How to Convert a WEBP Image to JPG
In 30 seconds: go to iloveimg.com, pick Convert to JPG, upload your .webp file and click the red button. Free, no sign-up. Note: the JPG will weigh more than the webp, so only convert when you need to.
You download an image from a website, you go to use it, and the file ends in .webp.
And the trouble starts: the program you want to put it in will not take it, the site you are uploading to rejects it, or the print shop says that format is no good.
You did nothing wrong. Websites store their images in that format because it weighs less and makes pages load faster.
Converting it takes less than a minute and it is free. And at the end I explain something almost nobody says: when you should NOT convert it.
Go to iLoveIMG
Go to iloveimg.com.
Careful, it is IMG, for image: the sister site of iLovePDF, same people, but for photos. If it comes up in another language, change it in the top right.
Find the Convert to JPG tool and click it.
Upload your WEBP image
Click the red Select images button and find your file.
It is usually in the Downloads folder, where images you grab off the internet end up. You can also drag it onto the red box.
It is plural: twenty webp images go up in one batch.
Besides WEBP it takes PNG, GIF, TIF, PSD, SVG, HEIC and RAW, so it covers almost any odd format you run into.
Click "Convert to JPG"
There is nothing to configure here.
The panel on the right says one thing only: *"All images will be converted to JPG."* No quality, no size, no options.
Click the red Convert to JPG button and wait a few seconds.
Download your JPG
The download button appears and your image, now a JPG, lands in your downloads folder.
Open it and you will see it looks exactly the same as before. The only thing that changed is the format, which is what you needed.
Why the JPG weighs more
Now something worth knowing, and you will check it yourself as soon as you download it. Go to your downloads folder and look at what the new file weighs: it is heavier than the original.
In the test I ran for this tutorial:
- Original WEBP: 198 kB
- Resulting JPG: 260 kB
- 31% heavier, for the same photo
It is not a fault of the tool. Webp compresses better than JPG: that is what Google invented it for, and why websites use it, because pages load faster.
By converting you are giving up that advantage in exchange for a file everyone accepts.
Converting is not compressing
And watch out for the most common mix-up: converting is not compressing.
If what you wanted was for the photo to weigh less, what you need is the Compress image tool, right next to it under "Continue to...". Converting changes the format; compressing lowers the weight. Different things.
And from that comes the rule, which is the part almost nobody says.
Convert when you genuinely need to:
- A site or a form will not take the file
- You are printing the photo at a shop
- An old program cannot open it
Do not convert out of habit:
- If the image is for your own website, leave it as webp: it will load faster for your visitors.
- If you only want to look at it on your computer, try opening it first. Windows and Mac have handled webp for years, and you might not need to convert anything.
What happens to your files
This applies to all these tools.
Your image is uploaded to an iLoveIMG server so it can be converted. It is processed there and deletes itself after a few hours. The connection is encrypted.
For an ordinary photo there is no problem. If it is a photo of a person, or a scanned document with your details, think about it.
And if you upload it anyway, hit the bin when you are done.
And that is it: your webp converted to JPG in under a minute, for free.
Keep hold of what matters: the JPG will weigh more, so only convert when you need to.
Common questions
What is a WEBP file and why do I get it when I download images?
It is an image format Google created so web pages weigh less and load faster. It stores the same photo taking up considerably less than a JPG, so almost every modern site uses it. When you save an image from a page, you take it exactly as it was there: as webp. It is not an error and it is not a damaged file.
I converted the image and now it weighs more. Did I do something wrong?
No, that is normal. Webp compresses better than JPG, so converting the same photo to JPG makes the file grow. In this tutorial it went from 198 kB to 260 kB, 31% more. If what you wanted was for it to weigh less, what you need is not converting but compressing, which is a different tool.
Does converting from WEBP to JPG lose quality?
A little, yes, though you will not notice by eye. Both formats compress by discarding information, so going from one to the other compresses again on top of what was already compressed. For viewing, printing or uploading it makes no difference. What you should avoid is converting the same image back and forth many times, because that does start to show.
I cannot open the webp file on my computer. Will converting fix it?
You probably do not even need to. Windows 10 and 11 open webp with the photo viewer, and Mac has for years too. If it will not open, it is usually because that file type is associated with an old program: try right-click, Open with, and pick the photo viewer or your browser. Converting makes sense when the problem is another program or a site that will not take the format.
Can I convert many images at once?
Yes, the button is plural for exactly that reason: select as many as you like and it converts them in one batch. It hands them back in a zip file you download in one go. The free version has a cap on files per batch, but for normal use you will not hit it.
Is there a way to download images as JPG directly?
It depends on the site. Some offer the same image in several formats and the browser picks webp for being lighter. Right-click on the image and "Save image as" sometimes lets you pick the format, but not always. If it happens to you often, converting in batches like in this tutorial ends up easier than fighting each download.
