Convert PSD to WebP
WebP is the format that ended a twenty-year compromise. Before it, putting a design on a web page meant choosing between a small file and a transparent one. WebP is both, and every browser has read it since 2020 — so for artwork that is going on a website, this is usually the right conversion rather than the clever one.
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Up to 50 MB. Deleted automatically after 30 minutes.
What it does
- Transparency preserved, unlike JPG
- Far smaller than PNG at the same picture
- The flattened composite, never a single layer
- Encoded at quality 82, a number we publish
How to use PSD to WebP
- 1
Add the PSD
Drop it in. The flattened composite is read — the image the document shows on open, not one of the layers behind it.
- 2
Encoded as WebP
Quality 82, with the alpha channel carried through if the artwork has one.
- 3
Use it on the page
Every current browser reads WebP. If you support a browser from before 2020, keep a PNG or JPG alongside it as a fallback.
How it works
The flattened composite is read from the PSD, and encoded as WebP at quality 82 with its alpha channel intact if the artwork has one. Nothing is composited onto a background, because WebP does not need one.
The compromise WebP removed
For most of the web's history, putting a design on a page meant picking a side.
JPEG gave small files and handled photographs beautifully, and could not store transparency at all. Every transparent pixel had to become a solid color chosen by whoever ran the converter — which is how logos ended up on white boxes that did not match the page, or on black ones when nobody chose.
PNG stored transparency perfectly and was lossless, and was consequently large. A full-width photographic header as a PNG could be several megabytes for a picture a JPEG would carry in a couple of hundred kilobytes.
So the rule became: photographs as JPEG, logos and flat graphics as PNG, and live with it. WebP does both jobs. That is the entire reason it took over, and why a design going onto a web page should usually be converted to it.
When PNG is still the right answer
Three cases, and they are worth knowing because "use WebP" is repeated as though it had no exceptions.
When the file will be edited again. This tool writes lossy WebP. Each re-encode discards a little more, exactly as with JPEG. A working file should be lossless, which is /psd-to-png.
When it is going anywhere but a web page. Email clients, older desktop software, some marketplace uploaders and a good deal of business software still do not read WebP. It is a web format and it is excellent at being one.
When you need pixel-exact output. Screenshots of text, technical diagrams with thin lines, anything that will be compared against an original. Lossy encoding at any quality is the wrong tool for those.
The layers are not in it
A WebP is a picture of the finished artwork. The layers, masks, editable text and smart objects are not compressed or hidden — the format has nowhere to put them.
Publish the WebP. Keep the PSD.
Examples
A hero image for a site
The same picture a PNG would carry, at a fraction of the bytes, which is a real difference to how fast the page feels.
A logo with a soft shadow
The transparency survives, so the shadow blends into whatever color the page uses rather than sitting on a white square.
Frequently asked questions
Can WebP really keep transparency?
Yes, and it is the main reason to choose it over JPG. WebP carries a full alpha channel, so a logo drawn on nothing arrives on nothing — verified here: a transparent PSD comes back through this tool as a four-channel WebP. JPG has nowhere to store transparency and must fill it with a solid color, which is why /psd-to-jpg composites onto white and says so.
How much smaller is it than PNG?
For photographic artwork, usually three to five times smaller at a quality nobody notices on a screen. For flat graphics with few colors the gap narrows, because PNG is already efficient at those. The honest summary is that WebP is never meaningfully worse and is often dramatically better, which is why it became the default for web images.
Is WebP lossy or lossless?
It can be either. This tool writes lossy WebP at quality 82, which is the right choice for the web: it is where the size advantage comes from, and at that setting the loss is invisible at normal viewing size. If you need pixel-exact output — artwork that will be edited again, or a file going into a print workflow — /psd-to-png is lossless and the correct choice.
Will it work everywhere?
In every browser released since 2020, yes, including Safari from version 14. What still does not read WebP reliably is older desktop software, email clients, and some content management systems and marketplace uploaders. WebP is a web format; for anything being emailed, printed or submitted to a form, JPG or PNG remains the safer answer.
Does my file leave my computer?
Yes. Reading PSD needs software that runs on a server rather than in a browser tab. Your upload and the result are deleted within 30 minutes by a timer, and nothing is stored, indexed or kept against an account — there is no account to keep it against.