WebP vs JPG — Is WebP Actually Better?
Compare WebP and JPG image formats for web use. See real compression differences, browser support, and whether you should switch to WebP in 2025.
| Feature | WebP | JPG |
|---|---|---|
| Compression Ratio | 25-35% better than JPG | Baseline |
| Transparency | Yes | No |
| Animation | Yes | No |
| Browser Support | All modern browsers (95%+) | Universal (100%) |
| Software Support | Growing but not universal | Universal |
| Lossy Compression | Yes | Yes |
| Lossless Compression | Yes | No |
| Best Use Case | Modern web delivery | Maximum compatibility |
Verdict
WebP is better than JPG for web delivery in 2025. Browser support exceeds 95% globally. Serve WebP to modern browsers and JPG as a fallback using the <picture> element. For new projects, WebP should be the default; JPG should be kept as a fallback or for tools/contexts that don't support WebP.
Real-World Compression Improvements
The 25-35% size reduction WebP delivers over JPG is not theoretical. Google's own study of one million images showed WebP was 25-34% smaller than JPG at equivalent SSIM (perceptual quality metric). For an e-commerce site with 1000 product images, switching from JPG to WebP could reduce image bandwidth by hundreds of gigabytes per month. Web.dev case studies show page load time improvements of 10-25% for image-heavy pages after WebP adoption. For image-heavy websites (news sites, e-commerce, social media), this is a meaningful, measurable performance win with straightforward implementation.
Implementing WebP in Practice
The easiest way to add WebP support is via your CDN or image hosting service. Cloudflare Images, Imgix, Cloudinary, and AWS CloudFront with Lambda@Edge can all automatically serve WebP to browsers that support it based on the Accept: image/webp request header, with no code changes required. Next.js's <Image> component automatically serves WebP. Astro's image component does the same. For static sites, tools like Sharp (Node.js), libvips, or cwebp (Google's command-line tool) batch-convert images to WebP during the build step.
Frequently Asked Questions
Use the HTML <picture> element: <picture><source srcset="image.webp" type="image/webp"><img src="image.jpg" alt="description"></picture>. Modern browsers load the WebP; unsupported browsers fall back to JPG. Most CDNs (Cloudflare, Cloudfront) can auto-convert to WebP based on the Accept header.
Yes, Safari added WebP support in version 14 (released September 2020). Safari on iOS 14+ and macOS Big Sur+ fully supports WebP. Only very old Apple devices running iOS 13 or earlier lack support, which represents a negligible fraction of users in 2025.
AVIF (AV1 Image File Format) offers even better compression than WebP — typically 20-50% smaller than WebP at equivalent quality. However, AVIF has slightly lower browser support (92% vs 95%+ for WebP) and slower encoding. The recommended stack is: AVIF for modern browsers, WebP as fallback, JPG for very old browsers.