG for maximum compatibility
A photo to email, print or upload to a form	JPG
A logo or icon	SVG if you have it, otherwise PNG
A screenshot with text	PNG, or WebP lossless
Anything that needs transparency	PNG or WebP, never JPG
A short looping animation	WebP or MP4 rather than GIF

How the formats compare

Format	Compression	Transparency	Animation	Opens everywhere	Typical use
JPG	Lossy	No	No	Yes	Photographs
PNG	Lossless	Yes, 8-bit alpha	Only as APNG	Yes	Screenshots, logos, diagrams
WebP	Lossy or lossless	Yes	Yes	Every current browser; some apps and forms refuse it	Web images
AVIF	Lossy or lossless	Yes	Yes	Current browsers; patchy elsewhere	Web images, smaller again than WebP
GIF	Lossless, 256 colours	1-bit only	Yes	Yes	Legacy animations
SVG	Vector, text file	Yes	Yes, with CSS	Browsers yes, office software partly	Logos and icons
HEIC	Lossy	Yes	Live Photos	Apple yes, browsers no	iPhone camera roll

JPG (JPEG)

Published in 1992 and readable by essentially every device and program in use. It is lossy: the encoder splits the image into 8 × 8 blocks and throws away the fine detail the eye is least sensitive to. That works beautifully on photographs and badly on sharp edges, where it produces the "ringing" halo you see around black text on a white background.

JPG stores 8 bits per colour channel and has no transparency at all. Saving a transparent PNG as JPG fills the transparent area with a solid colour — white, in our tools.

PNG

Lossless: every pixel comes back exactly as it went in, which is why screenshots, diagrams, charts and logos stay crisp. It supports a full 8-bit alpha channel, so edges can fade smoothly into whatever is behind them.

The cost is size. For a photograph, a PNG is typically three to five times larger than the same picture as a JPG, because there is no detail the encoder is allowed to discard. Converting a photo from JPG to PNG with JPG to PNG produces a much bigger file that still contains all of the JPG's artefacts.

WebP

Google's format, now displayed by every current browser. It has two modes: lossy, which is comparable to JPG and typically 25–35% smaller at similar visual quality, and lossless, which competes with PNG and often removes 20–30% of a screenshot's size. Both modes support transparency, which is the practical advantage over JPG.

Two limits are worth knowing: a WebP image cannot exceed 16383 × 16383 pixels, and plenty of desktop software, print shops and upload forms still reject the format. When that happens, convert back with WebP to JPG — or to PNG if the image has transparency you need to keep.

AVIF, GIF, SVG and HEIC

AVIF is built on the AV1 video codec and compresses better than WebP at the same quality, especially at low bitrates. Current browsers display it. Encoding is slower, support outside browsers is uneven, and our converters do not produce it, so treat it as a web-delivery format you generate from your build pipeline.

GIF is limited to 256 colours per frame and to fully transparent or fully opaque pixels, which is why photographs look banded and cut-outs look jagged. For a still image, PNG or WebP is better in every respect; for an animation, WebP or a short video file is smaller and smoother.

SVG is not pixels at all: it is an XML text file describing shapes. It stays perfectly sharp at any size, is usually tiny for a logo, and can be styled with CSS. It cannot represent a photograph. When a platform refuses SVG uploads — many do, because an SVG can contain script — export a raster copy at the size you need with SVG to PNG.

HEIC is what an iPhone saves by default. It is efficient, but browsers do not decode it, so web-based tools cannot open it and many forms reject it. Either set Settings → Camera → Formats to "Most Compatible" so the phone shoots JPEG, or convert on the device before uploading.

What converting does to your file

• A conversion is a re-encode, not a relabelling. Renaming photo.webp to photo.jpg changes nothing inside the file, and a well-built upload form detects it.
• Lossy to lossless does not repair anything. JPG to PNG preserves the JPG's blocking and halos in a larger file. The detail is already gone.
• Lossy to lossy compounds. JPG to WebP runs the picture through a second lossy encoder. At quality 90 the added damage is hard to see, but always convert from the best original you have.
• Transparency has to go somewhere. PNG or WebP to JPG replaces transparent pixels with a solid background.
• Metadata usually disappears. EXIF, including GPS coordinates, is dropped when the pixels are re-encoded.
• Animation is flattened. Converting an animated GIF or WebP to a still format keeps only the first frame.

What the built-in apps can do

• Windows Photos opens JPG, PNG, GIF, TIFF and WebP; HEIC needs the free HEIF Image Extensions from the Microsoft Store. Paint's "Save as" menu covers PNG, JPEG, BMP and GIF.
• macOS Preview converts with File → Export and a Format menu that includes JPEG, PNG, TIFF and HEIC — but not WebP, which Preview can display and not write.
• iPhone Photos has no export-format menu. The format is chosen at capture time in Settings → Camera → Formats.
• Android Google Photos saves edited copies as JPEG. Whether the camera can shoot HEIF at all depends on the manufacturer.

Questions people ask

Is WebP safe to use on a website? Yes for browsers. Keep a JPG fallback only if your audience uses very old software, or if people will download and reuse the images.

Which format is smallest? For a photograph at the same visual quality, AVIF is usually smallest, then WebP, then JPG. For a screenshot, WebP lossless usually beats PNG.

Does PNG have a quality setting? No. PNG is lossless, so the only levers are the colour palette and the pixel dimensions.

Why is my downloaded image a .webp file? Many sites now serve WebP to browsers that accept it. Convert it with WebP to JPG if the program you need it in objects.

Can I convert a JPG to SVG? Not meaningfully. Tracing a photo into vectors produces a huge file that looks like a poster print of the original.

Next steps

• Convert a mixed batch in one pass: Image converter
• Shrink photos for a site: JPG to WebP and PNG to WebP
• Understand the size levers: How to reduce image file size
• Meet a form's format rule: How to prepare a photo for an online application form