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How to Save Reddit Images as JPG Instead of WEBP

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Right-click a Reddit picture, save it, and you get a .webp file that half your apps won’t open. The original JPG or PNG is still there — you just have to ask for it.

Right-click a picture on Reddit, choose Save image as…, and the file that lands in your Downloads is a .webp. Older versions of Photoshop won't open it, some upload forms reject it, and printing services often ask for JPG. The picture's original is still a JPG or PNG; you just aren't being given it.

Why Reddit gives you WEBP

When someone uploads a picture, Reddit keeps the original and makes smaller copies to show in feeds and on post pages. Those copies come from preview.redd.it, and they are served in whatever format the browser says it accepts. Every modern browser accepts WEBP, which is smaller than JPG for the same look, so that is what you get.

So the file you saved is:

  • a copy, not the original — often scaled down, and
  • in WEBP, because your browser asked for it.

The original lives at i.redd.it, in the format and size it was uploaded in. But opening an i.redd.it link in a browser usually sends you to a Reddit page with the picture on it rather than the file itself, and saving from that page gets you WEBP again.

How to download the original JPG or PNG

  1. Copy the link to the post — Share → Copy Link in the app, or the address bar on the web. A direct i.redd.it link works too.
  2. Paste it into the Reddit image downloader.
  3. Press Download.

You get the picture exactly as uploaded: a JPG stays a JPG, a PNG stays a PNG with its transparency, at full resolution. The size is shown on the button, so you can see you have the big one. In the rare case that the uploader's own file was a WEBP, that is the original, and you get it as it is.

Whole galleries

A gallery post holds up to twenty pictures. The gallery downloader shows each of them in order, with its caption, and offers every original separately or all of them at once in a ZIP.

Pictures that move

Animated pictures in posts are kept by Reddit as MP4 video, which plays smoothly and weighs less. When the uploader's file was a real GIF, the GIF downloader gives you that GIF; otherwise it turns the video back into one.

Already have a WEBP?

If you already saved a WEBP and want a JPG, any of these will convert it:

  • Windows: open it in Paint and choose Save as → JPEG.
  • Mac: open it in Preview and choose File → Export, format JPEG.
  • Phone: most gallery apps can edit and save a copy as JPG.

Keep in mind that converting a scaled-down copy gives you a scaled-down JPG. Downloading the original from the post gets you the full size.

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