Faster websites rank higher, convert better, and keep visitors around longer. One of the simplest ways to speed up your site is by using WebP, a next-gen image format that can reduce file sizes without losing significant quality.
Manually converting images takes time, though. WebP plugins handle it automatically, turning your existing images into lightweight WebP files and serving them to compatible browsers. This results in a faster, smoother experience for your visitors and better performance metrics for you.
In this guide, we’ll compare the best WebP plugins for WordPress in 2026, from free converters to premium optimization tools. You’ll see how each tool handles image compression, browser fallbacks, CDN support, and setup.

Jetpack Boost is a lightweight, one-click tool that helps WordPress site owners improve Core Web Vitals and front-end speed without requiring technical setup. It’s supported by Automattic, the people behind WordPress.com.
For beginners, Jetpack Boost is the go-to option. The dashboard shows a “speed score” and each optimization is as simple as a toggle switch. Because of that, it works especially well for writers, marketers, or site owners who don’t want to manage lots of technical settings.

Converter for Media is a plugin designed specifically to optimize and serve images in modern formats like WebP and AVIF on WordPress sites. It’s open source, widely used, and regularly updated.
Converter for Media is quite accessible, even for non-technical site owners. New uploads are handled automatically thereafter. Advanced users will appreciate the WP-CLI support and directory exclusion filters.

Smush has been a popular WordPress image optimization tool since 2007. It’s trusted by freelancers, agencies, and site owners alike for compressing and serving faster, lighter images.
Smush can take a bit of learning, but is still considered a user-friendly plugin. After installation, you can bulk optimize existing media, enable automatic compression for new uploads, and toggle lazy loading in minutes. The dashboard is straightforward and advanced users can fine-tune performance through additional settings.

Imagify is a powerful image optimization plugin built for WordPress users who want advanced compression and next-gen image formats without complex setup.
Imagify features a clean, user-friendly dashboard. It automatically compresses new uploads and lets you bulk optimize your existing media in a few clicks. Advanced users can fine-tune compression levels and resizing rules.

ShortPixel Image Optimizer has specialized in image compression and conversion since 2014. It’s built to help WordPress sites of any size serve faster, lighter images without compromising quality.
ShortPixel is beginner-friendly, but powerful enough for developers. After installation, you enter your API key, choose between Lossy, Glossy, or Lossless compression, and let it process new and existing images automatically. WP-CLI support and folder customization options add flexibility for advanced users.

Optimole is billed as an all-in-one image optimization and media delivery solution for WordPress. More than 200,000 websites use this tool.
Optimole is simple to set up and nearly maintenance-free. You install the plugin, connect your API key, enable optimization, and it runs quietly in the background. The dashboard is clean and intuitive for beginners, while developers can toggle advanced settings for greater control.

TinyPNG (also known as Tinify) powers one of the web’s most popular image compression APIs. Its WordPress plugin brings that same powerful engine to your site, automatically shrinking images without noticeable quality loss.
TinyPNG is simple for anyone to use. Install it, enter your API key, and it immediately begins optimizing new uploads. You can also bulk optimize existing media with one click.

EWWW Image Optimizer is one of the longest-running image optimization plugins for WordPress. Powering more than a million sites, it focuses on compression, conversion, and delivery performance across every part of your website.
EWWW Image Optimizer balances simplicity and depth. The setup wizard makes it accessible to beginners. Its interface and WP-CLI support make it practical for individual users and agencies.
| Plugin | Core features | Ease of use | Best for | Free plan | Premium pricing |
| Jetpack Boost | All-in-one performance suite with caching, Critical CSS, JS deferral, and Image CDN with WebP support | Very simple, toggle-based dashboard | Site owners who want speed boosts beyond images | Core features free | From $9.95/mo (billed annually) |
| Converter for Media | Converts images to WebP/AVIF with browser fallback and WP-CLI support | Automatic setup | Users who just need reliable WebP/AVIF conversion | WebP only | From $5/mo (AVIF & extras) |
| Smush | Bulk and auto optimization, lazy loading, resizing, and CDN (Pro) | Beginner-friendly | Users wanting a simple, visual optimization tool | Unlimited compressions (size-limited) | From $15/mo (billed annually) |
| Imagify | Smart compression, WebP/AVIF conversion, resizing, and bulk optimization | Clean interface | Agencies and site owners needing powerful compression | 20 MB/mo (~200 images) | Growth: $5.99/mo; Infinite: $11.99/mo |
| ShortPixel | Cloud-based compression, WebP/AVIF support, bulk mode, and WP-CLI | Quick setup, flexible options | Multi-site agencies and developers | 100 images/mo | Unlimited: $9.95/mo; AI: $15.99/mo |
| Optimole | Automatic compression, CDN delivery, WebP/AVIF, lazy loading, smart cropping | Automatic and maintenance-free | Image-heavy or high-traffic sites | 2,000 visits/mo | From $22.90/mo |
| TinyPNG | Smart compression for JPEG, PNG, WebP, AVIF; bulk or auto optimization | Plug-and-play | Small sites or light media use | 500 images/mo | $0.009/image (first 10K), then $0.002/image |
| EWWW Image Optimizer | Compresses all image types, WebP/AVIF, CDN delivery, and bulk optimization | Moderate with many options for pros | Power users or large sites needing full control | Core compression free | From $8/mo |
When comparing WebP plugins, look for features that improve speed and usability alongside the basic file conversion process, such as:
Still unsure which WebP plugin to choose or how these tools actually work? Below are answers to some of the most common questions about WebP, browser support, and image optimization in WordPress.
WebP is a modern image format developed by Google that provides high-quality compression for photos and graphics. It reduces file size significantly compared to JPEG and PNG, helping pages load faster without losing visual detail.
Yes, WebP is supported by nearly every modern browser, including Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari, and Opera. Older browser versions may not display WebP images, which is why fallback support in your plugin is important.
A WebP plugin automatically converts your existing images into lighter formats like WebP (and sometimes AVIF). It replaces large media files with optimized versions that load more quickly on all devices.
WebP plugins help your website load faster, consume less bandwidth, and improve your Core Web Vitals scores. Faster load times also create a better user experience and can lead to higher search rankings.
No. Most WebP plugins, including Jetpack Boost, are designed for beginners. They use one-click setup processes or toggle-based dashboards, so you can optimize images without touching code.
Typically, no. When used correctly, they actually make your website faster. However, installing multiple performance plugins with overlapping functions can cause conflicts. Instead, choose one well-built plugin from a reputable developer.
Your existing WebP files will remain on your server, but your site may revert to serving original formats (like JPEG or PNG) unless the plugin’s settings specify otherwise. Check each plugin’s documentation before deactivating.
The best all-around choice for most WordPress sites is Jetpack Boost. It handles WebP conversion and optimizes CSS, JavaScript, and caching to improve your overall site performance.


Yesterday, at the New York stop of the eleven-city Microsoft AI Tour, many of the 4,000 attendees took in the keynote, “Becoming Frontier,” which centered on customer stories and a creative demonstration of what an agent-first enterprise, or Frontier Firm, looks like. Tracy Galloway, Chief Operating Officer, Microsoft Americas, steered the show, opening by asking the audience to imagine the ramifications of even a slight AI-driven increase in productivity in the context of New York’s $1.8 trillion GDP.
Ultimately, she stressed, businesses want to think bigger than a slight increase. “How do you move beyond efficiency and harness AI to really unlock creativity, to differentiate, and to drive business growth?”
The keynote proceeded to offer a number of great answers to that question.

An engaging video featuring fictional clothing start-up, Zava, kicked off a lively, in-depth exploration of what it means to fully-integrate AI into a business and be a frontier organization.

In this imagined example, Zava, which asks the question, “What if clothing could think?” has harnessed AI successfully in areas such as marketing, programming, and security. Tracy Galloway spoke with Zava “employees” to learn more about how they used AI to achieve their goals. Highlights included:

AI Agent & Copilot Summit is an AI-first event to define opportunities, impact, and outcomes with Microsoft Copilot and agents. Building on its 2025 success, the 2026 event takes place March 17-19 in San Diego. Get more details.
Next, Galloway sat down with Mark Luquire, Managing Director, Global Microsoft Alliance Co-Innovation Leader, EY, and Tom Mikluch, Head of Strategy, Office of the COO, Fiserv. Their discussion centered around AI’s impact on both organizations. Key takeaways included:
As the novelty around the capabilities of AI have worn off, businesses are looking at how to most effectively integrate it into their workflows. Yet, doing so can be challenging due to the complexity of the landscape.
Figuring out the right agent and determining which tasks AI can’t handle makes for difficult decisions. The keynote drove home, however, that these decisions cannot be put off without losing revenue opportunities and that organizations should seek to integrate AI into their workflows quickly and entirely.
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Today’s episode of Decoder is about X, Grok, and Elon Musk. By now we’re several weeks into one of the worst, most upsetting, and most stupidly irresponsible AI controversies in the short history of generative AI. Grok, the chatbot made by Elon Musk’s xAI, is able to make all manner of AI-generated images, including nonconsensual intimate images of women and minors.
Because Grok is connected to X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, users can simply ask Grok to edit any image on that platform, and Grok will mostly do it and then distribute that image across the entire platform. Across the last few weeks, X and Elon have claimed over and over that various guardrails have been imposed, but up until now they’ve been mostly trivial to get around. It’s now become clear that Elon wants Grok to be able to do this, and he’s very annoyed with anyone who wants him to stop, particularly the various governments around the world that are threatening to take legal action against X.
This is one of those situations where if you just describe the problem to someone, they will intuitively feel like someone should be able to do something about it. It’s true — someone should be able to do something about a one-click harassment machine like this that’s generating images of women and children without their consent. But who has that power, and what they can do with it, is a deeply complicated question, and it’s tied up in the thorny mess of history that is content moderation and the legal precedents that underpin it. So I invited Riana Pfefferkorn on the show to come talk me through all of this.
Riana has joined me before to explain some complicated internet moderation problems in the past. Right now, she’s a policy fellow at the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence, and she has a deep background in what regulators and lawmakers in the US and around the world could do about a problem like Grok, if they so choose.
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So Riana really helped me work through the legal frameworks at play here, the various actors involved that have leverage and could apply pressure to affect the situation, and where we might see this all go as xAI does damage control but largely continues to ship this product that continues to do real harm.
Here’s one thing I’ve been thinking about a lot as this entire situation has unfolded. Over the past 20 years or so, the idea of content moderation has gone in and out of favor as various kinds of social and community platforms have waxed and waned. The history of a platform like Reddit, for example, is just a microcosm of the entire history of content moderation.
Around 2021, we hit a real high-water mark for the idea of moderation and the trust and safety on these platforms as a whole. That’s when covid misinformation, election lies, QAnon conspiracies, and incitement of mobs at the Capitol could actually get you banned from most of the major platforms… even if you were the president of the United States.
It’s safe to say that era of content moderation is over, and we’re now somewhere far more chaotic and laissez-faire. It’s possible Elon and his porn-y image generator will push that pendulum to swing back, but even if it does, the outcomes might still be more complicated than anyone wants.
If you’d like to read more about what we discussed in this episode, check out these links:
Questions or comments about this episode? Hit us up at decoder@theverge.com. We really do read every email!