You can, and the file will show a JPG icon, but it is still a WebP image. The extension is only part of the name. The bytes inside stay WebP, so you have changed the label on the box without changing what is in it.
Browsers and many current photo apps look at the first bytes of a file instead of its name, see WebP, and open it anyway. That is why the renamed file can look fine on your own computer. It goes wrong where software trusts the name or only reads real JPEG: older image editors, some print shops and marketplace upload forms, wallpaper apps, and anything that resizes the image on a server. You get an "unsupported file" error, a broken thumbnail, or an upload that fails later without saying why.
RIFF followed a few characters later by WEBP. A real JPEG starts with ÿØÿ.file photo.jpg in Terminal. A renamed WebP reports Web/P image; a real one reports JPEG image data.One more trap on Windows: if file name extensions are hidden, renaming photo to photo.jpg gives you photo.jpg.webp. Turn them on under View → Show → File name extensions in File Explorer.
1. Re-save it in an app you already have. On Windows, open the WebP in Paint and choose File → Save as → JPEG picture. On a Mac, open it in Preview and choose File → Export → Format: JPEG. Both re-encode the image, which is the step renaming skips.
2. Convert many files at once. With ImageMagick installed, magick mogrify -format jpg *.webp writes a JPG next to every WebP in the folder. Squoosh (squoosh.app) does one image at a time in the browser without uploading it.
3. Save it as JPG in the first place. PixLasso, a Chrome and Edge extension I make, adds Right-click → Save image as JPG / PNG / WebP. It converts on your computer and writes a true .jpg, and that feature is free. For a whole page of images, choose Save as: JPG to get one ZIP of converted files (batch conversion is part of Pro, a one-time $9.99).
Transparent images get a white background when they become JPG, because JPEG has no transparency. Save those as PNG instead.
A .jfif file is already a JPEG under an older name, so renaming it to .jpg is safe and changes nothing inside. The same goes for .jpeg and .jpe. Renaming only fails when the formats differ: WebP, AVIF, HEIC or PNG to JPG, or the other way round.
Why your browser saves WebP in the first place, and how to ask a site for JPG instead, is in How to save WebP images as JPG or PNG in Chrome and Edge.
Updated November 2026. Written by the developer of PixLasso, who mentions the extension where it helps, alongside free methods.