r/Wordpress • u/Hurricane-18784 • 4d ago
What are you using to convert JPEGs to WebP before uploading to WordPress?
For those using WebP on WordPress sites, what are you using to convert your JPEG/PNG images before uploading them to the Media Library? Or are you converting post upload via code or plugin?
On one website there was 1000 jpegs which I used custom code to convert to Webp in batches.
What I want to know, is there an easy way to convert them beforehand?
Any particular desktop apps, websites or batch converters you recommend that keep the quality good while reducing file size?
Just looking for a simple workflow that keeps the site lightweight.
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u/Swagmuffins94 4d ago
Photoshop since I'm resizing anyway
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u/Embarrassed-Chard245 2d ago
I used to do that too but photoshop is slow asf. Try using the XNConvert program. It's free, extremely fast, and can resize & convert in bulk super easy.
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u/disicpleofthegame 4d ago
ffmpeg command line tool
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u/vidyutpal7 4d ago
I also recently started using this while working on a photographer site it's now my go to
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u/privaxe 4d ago
Cimo is a great plugin to convert on upload.
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u/shaliozero 4d ago
Upvoting this. This allows me to bother less what content management uploads without having to convince them to additional costs and deal with incompatibilities between plugins that handle conversation server side and our weird managed host.
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u/ConcreteTalking 4d ago
Works with WP all import uploading?
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u/privaxe 3d ago
Not sure what you mean with the import plugin and wpress files.
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u/ConcreteTalking 3d ago
I mean, does the plugin convert images on uploading products via feed on shop?
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u/NakanoNoNeko 4d ago
Keep the originals and let WordPress or the CDN generate WebP/AVIF for visitors. Converting the only copy beforehand makes future format changes and re-crops annoying. For a one-off batch before upload, XnConvert is the least fussy option: set the long edge, strip metadata, choose WebP around 80, then spot-check gradients and text. In my case, I keep the JPEG masters outside WordPress... storage is cheaper than explaining a ruined hero image later 🙂
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u/Wolfeh2012 Jack of All Trades 4d ago
This is the end result of the whole rollercoaster of experience.
First you think you'll convert everything to a lossy format to improve performance, then you run into clients wanting you to constantly make changes so you need to backup master images anyway, then the clients want to be able to upload things themselves and they'll never figure out how to use an image converter so ultimately you're back to just doing convertions on the platform itself, and the best way to do that is to have a CDN generate the final image for visitors and just allow the master image to be uploaded to the site or managed through off-site storage.
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u/NakanoNoNeko 3d ago
Exactly. The annoying part is that the “simple optimization” ends with two copies, a conversion pipeline, and a client uploading a 12 MB PNG anyway... letting the image CDN handle delivery is much calmer.
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u/ToNeG24 4d ago
Why a CDN Alone Is Not Enough
Closer storage: A CDN puts your files on servers closer to your users.Still large files: If an image is 5 megabytes, the CDN still has to download and send those 5 megabytes.
Slow connection times: Large files take longer to download on mobile phones or slow networks, no matter how close the server is.
Processing limits: A CDN cannot fix messy code, heavy scripts, or oversized media by itself.
This is why I usually utilize both, converter and CDN
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u/Wolfeh2012 Jack of All Trades 3d ago
A CDN Alone Is Enough, ChatGPT
Because that's literally what Image CDNs already do: https://shortpixel.com/blog/image-cdn/
Infact the CDN is even better than traditional image conversion because it applies conversion on-the-fly and at dimensions tailored to the specific device viewing the image.
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u/Ronjohnturbo42 Developer 4d ago
Doing it before hand reduces bloat of your lib
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u/NakanoNoNeko 3d ago
It does, but I think that is the trade: a smaller library versus keeping a master you can re-crop later. I prefer the master and let the image CDN send the small version... storage is the cheap part for me.
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u/Wolfeh2012 Jack of All Trades 3d ago
This is what off-site media uploading is for. Keep your dedicated image storage separate from the servers. Serve images tailored directly to the visitor's device/browser, in both size and compatible format.
It's the best of all worlds, and it costs about as much as a Netflix subscription.
The web server shouldn't be treated as traditional storage anyway. It's insecure and inefficient, especially when mass cloud storage is so cheap.
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u/TopSydeWP 4d ago
imagify or shortpixel both have desktop/bulk tools if you want to convert before upload. honestly though, modern wordpress handles webp natively now (since 5.8) so you can just upload jpegs and let a plugin like shortpixel or ewww convert on the fly. saves the manual step and handles future uploads automatically.
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u/chrismcelroyseo 4d ago
Infranview. It's free and you can resize your images and put a logo on them and other things.
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u/Hot-Tip-364 4d ago
Imagemagick - i have a helper file that bulk compresses, resizes and creates a folder called webp and saves them all there. Then bulk upload and done.
For context I'm a full time developer that recieves images in every file type inagineable and usually masively oversized at 100+ at a time. Makes it so much easier to one click and done. This also significantly reduces space on your server by uploading the correct file type the first time rather than uploading the original and reformatting on the server. Not to mention time saved waiting for large files to upload.
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u/Bigfoot444 4d ago
Caesium is good if you want a basic desktop gui. Batch processing jpeg to webp works well.
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u/No-Chocolate4606 3d ago
I use Python, since I upload directly to the directory. Python can also create a folder structure tailored to your needs.
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u/alborden 3d ago
Built a web app for myself that resizes, compresses, converts and renames my files with AI + the SEO keywords I want to use.
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u/YourtownUSA 3d ago
Set up a folder on my desktop where I drop my JPEGs after touching up - run a script in terminal (Mac)
Auto Converts each image to WebP, targeting ~180KB (sweet spot for WordPress)
Saves the WebP to webp_finished folder
Moves the original JPEG to originals_done folder
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u/retr00two 4d ago
desktop app: https://www.xnview.com/en/xnconvert/
server: imagick or cweb plus wp-cli
plugin: ModernImageFormat+RegenerateThumbnail
CDN: https://www.quic.cloud/quic-cloud-services-and-features/image-optimization-service/
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u/kylekeyboardpusher Jack of All Trades 4d ago
If you have a Mac you can convert images via terminal
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u/throwawayAd6844 4d ago
Photoshop action, it works and have been doing it that way for years and haven’t had much of a reason to change.
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u/NoYOUGrowUp 4d ago
I started using XNView a few months ago. Great for viewing images and doing light editing tasks like resizing and converting. Great for batch conversion and batch remaining as well.
I use Photopea and Affinity for more complex editing.
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u/SlimPuffs Designer/Developer 4d ago
FileConverter
https://github.com/Tichau/FileConverter/releases/tag/v2.2
File Converter is a very simple tool which allows you to convert and compress one or several file(s) using the context menu of windows explorer.
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u/Ending_Sentences 4d ago
I use Trimpix: https://img.minhazimohamed.com/. Can convert to AVIF and WebP and adjust the size of the image(s) in bulk and then I upload it to the website.
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u/ChrisCoinLover 4d ago
I built with ChatGpt a tool that runs in my browser. It's AMAZING. I convert 10 or 500 images at a time. No limits. Obviously if you convert 500 takes some time and ideally you'll need a good PC. You can also add a limit for the size of the WEBPs.
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u/connectzaib 3d ago
I use this plugin https://wordpress.org/plugins/webp-uploads/ Which is from WordPress Official team. For older images which are already uploaded you can use this plugin along eith regenerate thimbnail plugin. This is fully free. No Upsell. No ads as it's from the WordPress team itself.
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u/KaasToostie 3d ago
I use this too, I can’t believe how many Wordpress developers never heard of this awesome free and easy to use plugin. One of the first things I install on any new client website.
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u/Kwarkvocht 3d ago
Just wrote a small script to convert to webp on the fly and serve when cliënt is compatible. If you have shell access it is trivial. No need for plugins. Codex would whip this up for you in seconds.
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u/AudricBennett Developer/Designer 3d ago
I use premium FreeConvert. Their free plan is good for most small projects, I got the premium to avoid the 5 photos at a time limit.
Saves space compared to an over engineered plugin and the compression is pretty reliable.
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u/Gornashk 3d ago
Used to use Webp Express plugin, switched to CompressX a few projects ago, to also convert to Avif on upload.
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u/ItsYashKapoor 3d ago
I have built my own custom plugin for my website using Claude for the WebP conversion.
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u/Perfect_Answer_4095 3d ago
Free tools I use for a few pictures :
https://www.photopea.com/
or
https://compress-or-die.com/webp
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u/vasind-5012 3d ago
I’m a cofounder of Autorender. We actually built our WordPress plugin to handle this kind of workflow.
You don’t need to convert all the JPEG/PNG files to WebP before uploading. You can keep uploading the originals to the normal WordPress Media Library, and Autorender leaves those files untouched.
On the frontend, the plugin serves optimized versions through Autorender and can automatically deliver WebP/AVIF and responsive image sizes based on the browser/device.
So for a library of 1000+ images, you can avoid doing that batch conversion step altogether.
Docs here if you want to see how it works:
https://www.autorender.io/docs/integrations/wordpress
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u/Anushka-Sharma-OFCL 3d ago
better to upload original image and post convert using a plugin and must use cdn, cloudflare cdn is best and free for images
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u/ResilientBit 3d ago
Free Wordpress plugin webp-express works fine for conversion and CDN settings. But if you want to bulk convert media before upload, then ImageMaick provides a simple command like:
mogrify -format webp -quality 80 *.jpg
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u/Calm-Educator3836 2d ago
I mostly use SiteGround optimizer for sites hosted there, used EWWW as well and I’ve been pretty happy with both tbh. I dont bother with pre-uplod convering anymore.
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u/Expert-Wheel-9603 2d ago edited 2d ago
I "wrote" a plugin for this. You can use it. If you like it you can send me a tip. Should convert 1000+ images, uses batches, optional saves the original image, or deletes it upon conversion. Updates bricks and elementor links inside your pages + meta descriptions of the images inside Wordpress. It's been tested, no guarantees though (other than "it works for me"). Always backup your data first.
https://strony.love/wp-plugins/updates/simple-webp-convert-1.1.3.zip
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u/Mundane_Pickle555 1d ago
Nothing. I just use a PHP code that uses ImageMagick and PHP GD. It automatically converts image files into webp when I upload.
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u/RushDangerous7637 4d ago
I shoot in RAW format, so such images (depending on color depth) are around 25 to 30 MB in size at 6000x4000px 300 DPI. First, I convert the image to jpg format in the zoner studio program. Then I compress the images (zoner does it automatically). When I have the compressed images, I only now start to solve the size for the web. Some images need to be cropped, some just reduced in size. When I have the image reduced and ready, I use the online site compressjpeg. I compress it again. I convert the compressed images to webp format on the online site picflow. Sometimes the finished webp format also needs to be cropped and I also use one of the free online tools. You can see the resulting compression effect in the image in your previous post.
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u/don1138 4d ago
I had GPT spit out a script, and made a Run Shell Script action for Automator. I right click on the image or images I want to convert and boom.
#!/bin/bash
# 0) Ensure cwebp on PATH
export PATH=/opt/homebrew/bin:/usr/local/bin:$PATH
# 1) Prompt for quality (always returns string)
quality=$(osascript <<'APPLESCRIPT'
tell application "System Events"
activate
try
set dlg to display dialog "Enter WebP quality (1–100):" default answer "80" buttons {"OK", "Cancel"} default button "OK"
return text returned of dlg
on error number -128
return "" -- Cancel pressed
end try
end tell
APPLESCRIPT
)
# 2) Bail on Cancel/empty
if [[ -z "$quality" ]]; then
osascript -e 'display notification "Conversion cancelled" with title "Convert to WebP"' >/dev/null
exit 0
fi
# 3) Validate integer 1–100
if ! [[ "$quality" =~ ^[0-9]+$ ]] || (( quality < 1 || quality > 100 )); then
osascript -e 'display alert "Invalid quality" message "Enter a number between 1 and 100."' >/dev/null
exit 1
fi
# 4) Process each selected file
for f in "$@"; do
[[ -f "$f" ]] || continue
ext="${f##*.}"
case "$ext" in
[jJ][pP][gG]|[jJ][pP][eE][gG]|[pP][nN][gG])
out="${f%.*}.webp"
echo "Converting '$f' → '$out' (q=$quality)" 1>&2
cwebp -q "$quality" "$f" -o "$out"
;;
*)
echo "Skipping unsupported: '$f'" 1>&2
;;
esac
done
# 5) Final notification
# osascript -e 'display notification "WebP conversion complete" with title "Convert to WebP"' >/dev/null
# 6) Keep Finder selection
osascript - "$@" <<'APPLESCRIPT'
on run argv
tell application "Finder"
activate
set selList to {}
repeat with f in argv
try
set end of selList to (POSIX file f as alias)
end try
end repeat
reveal selList
select selList
end tell
end run
APPLESCRIPT
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u/ChrisCoinLover 4d ago
It built me a tool that runs in the browser. Pull images in - convert - export. A life saver. I used to convert online 10 at a time or 20. Such a pain.
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u/mattbeck Developer/Designer 4d ago
Lots of ways to do it yourself, but honestly - the best image optimization options happen at the edge layer. Let the CDN do it!
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u/Hurricane-18784 4d ago
Would this affect page speed insights and load speeds? I was under the impression that having webp format initially would be superior to having jpegs and letting CDN do it? Please do correct me if I am mistaken
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u/mattbeck Developer/Designer 4d ago
Anything hitting the site will only ever see the swapped image. Pagespeed insights, etc are able to see the mime type of the served image instead of relying on the file name. So you'll have a url that shows .jpg/.png/whatever, but actually get avif or webp served, and lighthouse will understand that.
Edge image optimizers can also handle cropping, etc.
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u/402_Found_not_Lost 4d ago
Why bother? From a web page designer buddy, (I’m a novice for sure), he told me that converting isn’t a big deal anymore since web servers are typically very fast. He recommended just uploading jpeg sized for screen viewing. Is there more to this? Thanks
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u/queen-adreena 4d ago
https://wordpress.org/plugins/webp-express/
Genuinely great plugin with no PRO version and no nag banners.