Convert a JPEG to WebP on your Mac
Drag the JPEGs into Images by Edmund, choose WebP and press Export. WebP typically produces a smaller file than JPEG at a similar quality, which is why it exists. Because both formats are lossy, the conversion is a second pass of compression, so check the size and the quality setting rather than accepting the default blind.
macOS 15 or later. Apple silicon Mac. Version 1.1.0, out 11 October 2026. What’s new.
Free, with nothing to unlock and no account.
Try it on one file first
Drop a JPEG in, move the quality until the size looks right, and save the WebP. It all happens in this tab, on your own machine, and nothing is uploaded.
Good, and usually a decent saving
Browsers do not agree about what a quality setting means, so this is a dial rather than a number. The size on the result below is the real answer, and it follows the slider.
JPEG to WebP, step by step
- Drag the JPEGs inUsually a folder destined for a website. Everything in the window gets the same settings, so there is nothing to repeat per file.
- Choose WebP and set the qualityThe quality slider under Options is the one that matters here. If you have a hard limit to meet, switch Compression to File size and give it the number instead.
- Press ExportThe saving is shown per file and for the batch as a whole. If a particular JPEG barely shrinks, that is a picture WebP has little left to take, and it is worth keeping as it is.
Recompressing a lossy file is a second generation, and the estimate is a real encode
A JPEG has already had detail removed. Turning it into a WebP decodes what is left and compresses it again, so you are stacking one lossy pass on another. Most tools hide that behind a percentage they calculated from the format rather than from your file. This one does not model anything: the figure on each card is produced by genuinely encoding the image at the settings currently selected, caching it, and re encoding when you change a setting. What you see is what gets written. That matters more here than almost anywhere else, because the honest answer for an already well compressed JPEG is sometimes that WebP saves you very little, and a tool that estimates from a formula will never tell you so.
Why not just use a converter website?
Because the question you are really asking is “is this worth it”, and a converter site cannot answer it. You upload, you wait, you download, and only then do you find out the file barely shrank. Here the number appears before you have committed to anything, for every file at once.
There is also the matter of volume. Converting a site’s images is a job measured in dozens, and dozens is precisely what a free site is designed to stop you doing in one go.
Questions
How much smaller will my JPEGs get?
It depends entirely on the picture and on how heavily the JPEG was compressed to begin with. A lightly compressed photograph off a camera has a lot to give; one already squeezed for a web page has much less. The card shows the real figure for each file before you export.
Will converting to WebP lose quality?
A little, because you are compressing an already compressed image. Raise the quality slider if you can see it, or use lossless WebP if the picture has flat colour or text in it, where a second lossy pass shows up most.
Should I keep the original JPEGs?
Yes, if they are your only copy. By default the app writes the new files beside the originals and leaves them alone. Replacing the originals is a separate choice, and even then the old files go to the Trash rather than being deleted.
Is WebP better than JPEG?
Usually smaller at the same visual quality, which is what most people mean. It also handles transparency, which JPEG cannot. The case for staying with JPEG is compatibility with much older software.
Other things it does
There is a full list on the Images by Edmund product page, along with what else the app does.
Get Images by Edmund.
Free, and it does the other eight jobs too. Two ways to get it when it lands: the Mac App Store, or straight from here.
macOS 15 or later. Apple silicon Mac. Version 1.1.0, out 11 October 2026. What’s new.