WebP to PNG Converter
- The Exif data, the colour profile and anything else the original carried are not passed on: the picture is decoded to plain pixels and a new file is written from them.
- An animated WebP comes through as one picture — the image the format names as its default, or the first frame where it names none.
Needs JavaScript. Runs only here.
This page turns a WebP into a PNG on your own machine. Every conversion on this page runs in your browser. The picture is read, drawn and written on your own machine, and the file is not sent to a server.
Going the other way? Convert PNG back to WebP →
How do you convert a WebP to a PNG?
Both formats carry an alpha channel, so the clear areas survive. PNG stores what it is given without further loss, which keeps the picture and grows the file.
- Choose the WebP file you want to convert. It is read inside this page, on your own machine.
- Select Convert to PNG. The page reads the first bytes of what came back and refuses the file if they are not PNG.
- Download the PNG. Nothing has been sent anywhere, so the file is ready as soon as it is written.
What Changes From WebP to PNG
WebP to PNG keeps the transparency and adds no further loss, at the price of a larger file. Detail a lossy WebP had already dropped does not return, and an animation comes through as a single picture.
Each row below is one property of the picture: what it is in the WebP, what it becomes in the PNG, and whether it survives the trip. Convert a file and the same rows fill in with the measurements from your own picture.
| Property | In the WebP | In the PNG | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dimensions | as the file has them | as the file has them | kept |
| Colour model and bit depth | RGB with alpha, 8 bits per channel | RGB with alpha, 8 bits per channel — 8 bits per sample, whatever the source held | kept |
| Alpha channel | present | carried through unchanged | kept |
| Colours used | up to 16,777,216 | the same pixels | kept |
| Animation frames | 1, or several — WebP can carry an animation | 1 — the format’s default image, or the first frame where it names none | changed |
| Metadata (Exif, ICC) | present in the file | dropped — a new file is written from pixels | lost |
| Compression | lossy in a VP8 chunk, or lossless in a VP8L chunk | lossless, deflate | changed |
| File size | the file you chose | usually smaller | changed |
the pixels survive; the Exif data does not.
Going Back to WebP
Converting back does not restore what this step dropped, so convert the PNG result back to WebP only when you need a WebP file.
The change above runs one way — go back from PNG to WebP writes a new file, not the original.
What Travels With the Picture
What the two formats are, and what the browser does with a picture on the way between them. None of this depends on which WebP you bring.
How WebP and PNG Are Defined
| Property | WebP | PNG |
|---|---|---|
| Compression | two modes in one container: lossy in a VP8 chunk, lossless in a VP8L chunk | lossless - deflate with a sliding window of at most 32768 bytes (compression method 0) |
| Alpha channel | yes, in both modes - a lossy file carries its alpha in a separate ALPH chunk, and a lossless file carries it inside the VP8L chunk | yes - a full alpha channel on colour types 4 and 6; a tRNS chunk gives a transparent colour key on types 0 and 2 and per-entry alpha on type 3 |
| Animation | yes - controlled by the ANIM and ANMF chunks in the extended file format | yes - APNG is normative in the Third Edition, using the acTL, fcTL and fdAT chunks |
| In one sentence | WebP has two modes in one container. Lossy WebP throws detail away the way JPEG does; lossless WebP keeps every pixel. Either mode can carry transparency, and the container can also hold an animation. | PNG stores a picture without losing anything: the specification defines lossless as reconstructing the original data exactly, bit for bit. It carries an alpha channel, and since the Third Edition it can carry frame-based animation as well. |
- A WebP file begins 52 49 46 46 ("RIFF"), then a four-byte size, then 57 45 42 50 ("WEBP").
- A PNG file begins 89 50 4E 47 0D 0A 1A 0A.
- WebP is defined by WebP Container Specification (Google); the bitstreams are RFC 6386 (lossy) and the WebP Lossless Bitstream Specification.
- PNG is defined by PNG Specification (Third Edition), W3C Recommendation 24 June 2025; the Second Edition is ISO/IEC 15948:2004. The Third Edition is not itself an International Standard..
JPEG and lossy WebP save space by discarding picture detail, and what they discard does not come back. PNG, BMP and lossless WebP keep every pixel they are given, and GIF keeps every pixel it is left with after the palette has been applied.
PNG, GIF, WebP and ICO can carry transparency; JPEG cannot, because the standard defines no alpha channel, and a bitmap written here is opaque. Converting to a format without transparency fills the clear areas with a background colour.
WebP has a lossy mode and a lossless mode, and both can carry transparency. Lossy WebP discards detail the way JPEG does; lossless WebP keeps every pixel.
Drawing an animated GIF or WebP takes a single picture from it - the image the format names as its default, or the first frame where there is none - so the converted file holds one picture and not the animation.
Converting a picture back to the format it came from does not return the original file. Whatever a step discarded stays discarded, and the return trip writes a third file.
The browser decodes the picture to plain pixels and writes a new file from them, so the Exif data, the colour profile and anything else the original carried are not passed on.
Drawing an animated image onto a canvas uses the image the format names as its default, or the first frame where the format names none. The other frames are not reachable this way.
A canvas holds pixels and nothing else, so a file written from one carries no Exif data, no thumbnail and none of the original file's other metadata. The canvas specification never mentions Exif; this follows from writing the file out of a bitmap.
What Does PNG Keep From a WebP?
The transparency
Carried straight through. WebP holds its alpha in a chunk of its own and PNG holds it as a channel; the browser reads one and writes the other, and a soft edge stays soft.
Every pixel it is handed
The PNG adds no loss of its own. What it cannot do is undo an earlier one: if the WebP used its lossy mode, the detail that mode removed is already gone from the pixels the browser hands over.
One frame, whatever the source held
Drawing an animated GIF or WebP takes a single picture from it - the image the format names as its default, or the first frame where there is none - so the converted file holds one picture and not the animation. PNG itself is not the limit here — the format has carried animation since its Third Edition — the limit is what a browser gives a page.
Common Mistakes
- Reading "one frame" as a limit of the PNG format. It is not one: APNG is normative in the Third Edition, and this converter is what hands over a single frame.
- Expecting the PNG to recover detail a lossy WebP dropped. It copies what is left.
- Being surprised by the size. Storing every pixel costs more than approximating them.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does converting a WebP to PNG keep transparency?
Yes. Both formats carry a full alpha channel, so a soft edge stays soft and a clear background stays clear. Nothing is flattened onto a colour.
What happens to an animated WebP when it becomes a PNG?
You get one picture. Drawing an animated image onto a canvas uses the image the format names as its default, or the first frame where the format names none. The other frames are not reachable this way.
Why is the PNG bigger than the WebP?
Because it keeps every pixel. lossless - deflate with a sliding window of at most 32768 bytes (compression method 0) is a very different bargain from the one a lossy WebP makes.
Does a PNG made from a lossy WebP get its detail back?
No. The detail was dropped when the WebP was written. The PNG stores what reaches it without removing anything more, which is not the same as putting anything back.
You can, but the round trip is not the file you started from: the PNG to WebP direction.
Related Conversions
The rest of the family sits on pick another image format pair.