Best Image Format for Your Website in 2025

The short answer

If you want to skip to the conclusion:

Format-by-format breakdown

JPEG (.jpg) — the old workhorse

JPEG has been around since 1992. It is the most universally supported format and produces excellent quality for photographs at manageable file sizes. The problem: WebP does everything JPEG does, but better — smaller files, better quality, transparency support.

Still use JPEG for: email attachments, stock photo submissions, printing services, and sharing with users who might open the file in older software.

Do not use JPEG for: logos, screenshots with text, icons, or anything with a transparent background — artifacts from JPEG compression will degrade text and sharp edges.

PNG (.png) — lossless and transparent

PNG uses lossless compression — the decoded image is identical to the original. The trade-off is larger file sizes. A PNG version of a photograph is typically 3–5× larger than the JPEG equivalent. PNG is the right choice for images that need precise pixel accuracy: logos, screenshots, graphics with text, charts.

Key fact: WebP lossless is 26% smaller than PNG. So even for logos and graphics, WebP is objectively better for web use. Only use PNG when WebP is not supported by your target environment.

WebP — the current best choice for web

Developed by Google in 2010, WebP uses more advanced compression than JPEG or PNG. In 2025, it's supported by over 97% of browsers globally — Chrome, Firefox, Safari (since 2020), and Edge all support it. The benefits are real and significant:

• Photos: 25–34% smaller than JPEG at the same visual quality
• Graphics: 26% smaller than PNG (lossless mode)
• Supports transparency (alpha channel) and animation
• Google flags non-WebP images in PageSpeed Insights as optimization opportunities

For any website built in 2025, WebP should be the default format for all images that aren't vector graphics (SVG).

AVIF — the future (not quite ready)

AVIF is based on the AV1 video codec and produces files 20–30% smaller than WebP at the same quality. Browser support is now around 90% globally. The main drawback is encoding speed — creating AVIF files is significantly slower than WebP, which matters for dynamic image processing.

The practical recommendation: use WebP now. Watch AVIF for 2026 as encoding tools improve and browser support approaches 97%+.

SVG — perfect for icons and logos

SVG is a vector format — it stores mathematical instructions for drawing shapes rather than pixel data. This means SVG files are infinitely scalable with no quality loss. A logo that looks sharp on a mobile screen will look equally sharp on a 4K monitor.

SVG files for logos and icons are also typically very small (1–10 KB) and can be styled with CSS. Use SVG for any icon set, logo, or simple illustration. Do not use SVG for photographs — it is not a compression format and produces enormous files for photos.

GIF — avoid except for simple animations

GIF is a 1987 format with severe limitations: maximum 256 colours, no partial transparency, and poor compression. In 2025, the only reason to use GIF is for short, simple animations where video is overkill. For any complex animation, use an MP4 video with autoplay and loop attributes instead — the file will be 5–10× smaller.

Format comparison table

What format for each use case

Photos on your homepage or blog

Use WebP. Compress at 75–82% quality. You will get files 25–35% smaller than JPEG with no visible quality difference. This directly improves your Google PageSpeed score.

Product photos (ecommerce)

Use WebP at 80–88% quality. The higher quality setting is worth it for product images where customers zoom in. If your product has a transparent background (cut-out style), WebP handles transparency, so you can replace both your JPEG and PNG with a single WebP file.

Logo and branding

Use SVG if the logo is a vector file (created in Illustrator, Figma, etc.). SVGs scale perfectly and are tiny. If you only have a raster logo (bitmap), use WebP lossless or PNG.

Screenshots and UI images

Use WebP lossless or PNG. These images contain text and sharp edges that JPEG compression degrades visibly. The difference in file size between WebP lossless and PNG can be 20–30%.

Social media preview images (og:image)

Use JPEG or PNG — social platforms still have limited WebP support for meta preview images. Aim for 1200×630 pixels at 85% JPEG quality for the standard Open Graph preview image size.

How to convert your existing images to WebP

The fastest way is ImgSlim — drag and drop your JPEG or PNG images into the Convert tab, select WebP as the output, and download. Everything happens in your browser with no upload.

For WordPress sites, plugins like WebP Express or ShortPixel can automatically convert and serve WebP images to compatible browsers, with a JPEG fallback for older browsers. This is the most seamless approach for WordPress.