JPG vs PNG vs WEBP: Which Format Should You Use and When?

Choosing the wrong image format is one of the most common reasons websites load slowly and storage fills up unnecessarily. JPG, PNG, and WEBP each have different strengths — and knowing when to use which one can cut file sizes by 60–80% without any visible quality loss.

The three main web image formats

JPG (JPEG)

JPG is a lossy compression format, meaning it permanently discards some image information during compression to achieve smaller file sizes. The amount discarded is controlled by a quality setting — typically expressed as a percentage from 1 (maximum compression, lowest quality) to 100 (minimum compression, highest quality).

Best for: Photographs and complex images with millions of gradual color transitions — portraits, landscapes, product photography, food photography. JPG handles these extremely well because the compression artifacts (blocky distortion) are far less visible in complex, varied images than in flat or geometric ones.

Avoid for: Images with text, logos, icons, screenshots, or flat areas of solid color. JPG compression creates visible "ringing" artifacts around hard edges like text characters, which degrades readability and looks unprofessional.

Typical file sizes: A 2000×2000 photo at JPG quality 82 is often 150–350 KB. The same image as an uncompressed PNG might be 8–12 MB.

PNG

PNG is a lossless compression format, meaning it preserves every pixel of the original image exactly. No quality is sacrificed regardless of how many times you save the file.

PNG also supports transparency through an alpha channel. Each pixel can be fully opaque, fully transparent, or any degree of semi-transparency in between. This is essential for logos, icons, product cutouts, and any image that needs to sit on top of other elements.

Best for: Logos, icons, screenshots, graphic design assets, images with text overlay, and any image that needs transparency. Also ideal for images that will be edited and re-saved repeatedly, since lossless compression means no quality degradation over multiple save cycles.

Avoid for: Photographs where file size matters. A photograph saved as PNG is typically 5–15× larger than the same image at a reasonable JPG quality setting, with no visible quality benefit.

Typical file sizes: A 1000×1000 logo as PNG might be 50–200 KB depending on color complexity. The same image as a detailed photograph could be 3–10 MB.

WEBP

WEBP is a modern format developed by Google that supports both lossy and lossless compression, as well as transparency. Its key advantage is efficiency — it typically produces files 25–35% smaller than equivalent-quality JPG or PNG files.

Best for: Web use where bandwidth matters. WEBP is now supported by all modern browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge). If you're optimizing images for a website, WEBP is almost always the best choice for photographs and graphics alike.

Avoid for: Situations where compatibility with older software or systems matters. Some older versions of image editing software, email clients, and legacy systems don't support WEBP. If your images need to open reliably in unknown environments, JPG or PNG are safer choices.

Typical file sizes: A 2000×2000 photo at WEBP quality 80 is often 100–250 KB — noticeably smaller than an equivalent JPG at similar perceptual quality.

Decision guide: which format to use

How quality settings work

For lossy formats (JPG and lossy WEBP), the quality setting is the main control you have over the trade-off between file size and image quality.

Quality 90–100: Near-lossless. Virtually no visible artifacts. Very large file size. Best for archiving originals or preparing images for print.

Quality 80–90: High quality. Almost no visible artifacts in photographs. Significantly smaller file sizes than 100. The sweet spot for most high-quality web use.

Quality 70–80: Good quality. Minor artifacts may be visible on close inspection, particularly around high-contrast edges. Excellent file size reduction. The standard recommendation for most web images.

Quality 50–70: Moderate quality. Artifacts are visible. File sizes are small. Acceptable for thumbnail images, previews, or contexts where quality matters less than loading speed.

Quality below 50: Low quality. Significant blocking artifacts. File sizes are very small. Only appropriate for tiny thumbnail images or icon-level sizes.

How to compress images without losing visible quality

A practical workflow:

1. 1Start with a high-quality original. Compressing an already-compressed image compounds artifacts. Always keep originals.
2. 2Choose the right format for your content type using the guide above.
3. 3Use quality 80–85 for JPG and WEBP for most web use. This cuts file sizes by 60–75% compared to quality 100 while maintaining excellent visual quality.
4. 4Check the result at actual size. View the compressed image at 100% zoom on a good monitor. If you can't see artifacts, the quality is acceptable.
5. 5If the file is still large, reduce quality further in increments of 5 until you find the smallest file size where the quality is still acceptable.

Using BG Bueno's Image Compressor, you can compare the original and compressed version side by side and see the exact file size savings before downloading.

What we measured

To put numbers on this, we saved one 3000×2000 test image at different settings. It is a computer-generated, photo-like scene with fine grain, not a camera photo. We ran this test in October 2026 using the same browser canvas encoding our tools use, in headless Chromium 78. Other browsers and versions can produce different sizes.

Three things stood out:

• •The top of the quality scale is expensive. Going from JPG 95 to JPG 90 nearly halved the file (1,439 KB to 752 KB) and cost only 1.5 dB.
• •Quality 80 was the practical turning point here. JPG 80 was about 95% smaller than the PNG.
• •WEBP's lead varied a lot. At quality 80 it was 64% smaller than JPG, but at quality 90 only about 20% smaller, so don't assume one fixed saving.

One image can't predict every result, and PSNR is only a rough stand-in for what your eyes see. Treat these as an illustration of the pattern, and check your own photo at full size before you commit to a setting.