When WebP to PNG is the right choice
WebP and PNG can both store transparency, but they are built for different jobs. WebP is a delivery format: it makes images small so web pages load fast. PNG is a working format: lossless, understood by every design, office and printing program, and safe to edit and re-save without losing quality.
Convert WebP to PNG when you need to:
- Keep a transparent background: stickers, emoji-style graphics, logos and product cut-outs saved from a website.
- Edit the image in software that does not read WebP, or that you will save many times.
- Use it in documents and slides, where PNG with transparency places cleanly over coloured backgrounds.
- Archive it losslessly, so no further quality is lost.
If the image is a photo without transparency and you just need it to open everywhere, WebP to JPG gives a far smaller file.
How transparency is handled
Each pixel in a transparent image has four values: red, green, blue and alpha (opacity, 0 to 255). WebP stores alpha separately from the colour and compresses it losslessly by default. When you convert, the tool decodes the WebP with Google’s own libwebp decoder, compiled to run in your browser, and writes the exact RGBA values into the PNG. Soft edges, shadows and semi-transparent glows come through unchanged.
File sizes to expect
Lossy WebP throws away detail; PNG stores everything that is left. So the PNG is bigger, and how much bigger depends on the content:
| Kind of image | Typical change WebP → PNG |
|---|---|
| Flat-colour logo or icon | about the same, sometimes smaller |
| Sticker or illustration with shading | 2–5 times larger |
| Photo | 10 times larger or more |
For example, a 1920 × 1200 landscape photo stored as a 90 KB WebP becomes roughly 1.6 MB as an optimised PNG, because the PNG has to store all 2.3 million pixels exactly. Tick Smaller PNG files to use OxiPNG, which tries several compression strategies and keeps the smallest. It is lossless and slower; without it the browser’s built-in PNG encoder is used.
Lossless WebP
Some WebP files are lossless (Google introduced this mode in 2012). Converting a lossless WebP to PNG is perfect in both directions: you can convert back later and get identical pixels. Google measured lossless WebP as about 26% smaller than PNG, so expect the PNG to be a little bigger.
Doing it by hand
- Windows: open the WebP in Paint and choose File → Save as → PNG picture. Paint does not keep transparency in some versions, so check the result.
- Mac: open it in Preview, choose File → Export, then PNG. Transparency is kept.
- Phones: neither iOS nor Android has a built-in converter; use this page in your browser.
Here you can convert a whole batch in one go, file names stay the same (sticker.webp becomes sticker.png), and nothing is uploaded.
Next steps
Need the image smaller or a different size? Use Resize Image, or shrink PNGs losslessly with Compress Image. To cut a subject out of a photo that has no transparency yet, try the background remover.