In this article:
- How to use W3 Total Cache WebP Conversion Image Service?
- Enabling W3 Total Cache Image Service
- Convert images in the Media Library
- Bulk WebP Conversions with Total Cache Image Service
- What can I do after reaching the monthly conversion limit?
- Troubleshooting
- How To Serve Images In Next-Gen Formats In WordPress (WebP)
- Using Plesk and NGINX caching with proxy mode
- Missing Additional Image Sizes
- “Unable to connect to the filesystem” Error
- Additional Resources
How to use W3 Total Cache WebP Conversion Image Service?
Enabling W3 Total Cache Image Service
The first step to using the WebP conversion Image Service is to enable the feature in the Extensions list for W3 Total Cache. New W3 Total Cache installations will have the extension enabled by default, but existing installs will need to activate it manually. Navigate in your WordPress admin to Performance > Extensions to begin enabling it.
Locate the Image Service item in the list of Extensions and enable it.
All images converted with the Image Service tool are sent to a third party server maintained by the W3 Total Cache team which reduces resource consumption and allows for a large number of conversions in environments where resources can be limited such as shared hosting. Images sent to the W3TC server for conversion are only held temporarily and no permanent information is kept on the server regarding the images.
WebP optimizations with the Image Service tool do not replace the original image file and all conversions can be reverted without any loss of data.
The settings page for the Image Service extension allows you to toggle the conversion type between Lossy (default) or Lossless and configure automatic conversions for new image uploads to your website. Lossless conversions can sometimes result in larger file sizes for JPEG and some other formats but will usually decrease the size when converting PNGs.
Convert images in the Media Library
Once the Image Service extension is enabled open up your Media Library to begin converting images to the WebP format. The Image Service tool is only available while the Media Library is in List view and you can use the controls in the Media Library to switch to List mode if it is in the default Grid display.
Images can be converted selecting the Convert link for each image individually or using the Bulk Actions tool and choosing W3 Total Optimize from the list.
Images can also be reverted through the Media Library either individually or with the W3 Total Optimize Revert option in the Bulk Actions list.
Bulk WebP Conversions with Total Cache Image Service
Enabling the Image Service Extension also adds the Total Cache Image Service under Media in the WordPress admin menu, which allows for bulk conversions or reversions of the entire Media Library at once. Use the Convert All or Revert All buttons in the Tools section to manage your WebP image conversions for the entire Media Library at once.
What can I do after reaching the monthly conversion limit?
Free W3 Total Cache users have a limited number of conversions that they can run in a monthly period. W3TC Pro users however do not have this limitation and upgrading to a Pro license will be helpful if you have a large number of images that you wish to convert immediately. Upgrading to a Pro plan will allow you to finish all of your conversions in addition to providing access to all of the other Pro features like Fragment Caching, Deferred CSS, and user Statistics.
Troubleshooting
How To Serve Images In Next-Gen Formats In WordPress (WebP)
There might be instances where you’ve converted all of your images to WebP and still receive this message from PageSpeed Insights in the performance report.
The important note here is that the smallest image will always be served to visitors, regardless of the image format. Lossless conversion sometimes creates an image that is larger than the original, which would then cause the original image to be served instead of the WebP one.
Try switching to Lossy conversion if you still see the message, but if that doesn’t work then you can likely ignore the message since the most optimized image is already being used.
Using Plesk and NGINX caching with proxy mode
First, remove image extensions (jpg, jpeg, webp, png) from “Serve static files directly by nginx.” See these instructions from Plesk to find this setting.
Then, copy the rewrite rules from your Performance > Install menu, and use the W3 Total Cache rewrite rules in the Plesk Additional nginx directives setting.
Missing Additional Image Sizes
If you find that your original image has been converted to WebP, but other image sizes are missing WebP versions, you may need to double-check that your WordPress environment supports the WebP format.
While the original image is converted via our API service, the different sizes (e.g. Large, Medium, Thumbnail) are created by your own server. For this, you must have WordPress 5.8 and the appropriate libGD or ImageMagick package available on your server.
To check if your WordPress environment supports WebP, navigate to Site Health > Info > Media Handling and double-check that WebP is listed in the supported file formats for the library shown in the Active editor. If you find these are missing the WebP extension, consult your system administrator to set up the correct packages.
Users of cPanel CentOS 7 servers can follow these instructions to enable WebP support for ImageMagick.
“Unable to connect to the filesystem” Error
If you’re using an “Indirect” filesystem access method, such as ssh2, FTP Socket, or FTPext, you may have difficulty performing image conversions. Generally, if you’re frequently prompted for credentials when performing tasks in your dashboard, then both automatic and bulk conversions will not work. Consider setting the constant define( 'FS_METHOD', 'direct' );
, or placing your credentials in wp-config.php
according to these instructions from WordPress.org.
Additional Resources
W3 Total Cache
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KG says:
How does the webp conversion work with something like WP Offload Media? For example, if I were to enable webp conversion on an existing site that uses WP Offload Media, how is that handled with both existing images and new images? All current media files have been offloaded and are served via a CDN.
Marko says:
Hey,
Thank you for reaching out. W3TC uses the rewrite to serve the images as a webp. We are not replacing the original images. In the case you are mentioning, depending on the CDN provider, you also need to modify the behavior of the CDN when necessary to respect the origin headers set by the W3 Total Cache. Meaning if the CDN offers any browser Caching,, it should bypass and let the W3TC to do it.
I hope this helps!
Malik says:
I selected bulk convert and I have 64 images stuck in “processing” it’s been about an hour and not one has converted yet.
Marko says:
Hey Malik,
Thank you for reaching out.
Have you converted the images in the Image Service>Convert All or in the Media library?
Can you please check the Network tab by inspecting the source and let me know if there are any 404 ajax requests?
Thanks!
Marcus says:
What is the monthly free quota for the free version versus the pricing of the pro version?
Thanks!
Marko says:
Hey Marcus,
The free version:
Hourly limit: 100
Monthly limit: 1000
Pro version:
Hourly limit: 10000
Monthly limit: Unlimited
I hope this helps!
Manish says:
Hi There,
We’re using W3 Total Cache Premium version on our website.
We are unable to configure caching for webp images, can you please guide us how to set the caching rules properly in w3 total cache
Marko says:
Hello Manish,
Are you experiencing the issue with the bulk conversion or individual images?
Are any of the images converted?
Please open a new topic here , and provide more details, so we can assist you with this.
Peter says:
I receive an error message “Failed to retrieve a response. Please reload the page to try again.”
Neither reloading nor emptying the caches help, and yes, I am using the Pro version. Any suggestions? Thx in advance
Marko says:
Hello Peter,
Are you experiencing the issue with the bulk conversion or individual images?
Are any of the images converted?
Please open a new topic here , and provide more details, so we can assist you with this.
Peter says:
I guess you do not want me to open a new topic.
I have tried both ways, single and batch conversion. Yesterday I simply got the above mentioned response, today the process takes a lot longer with remarks like “sending” and then “processing” (which wasn’t the case yesterday) before outputting the same result as yesterday. I cannot find any successfully finished file.
Until now I find these remarks in the batch processing tab:
Counts and filesizes by status:
Total: 118 134,65 MB
Converted: 0 0,00 B
Sending: 0 0,00 B
Processing: 8 14.77 MB
Not converted: 2 275,44 kB
Unconverted: 108 119.61 MB
Marko says:
Are you experiencing any problems with opening a new topic? I’ve shared the link with you and you can also check the link here.
Can you please open a new topic and also check the network tap once the conversion is started and see if you are getting any 500 error ajax responses?
Thanks!
Vidir says:
Hello,
I have converted my images to webp, at first it was working, webps were loading in chrome.
I then had to tinker with the W3 because of issues. Now after having resolved everything the webps are not loading anymore, with one exception.
Is there anywhere in the W3 were this is configured that webps are being served?
Marko says:
Hello,
Without knowing the specific details about the configuration and the tweaks you did in W3 Total Cache after converting images to webp, I cannot give you a specific answer.
You can check if you have somehow reverted the images, or possibly you need to purge the CDN if you are using one.
Please open a new topic here , and provide more details, so we can assist you with this.
Ian says:
As I understand this, rewrite rules are used to deliver the webp content instead of the jpg. Is this compatible with hosting on IIS? So far it is not working for me, even after invalidating my CDN cache.
Mike says:
Does this extension deliver WebP images to all browsers, or do browsers that do not support WebP recieve jpegs/pngs?
Marko says:
Hi Mike,
Only browsers that support webp images will be served with the converted webp images.
The browsers that do not support webp format will be served with the original images.
Thanks!
Mike says:
Many thanks for that info.
Assad says:
What is the monthly conversion limit if you do not have the PRO version?
Marko says:
Hi Assad,
The Monthly limit for free users 100000 images and it’s subject to change.
We have graciously higher limits for free plugin users for the initial release. Please do note that the order of the conversion takes into account if the user has a Pro license or not.
Thanks!
Daniel says:
Hi i’m trying out this service today. I can see some images already converted.
But when i view them, they are still in jpeg format. When i check in google inspector / network it’s still showing original jpeg with full size and no sign of converted image.
Marko says:
Hello Daniel,
Make sure that the cache is purged once the images are converted.
If you want us ta take a look at this for you, please open a new topic in the support forum.
Thanks!