The best image format for the web in 2026

The four formats you'll actually use

JPG (JPEG)

Invented in 1992 and still the most-used image format on the planet. JPG is lossy — it discards detail your eye barely notices to make files dramatically smaller. It does not support transparency.

• Strengths: tiny files for photographs, supported absolutely everywhere.
• Weaknesses: bad for sharp text and graphics, no transparency, quality degrades on every save.

PNG

A lossless format with full alpha transparency. Born for screenshots, logos, icons, and anything with sharp edges or text.

• Strengths: lossless quality, transparency, perfect for graphics.
• Weaknesses: 5–10× larger than JPG for photographic content.

WEBP

Google's modern format, supported in every major browser since 2020. Offers both lossy and lossless modes, transparency, and animation — typically 25–35% smaller than the equivalent JPG or PNG at the same visual quality.

• Strengths: best size-to-quality ratio for the web, transparency, animation.
• Weaknesses: some legacy email clients and very old software still don't open it.

AVIF

The newest contender, based on the AV1 video codec. Files are often 50% smaller than JPG at the same quality. Supported in modern Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge — but encoding can be slow.

• Strengths: smallest files of any mainstream format, great quality.
• Weaknesses: slow to encode, less tooling support, not yet a safe default.

A quick decision flow

• Photograph for a website? WEBP at quality 75–85.
• Photograph for an email or print? JPG at quality 85.
• Logo, icon, or screenshot with text? PNG (or WEBP lossless).
• Need transparency? PNG or WEBP — never JPG.
• Animation? WEBP (or GIF if you must support truly ancient clients).

Realistic file size comparison

For a typical 1600 × 900 photographic blog hero, here's what we see in practice:

• PNG (lossless): ~2.5 MB
• JPG quality 85: ~280 KB
• WEBP quality 80: ~180 KB
• AVIF quality 60: ~120 KB

For most sites, switching from JPG to WEBP is the single highest-impact, lowest-effort speed improvement available. AVIF is worth it if you're optimising at scale.

The pragmatic 2026 default

For 90% of websites in 2026: resize to the display size, then export as WEBP at quality 80. Use PNG only when you actually need transparency or pixel-perfect graphics. Reserve AVIF for sites where every kilobyte counts.

Our in-browser resizer outputs all three modern formats — pick one in the Format dropdown and you're done.