WebP support used to be a real concern — it launched in 2010 and took years to reach universal adoption. Today, that’s no longer the blocker it once was, but a few edge cases are still worth knowing about. For small business owners managing websites, email campaigns, and digital assets, understanding where WebP works (and where it doesn’t) can save you hosting costs and headaches.
Current browser support
Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, and Opera all support WebP natively. Combined, that covers over 96% of active browser usage globally. Safari added full support, including animated WebP, back in 2020.
To put this in perspective: if your small business website gets 1,000 visitors per month, roughly 960 of them are viewing pages in browsers that natively support WebP. That’s a significant majority. Here’s the breakdown by browser:
- Chrome: ~63% of global traffic — full WebP support since 2012
- Safari: ~25% of global traffic — full support (including animation) since 2020
- Firefox: ~4% of global traffic — full support since 2018
- Edge: ~3% of global traffic — full support since 2020
- Opera: ~2% of global traffic — full support since 2016
For most small businesses, WebP is safe to use on your public website without worrying about visitor experience.
Where it can still go wrong
While broad adoption is the good news, there are still specific scenarios where WebP causes problems:
Internal business software and legacy systems
- Older internal business software or embedded browsers that haven’t been updated in 5+ years
- Custom-built applications that use Internet Explorer
- Industrial or specialized software with frozen tech stacks
For example, a manufacturing company using an older enterprise resource planning (ERP) system might have an embedded browser component that doesn’t recognize WebP. If you’re uploading product images to that system, you’ll need to stick with JPG or PNG.
Email marketing and campaigns
Some email clients still don’t render WebP properly, even web-based ones. Outlook on Windows, Gmail’s older versions, and some mobile email apps may fail to display WebP images or show them as broken files. If you’re running an email campaign to 5,000 subscribers, you can’t risk a portion of them seeing broken images. Stick with JPG or PNG for email.
Legacy CMS plugins and content management systems
Some legacy WordPress plugins, Drupal extensions, or older proprietary CMS systems don’t recognize the .webp file extension for uploads. You’ll get an error like “file type not allowed.” This is fixable — either update the plugin, configure server settings to allow WebP uploads, or use a conversion tool that creates WebP files automatically during upload.
Design and editing tools
Certain image-editing or design tools without WebP support can’t open or edit .webp files. If your team uses older versions of Photoshop, GIMP without plugins, or specialized design software, keep source files in PSD or PNG format and convert to WebP only for web publishing.
The safe approach: Progressive enhancement
The solution is simpler than it sounds: use progressive enhancement or fallback strategies.
How it works for websites
Most modern CMS platforms (WordPress 5.8+, Shopify, Webflow) and web servers can automatically serve a JPG or PNG fallback to visitors who need it, while serving WebP to everyone else. You get the file-size benefit without meaningful compatibility risk.
For example, you upload one image. Your CMS or server:
- Detects the visitor’s browser
- Serves WebP to Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Edge, Opera (96% of visitors)
- Serves JPG/PNG to everyone else (4% of visitors)
The file-size savings are real: a WebP image is typically 25-35% smaller than the equivalent JPG, which translates to faster page loads and lower bandwidth costs. For a small e-commerce site with 100,000 monthly page views and heavy product imagery, that can save 5-15 GB of bandwidth per month — meaningful savings on hosting.
How it works for email
For email campaigns, don’t use WebP. Use JPG or PNG instead. The 10-15% file size savings isn’t worth the risk of broken images in your subscribers’ inboxes.
Bottom line
For a public-facing website, WebP compatibility is no longer a meaningful reason to avoid the format. Convert with confidence — the exceptions above are narrow enough that a simple fallback handles them. If you’re managing a website, enable WebP with automatic JPG/PNG fallbacks. If you’re running email campaigns, stick with JPG. If you’re working with legacy internal systems, check what they support first. That’s it.