How To Use WebP Images in WordPress : Step-by-step Guide 2025

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How To Use WebP Images in WordPress: Step-by-step Guide 2025

Disclosure: We’re reader-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission at no extra cost to you. For more information, see our Disclosure page. Thanks.

Using WebP images in WordPress can help optimize your website’s performance by reducing image file sizes while maintaining high quality. WordPress supports WebP natively since version 5.8, but there are still some steps you need to take to fully integrate WebP images into your site. Below is a step-by-step guide for using WebP images in WordPress in 2025.

Step-by-Step Guide to Using WebP Images in WordPress:

1. Ensure WordPress Version Supports WebP

• WordPress started supporting WebP images in version 5.8. To check your version:
  • Go to your WordPress dashboard.
  • In the left-hand menu, navigate to Dashboard > Updates.
  • If you’re running an older version, you can update WordPress to the latest version by clicking Update Now.

2. Check if Your Hosting Provider Supports WebP

• Ensure that your web hosting provider supports WebP. WebP images require server-side support (e.g., through Apache or NGINX with the right MIME type).
• You can check this by uploading a WebP image to your WordPress media library and then visiting your website to see if the image displays correctly.
• Most modern hosts like SiteGround, Bluehost, and WP Engine support WebP out of the box.

3. Convert Images to WebP Format

• You can convert your images to WebP using various online tools, plugins, or desktop applications.
• Online Tools: Websites like CloudConvert or Squoosh allow you to upload and convert images to WebP format.
• Desktop Apps: Tools like GIMP, Adobe Photoshop (with a plugin), or XnConvert can help you convert images to WebP.

4. Upload WebP Images to WordPress

• After converting your images to WebP, you can upload them to your WordPress site just like any other image.
  • Go to Media > Add New.
  • Drag and drop your WebP files or click Select Files to upload.
• WordPress will automatically generate the appropriate image sizes for WebP images, just like with JPEG or PNG files.

5. Enable WebP for Automatic Image Optimization (Using Plugins)

If you want WordPress to automatically convert uploaded images to WebP format, you can use an image optimization plugin. Some popular plugins for WebP support are:

• ShortPixel Image Optimizer: This plugin allows you to automatically convert images to WebP upon upload and can also serve WebP images to browsers that support it.
• Imagify: Another popular image optimization plugin that supports WebP.
• Smush: This plugin can convert images to WebP and offer compression.

Plugin Setup Example (ShortPixel):

• Install and activate the ShortPixel Image Optimizer plugin from the WordPress plugin repository.
• Go to Settings > ShortPixel in the WordPress dashboard.
• In the Advanced Options, enable the WebP Images option.
• This will automatically convert newly uploaded images to WebP format and serve WebP versions of images to compatible browsers.

6. Serve WebP Images to Browsers (Optional)

• While WordPress will allow you to upload WebP images, some older browsers may not support them. To ensure your images display correctly for all users, you can use a technique called “WebP Fallback”.

This can be done using:

• Plugins: Plugins like WebP Express can help serve WebP images to supported browsers while falling back to JPEG/PNG for older browsers.
• .htaccess File: Advanced users can configure their server’s .htaccess file to serve WebP images for supported browsers. Here’s an example of the code you can add:apacheCopy code# WebP support <IfModule mod_rewrite.c> RewriteCond %{HTTP_ACCEPT} image/webp RewriteCond %{REQUEST_FILENAME} \.(jpe?g|png)$ RewriteRule ^(.+)\.(jpe?g|png)$ $1.webp [T=image/webp,L] </IfModule>
• Cloudflare: If you’re using Cloudflare for caching and CDN, they offer automatic WebP support with Polish (available in their Pro plan). Cloudflare will automatically serve WebP images when supported.

7. Check Image Quality and Performance

• Once WebP images are integrated into your site, test your website’s performance.
  • Use Google PageSpeed Insights or GTMetrix to see how your WebP images are impacting page load times.
• WebP images can significantly improve load times due to their smaller file sizes, especially for images with transparency or photographic content.

8. Fix Any Display Issues

• Ensure that your theme or other plugins do not conflict with the WebP images. Some themes might not support WebP by default.
• Check how the images appear across different browsers (e.g., Chrome, Firefox, Safari) and devices (desktop, mobile).
• If needed, you can use the WebP Express plugin to handle browser-specific issues and ensure proper fallback images.

Final Notes:

• WebP is a modern, efficient format that offers excellent image quality with smaller file sizes, making it perfect for speeding up your website.
• By following the steps above, you can seamlessly integrate WebP images into your WordPress site for better performance and user experience.
• Remember, while WebP is widely supported by most browsers (like Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Opera), make sure your audience is not using unsupported browsers (like older versions of Internet Explorer) where fallback images might be needed.

With this guide, you should now be ready to optimize your WordPress site with WebP images effectively in 2025!