Every few months someone asks me which image format they should be using, and every few months I give the same slightly unsatisfying answer: it depends on what's in the image. That's the honest answer, but it's not a very useful one on its own, so here's the actual decision process I use.
The three formats, in plain terms
JPG is built for photographs. It uses lossy compression, meaning it throws away detail the human eye barely notices, which is exactly why photos compress so well as JPGs. It does not support transparency, and it starts showing ugly artifacts around sharp edges and text if you push compression too far.
PNG is built for anything with hard edges, flat colors, or transparency: logos, icons, screenshots, illustrations. It's lossless, so nothing gets thrown away, but that also means file sizes balloon fast on photographic content. Using PNG for a photo is the single most common format mistake I see.
WebP is the newer option and, for most web use, the better default. It supports both lossy and lossless compression, handles transparency, and typically produces files 25 to 35 percent smaller than an equivalent JPG or PNG at the same visual quality. Browser support has been essentially universal for years now, so there's rarely a reason to avoid it on a modern site.
A quick way to decide
If it's a photo: JPG for maximum compatibility, WebP if you want smaller files with the same quality.
If it needs transparency or has text, logos, or flat colors: PNG, or WebP if the platform supports it.
If you're building for the web in 2026 and don't have a strong reason otherwise: WebP, full stop.
Converting between formats without a design app
You don't need Photoshop installed to switch formats. An image converter will take your PNG, JPG, or WebP file and convert it to any of the others in one click, right in your browser, with the original file never leaving your device. This is the tool I reach for most often when a client sends me a PNG screenshot that should really be a compressed JPG, or when I need to modernize an old image library into WebP for a speed audit.
Where this gets a little more nuanced
There are edge cases worth knowing about. Print work still wants uncompressed or minimally compressed formats, since JPG artifacts that are invisible on screen show up under a magnifying glass on paper. Email clients have historically had spotty WebP support, so PNG or JPG is still the safer bet for anything going into an inbox. And if you're animating something, GIF still has a place, though WebP and even AVIF now do animation better in most modern browsers.
I cover the file size numbers, transparency handling, and SEO implications of each format in more depth over on the full PNG vs JPG vs WebP comparison, including some benchmark tests I ran across a batch of real photos.
Format choice isn't glamorous, but it's one of those decisions that quietly compounds. Get it right once at the start of a project and you save yourself a re-optimization pass later. The team behind TechbyJeel Tools built the converter specifically because this decision comes up constantly and shouldn't require installing anything.
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