How to Open WebP and Convert It to JPG or PNG
Downloaded a .webp file, and double-clicking it does nothing — or opens the wrong thing? Relax: the file is fine. It's just being opened by a program that has never heard of WebP. Here's a short, practical plan: how to open WebP in seconds, and how to turn it into a familiar JPG or PNG when you need to.
Why .webp sometimes "won't open"
WebP is a modern image format from Google. It weighs about 25–35% less than JPG at the same quality, which is why websites switched to it en masse for faster loading. Browsers have shown WebP for years, and for the web it's an excellent format. The trouble starts in exactly one place: when a .webp file lands on your disk and you try to open it outside the browser.
It's not that the file is "broken." It's just that the program you're opening it with may be older than the format itself and simply doesn't know how to read it. The usual suspects:
- Old Windows. On Windows 7 and 8, the built-in viewer doesn't understand WebP.
- Old Photoshop. Before version 23.2 (Photoshop 2022), WebP only opened through a separate plugin.
- Legacy programs and services. Plenty of printers, photo frames, document editors and online forms still accept only JPG and PNG.
In short
To simply view a WebP, open it in a browser — that always works. To make the file acceptable to other programs and services, convert it once to JPG or PNG. We'll walk through both paths below.
The fastest way — open it in a browser
If you just need to see the image, you don't have to download anything. Every modern browser opens WebP out of the box: Chrome and Opera have done so since 2014, Firefox and Edge since 2019, and Safari on macOS and iOS since 2020 (Big Sur / iOS 14). Today WebP is supported by the browsers of roughly 98% of users worldwide.
Open a new tab
Any browser works: Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari or Opera.
Drag the file into the window
Just drop the .webp from your folder onto the tab. Or press Ctrl + O (on Mac, Cmd + O) and pick the file.
Done — the image is on screen
To save it, right-click → "Save image as…". Want a different format right away? Jump to the conversion section.
The beauty of this method is that it doesn't depend on your operating system or program versions. The one downside: the browser only displays the image — you can't edit it, or send it to a service that doesn't accept WebP. For that, you need the next step.
Opening WebP on Windows 10 and 11
Good news for Windows users: WebP has been sorted out for a long time.
- Windows 11 — opens WebP out of the box in both the Photos app and Paint. A double-click just works.
- Windows 10 — also handles it, as long as the 2018–2019 updates are installed (and they almost certainly are). Photos and Paint display WebP, and Paint can even re-save it as PNG or JPG.
- Windows 7 and 8 — no built-in support. The easiest route here is to open the file in a browser or convert it straight to JPG/PNG.
If double-clicking the file opens the wrong thing (a text editor, say), set the program manually: right-click the .webp → Open with → choose Photos. Tick "Always use this app" if you like.
A Paint trick
Open the WebP in Paint (Windows 10/11) and choose File → Save as → PNG. You get a ready PNG with zero third-party software. For a whole batch of files it's tedious, though — an online converter is far easier there.
macOS, Linux and your phone
On macOS, the built-in Preview app opens WebP starting with Big Sur (2020). Double-click the file and the image appears. Preview can also export: File → Export, then choose JPEG or PNG from the format dropdown.
On Linux, popular viewers have supported WebP for years — GNOME Image Viewer (Eye of GNOME), Gwenview in KDE, plus the GIMP editor. If a specific program refuses, installing the webp or libwebp package fixes it in most distributions.
On your phone it's even simpler. Modern Android and iPhone (iOS 14 and newer) show WebP in the default Gallery / Photos app and in the browser with no add-ons. If an app still won't open the file, open it through your mobile browser.
Photoshop, GIMP and other editors
If you need to edit a WebP rather than just view it, the choice depends on your program.
- Adobe Photoshop. From version 23.2 (Photoshop 2022) onward, WebP opens and saves natively, like an ordinary JPG. On older versions you need Google's free WebPShop plugin, dropped into Photoshop's plugins folder.
- GIMP. This free editor opens and exports WebP out of the box starting with version 2.10 (2018). It's the most convenient free option when you actually need to edit.
- IrfanView and XnView. Lightweight, popular Windows viewers. IrfanView opens WebP with its WebP plugin (part of the standard plugin pack); XnView MP needs no add-ons. Both can batch-convert dozens of files at once.
- Paint.NET. Opens WebP starting with version 4.3.
Don't want to deal with plugins and versions?
If installing a plugin or updating Photoshop for a single file sounds like a hassle, it's easier to convert WebP to PNG online and open the familiar PNG in any version of your editor. The result is identical, and the whole thing takes half a minute.
Convert WebP to JPG or PNG in 30 seconds
This is the universal fix for every situation: after conversion the file opens in old software, at the print shop, and in any online form. Nothing to install — it all happens in the browser.
Open the converter
Go to WebP → JPG (for photos and compatibility) or WebP → PNG (if you need transparency).
Drag your files in
Several at once is fine. Files are processed over a secure connection and auto-deleted from the server within a couple of hours.
Download the result
The finished JPG or PNG opens anywhere. Grab multiple files as a single ZIP archive.
JPG or PNG — which to pick? A simple rule:
| What you have | Best format | Why |
|---|---|---|
| A photo or photo screenshot | JPG | Smaller size, accepted by every service and printer |
| A logo, icon or transparent background | PNG | Keeps transparency, lossless |
| Screenshot with crisp text, a diagram | PNG | No compression artifacts on letters and lines |
| You need maximum compatibility | JPG | Opens literally everywhere since 1992 |
Convert your WebP right now
The free FormatZ converter turns your .webp into a universal JPG in a couple of seconds — right in your browser, with no install and no sign-up. Need transparency? Use the PNG version.
Need the reverse — to shrink images for your own website, say? The JPG → WebP and PNG → WebP converters have you covered. The full list lives on the all formats page.
You saved an image from a site and got .webp
A very common scene: you click "Save image as…" and the file turns out to be a .webp, even though it looked like an ordinary picture on the page. That's not an error — the site simply serves images as WebP so the page loads faster.
What to do about it:
- Just need to look at it — open the file in a browser (see above); it'll display with no trouble.
- Need to drop it into a document, a presentation or an email — convert it to JPG or PNG. Many versions of Word, PowerPoint and mail clients still don't play nicely with WebP.
- Lots of files — don't convert them one by one. Drag the whole batch into the converter at once and download the result as a single archive. Desktop XnView MP and IrfanView do the same via their batch mode.
To sum up: the easiest way to view a WebP is in a browser; on Windows 10/11 and modern macOS it opens with built-in tools; editing is most convenient in GIMP or recent Photoshop; and for compatibility with any service, just convert the file to JPG or PNG in half a minute.
