Upscale a WebP by Judging the Picture, Not the Extension

Find out which WebP you were sent

Browsers and design tools save WebP because it is smaller. A quality slider still exists. If the sky is tiled and the edges ring, you have the lossy kind, and the JPEG page is the better diagnosis even though the extension says webp. If the file is crisp and merely small, it is the lossless kind, or a lossy file that was saved gently, and you are upscaling a real edge rather than a block.

Some phones and converters write a WebP when you asked for a shareable photo. That conversion can also shrink the long edge. The pixel count is the fact that matters. A 900-pixel WebP of a group photo will not become the camera original at any scale factor. 2× makes it 1,800 on that edge before the free download cap, 1,800 sits inside the 3,200 px free download, so this particular file is not trimmed. A result past 3,200 is what the cap trims. Pro and Studio skip that cap.

AVIF is the other modern container we decode, and it has the same split between lossy and lossless. HEIC is not decoded. If a share sheet offered WebP as the way out of HEIC, use that export, and read the HEIC page so you do not expect the server to open the original HEIC later. TIFF is also not decoded.

Run the mode the picture needs

Lossy tiles want a careful denoise or a 2×, not both at once. A clean small WebP wants 2× first. Soft focus wants unblur. Face restore is a paid mode and a likeness check, not a default for every portrait WebP. The guest allowance is three repairs a day, no account, no watermark on the preview.

Batch is how a folder of WebP exports becomes a set. Twelve at a time on Pro, forty on Studio, after one file has survived the slider. Credits do not roll over. The month is not refunded if you cancel. The credit for a job that errors does come back. Disliking a successful WebP does not.

We delete the upload and the result after 24 hours on every plan, including a WebP you meant to come back for. Download the size you earned and keep it with the project. The free size is 3,200 px on the long edge. The paid size is whatever the model wrote, inside the input limits of the plan.

A last look at which WebP you have

Open the file at 100 percent before you trust the extension. Tiles and ringing mean a lossy WebP, and the JPEG page is the better diagnosis even though the bytes say WebP. A clean small WebP is an ordinary upscale. Converters that offer WebP as an escape from HEIC are welcome. The HEIC itself is not. AVIF is decoded. TIFF is not. The container is a gate. The picture is the job.

A CMS that exports every hero as a 900-pixel WebP has already chosen your scale factor. 2× is the test. The free download caps the long edge at 3,200, so an 1,800 px hero stays on the free file. A delivery past 3,200 stays on Pro or Studio. Do not convert a clean PNG to a low-quality WebP on the way in. You would be paying us to undo a step you added.

What to keep beside the slider

Treat the extension as a rumor. Lossy WebP tiles like JPEG. Lossless WebP behaves like PNG. AVIF, which we also decode, has the same split. HEIC does not decode, even when a share sheet offered WebP as the way out. Check the long edge after conversion. A helpful export that also shrinks the picture has thrown away the samples you wanted. 2× is the test for a clean small file. Denoise is the test for a tiled sky. The free download then caps at 3,200, so a hero past that edge is a paid download. Do not convert a clean PNG into a low-quality WebP on the way to the form.

The decision you can defend

Confirm lossy or lossless at 100 percent before you trust the extension. Tiles go to the JPEG diagnosis. A clean small file is an ordinary 2×. AVIF follows the same split and does decode. HEIC does not, even if WebP was the export that escaped it. Check the long edge after that export so a helpful share sheet did not shrink the picture you meant to enlarge. A second conversion at a low quality, between that export and the upload, is the step that puts the blocks back. Skip that conversion and leave the quality slider high.