FileHint

WebP vs JPG — which to ship on the web

WebP is 25–35% smaller at the same quality and supports transparency. JPG is the universal fallback. Serve both via `<picture>`.

By FileHint editorial teamSupervised by Netwiz LLCEditorial policy

Quick verdict

  • Improving LCP on the web → WebP first, JPG fallback.
  • Legacy mail or business systems → JPG.
  • Logos or UI elements with transparency → Lossless WebP or PNG.

Side-by-side

Property WebP JPG
Compression Lossy and lossless Lossy only
Transparency Yes No
Animation Yes No
File size 25–35% smaller at the same quality Baseline
Browser support All major browsers (Safari 14+) 100%
EXIF Supported Supported

Real-world pattern

<picture>
  <source srcset="/photo.webp" type="image/webp">
  <img src="/photo.jpg" alt="...">
</picture>
  • Older browsers quietly fall through to JPG.
  • A CDN can also switch formats based on the Accept header — useful when you can't afford the build-time duplication.

See also

References