Author: Tarun Sharma

How do passive event listeners improve scroll performance?

Passive event listeners improve scroll performance by promising the browser that your handler won’t call preventDefault(), so the browser can scroll immediately instead of waiting for your code to run. That wait is the whole problem: to hit a smooth 60 frames per second, the browser has roughly 16 milliseconds to produce each frame (web.dev), and a blocking scroll or touch listener can eat straight into that budget. Marking the listener { passive: true } removes the wait.

Key Takeaways

• A passive listener tells the browser your handler will never call preventDefault(), so scrolling never has to wait for your JavaScript (MDN).
• Since Chrome 56 (2017), touchstart and touchmove listeners on the document, window, and body are passive by default (Chrome for Developers).
• The browser aims for one frame every ~16ms to keep scrolling at 60fps; a blocking listener can miss that window (web.dev).
• Lighthouse has a dedicated audit, “Does not use passive listeners to improve scrolling performance,” that flags the listeners worth fixing (Chrome Lighthouse).

Scroll responsiveness is part of how Google measures real-user experience through Interaction to Next Paint, where a good score is 200 milliseconds or less at the 75th percentile (web.dev). This guide explains what passive listeners are, why blocking ones cause jank, exactly how to add them, and which events to apply them to. It pairs well with our wider guide to improving Core Web Vitals.

What are passive event listeners?

A passive event listener is one you register with the { passive: true } option, which signals to the browser that the listener will never call preventDefault() (MDN). The option was added to addEventListener through the DOM specification and shipped in Chrome 51 in 2016, and it’s now supported in every current browser (MDN browser compatibility).

The default behaviour is the opposite. When you attach an ordinary scroll, touch, or wheel listener, the browser has no way of knowing in advance whether your code will cancel the default action, so it has to play it safe. Passive listeners remove that uncertainty by stating your intent up front.

Why do regular scroll and touch listeners slow scrolling down?

A non-passive listener slows scrolling because the browser must run your JavaScript and confirm you didn’t call preventDefault() before it’s allowed to scroll the page (Chrome for Developers). preventDefault() cancels an event’s default action, and for a scroll or touch event that default action is the scroll itself, so the browser can’t assume anything until your handler finishes.

That creates a chain of delay. The user moves their finger or wheel, the browser hands the event to your listener, your code runs, and only then, once the browser sees no cancellation, does the page move. If your handler does meaningful work, the scroll stutters. The effect is worst on touch devices, which is exactly why mobile scrolling is where passive listeners pay off most.

How do you add a passive event listener?

You add a passive listener by passing an options object as the third argument to addEventListener, with passive set to true (MDN):

window.addEventListener('scroll', function () {
  // your scroll handling code
}, { passive: true });

The same pattern works for touch and wheel events, which are the other common culprits behind janky scrolling:

document.addEventListener('touchmove', onTouchMove, { passive: true });
document.addEventListener('wheel', onWheel, { passive: true });

One gotcha is worth knowing before you flip every listener to passive. If you mark a listener passive and then call preventDefault() inside it, the browser ignores the call and logs a console warning rather than honouring it (MDN). So a listener that genuinely needs to cancel scrolling, a custom swipe-to-dismiss gesture, for example, must stay non-passive. Passive is a promise, and the browser holds you to it.

Which events should be passive, and which shouldn’t?

Most scroll-adjacent events should be passive, because the vast majority of handlers only read the scroll position or trigger an effect rather than cancelling the scroll (Chrome for Developers). The exceptions are the handful of listeners that deliberately block the default action. The table below covers the common cases.

Event	Make it passive?	Why
scroll	Yes	Scroll handlers can’t cancel scrolling anyway, so there’s no reason to block
touchstart / touchmove	Usually	Passive by default at document level since Chrome 56; keep passive unless you handle gestures
wheel / mousewheel	Usually	Passive unless you implement custom zoom or scroll hijacking
Custom swipe or pull-to-refresh	No	These call preventDefault() to control the gesture, so they must stay non-passive

If you’re unsure, default to passive and test the interaction. A listener that breaks when made passive will tell you immediately, because the gesture it controls will stop working and the console will warn you.

What does Chrome do automatically?

Chrome already makes some of these listeners passive for you. Since Chrome 56, released in early 2017, touchstart and touchmove listeners added to the document, window, or body are treated as passive by default (Chrome for Developers). Firefox and Safari adopted the same document-level default, so this behaviour is now consistent across browsers (MDN).

The important limit is scope. This automatic default only applies to those top-level targets. A touchmove listener attached to a specific <div> or any other element is still non-passive unless you say otherwise, so element-level listeners are where you still need to add { passive: true } by hand. That distinction catches a lot of developers who assume the whole page is covered.

How do you find non-passive listeners on your site?

Run Lighthouse, which includes an audit named “Does not use passive listeners to improve scrolling performance” that lists the listeners worth converting (Chrome Lighthouse). Lighthouse is built into Chrome DevTools, so you can open the Lighthouse panel, run a report, and read the flagged listeners straight from the best-practices section.

For a closer look, the DevTools Performance panel records what happens during a scroll and shows long-running event handlers on the main thread, which is where you’ll see a listener blocking a frame. Between the Lighthouse audit and a recorded scroll trace, you can pinpoint exactly which handlers are costing you smoothness before you change a line of code.

What else improves scroll performance?

Passive listeners are one lever among several, and the biggest scroll wins usually come from reducing main-thread work overall (web.dev). Once your listeners are passive, these techniques compound the benefit:

• Load JavaScript with async or defer so scripts don’t block rendering while the page is still drawing. Our guide to reducing unused JavaScript goes deeper on trimming what loads.
• Optimise images and media. Compress files, serve modern formats like WebP, and add loading="lazy" so off-screen images don’t load until they’re needed.
• Trim and minify CSS and JavaScript. Smaller files parse faster and leave more of the frame budget for scrolling. See how to identify and reduce unused CSS.
• Keep work out of scroll handlers. Avoid layout reads and heavy calculations inside a scroll callback; throttle the work or move it behind requestAnimationFrame.
• Remove listeners you no longer need with removeEventListener, so old handlers don’t keep firing.

If a poor Lighthouse score is what brought you here, our walkthrough on improving your Lighthouse performance score ties these fixes together.

Frequently asked questions

Do passive event listeners work in all browsers?

Yes. The passive option is supported in all current browsers, including Chrome, Firefox, Safari, and Edge, and has been since around 2016 (MDN). Older browsers that don’t recognise the options object simply ignore it and treat the listener as non-passive, so adding { passive: true } is safe to ship without a fallback.

What happens if I call preventDefault() in a passive listener?

The browser ignores the call and logs a warning in the console rather than cancelling the event (MDN). That’s why any listener that genuinely needs to cancel scrolling or a gesture must stay non-passive. If you see that warning, it usually means a listener was made passive by mistake.

Are scroll event listeners passive by default?

Scroll listeners can’t cancel scrolling, so they behave like passive handlers regardless. The browser’s automatic passive default specifically covers touchstart and touchmove on the document, window, and body since Chrome 56 (Chrome for Developers). Element-level touch and wheel listeners still need { passive: true } added explicitly.

Will passive listeners alone fix a slow page?

No. Passive listeners remove one specific source of scroll delay, but a slow page usually has several causes, including heavy JavaScript, large images, and render-blocking resources. Treat passive listeners as part of a broader performance pass alongside the Core Web Vitals work covered in our Core Web Vitals guide.

How do you add friends on Snapchat?

You add friends on Snapchat in five main ways: searching their username, using Quick Add suggestions, scanning their Snapcode, the Add Nearby feature, or syncing your phone contacts. Each suits a different situation, whether you already know someone’s username, want to connect with a person beside you, or are looking to discover people you might know. Knowing all five makes building your friend list quick, and knowing the privacy settings alongside them keeps it safe.

Key Takeaways

• Five ways to add friends: username search, Quick Add, Snapcode, Add Nearby, and contact sync.
• Quick Add suggests people based on mutual friends; Snapcodes are scannable QR codes unique to each user.
• By default only added friends can contact you, review your privacy settings before opening that up.
• Snapchat’s young, frequent audience (483 million daily users) is why its friend features feel so central (Snap Inc., 2026).

Snapchat is built around people you actually know, so adding the right friends is central to the experience. This guide covers every way to find and add them, and the privacy settings that keep the process safe, especially important for younger users. It’s part of our wider guide to the Snapchat app, and pairs with our look at Snapchat’s friendship features.

What are the ways to find and add people?

The ways to find and add people on Snapchat range from precise (you know their username) to discovery-based (Snapchat suggests people you might know). Picking the right method depends on whether you already have a way to identify the person.

Method	How it works	Best when
Username search	Search their exact Snapchat username	You already know their username
Quick Add	Tap suggestions based on mutual friends	Discovering people you may know
Snapcode	Scan their unique QR-style code	You’re together in person
Add Nearby	Find users physically near you	At an event or meeting in person
Contact sync	Match your phone contacts to accounts	Adding people you already know

Each has a clear use. Username search is the precise option when someone gives you their handle. Quick Add surfaces people connected to your existing friends, the main way to expand your circle. Snapcodes are unique scannable codes, ideal for adding someone face to face: open the camera, point it at their code, and tap. Add Nearby connects people in the same place at the same time, handy at events. Contact sync matches your phone’s address book to Snapchat accounts so you can add people you already know. For most people, Quick Add and username search do the bulk of the work.

How do you stay safe when adding friends?

You stay safe by keeping your privacy settings tight, mainly letting only friends contact you and see your content, and being cautious about adding people you don’t actually know. Snapchat’s defaults are sensible, but it’s worth checking them, especially for younger users.

By default, only people you’ve added as friends can send you snaps or view your story, which is the safe baseline. You can widen “Contact Me” to “Everyone,” but that lets strangers message you, so most people shouldn’t. Three settings matter most: “Contact Me” (keep to “My Friends”), “View My Story” (limit to friends or a custom list), and “See My Location” on Snap Map (keep restricted, or use Ghost Mode to hide it entirely). Be wary of adding people you don’t recognise from Quick Add or Add Nearby, since adding someone gives them more access to you. And remember Snapchat’s disappearing content isn’t a safety guarantee, anyone can screenshot. The simple rule, especially for teenagers, is to keep your friend list to people you actually know and your settings locked to friends only.

What are the privacy risks of Add Nearby, and how do you control it?

Add Nearby lets you add Snapchat users physically near you, which is handy at an event but means briefly making yourself discoverable to strangers in the same place, so it’s worth understanding the trade-off. It isn’t always-on: it only finds people while you and they both have the Add Nearby screen open, so it’s a deliberate, momentary action rather than constant background broadcasting.

The related setting to manage is “See Me in Quick Add” (Snapchat’s friend-suggestion system, now surfaced under Find Friends). With it on, Snapchat can suggest you to others based on mutual friends and signals; turning it off in Settings then Privacy Controls removes you from those suggestions (the change can take up to 72 hours to fully apply). For younger users especially, the safe defaults are to keep “Contact Me” and “View My Story” set to friends only, leave Snap Map on Ghost Mode, and only use Add Nearby with people you’re genuinely meeting in person, then add them and close the screen. Discoverability is useful in the right moment; the key is that you control when it’s on.

Blocking vs removing a friend: what’s the difference?

Removing and blocking both cut someone from your friends, but they do very different things. Removing a friend simply takes them off your friends list, and depending on your privacy settings they may still see public content, search for you, and even add or message you again, whereas blocking completely prevents them from interacting with you at all.

In practice: remove someone when you just want to tidy your list or stop sharing friends-only content, but you’re not worried about them. Block someone when you want them gone entirely, a blocked person can’t see your profile, Stories, Charms, or Snap Map location, can’t find you in search, and can’t message you (they can still see genuinely public content like public Spotlight) (Snapchat Support). To block or remove, open the person’s profile, tap the menu, and choose the option; blocking is reversible if you change your mind, though re-adding is a fresh start. For anyone you don’t recognise or who makes you uncomfortable, blocking is the safer choice.

Frequently asked questions

How does Quick Add work on Snapchat?

Quick Add suggests people to add based on signals like mutual friends, shared connections, and how you use the app. If you and another person have several friends in common, Snapchat is likely to suggest you to each other, which makes it the main way most people grow their friend list. You can tap to add anyone suggested, and you can remove yourself from others’ Quick Add suggestions in your settings if you’d rather not appear there. It’s useful for reconnecting with people you know, but apply the same caution before adding anyone you don’t recognise.

Can people add me without my permission?

People can send you a friend request or add you, but by default they can’t contact you or see your content unless you’ve added them back. With the standard “My Friends” privacy setting, only friends you’ve accepted can snap you or view your story, so being added by a stranger doesn’t give them access on its own. If you change “Contact Me” to “Everyone,” that changes, and strangers can message you, which is why most people should leave it on “My Friends.” You can also block anyone you don’t want contacting or finding you.

What is a Snapcode and how do I use it?

A Snapcode is a unique, QR-style code tied to your Snapchat account that others can scan to add you instantly. To add someone by Snapcode, open the Snapchat camera, point it at their code (on their screen or printed), and press and hold the screen to scan; Snapchat recognises it and offers to add them. To share your own, find your Snapcode on your profile and show or send it. Snapcodes are the fastest way to swap accounts in person, no typing usernames, and businesses sometimes print them on packaging or signage to be added easily.

Should I sync my contacts with Snapchat?

Syncing contacts helps you find people you already know who are on Snapchat, and lets you invite those who aren’t, but it does share your address book with the app, so it’s a personal trade-off. If you’re comfortable with that and want to connect with existing contacts quickly, it’s convenient. If you’d rather not upload your contacts, you can skip it and add people by username, Snapcode, or Quick Add instead. You can also turn contact syncing off later in settings. For privacy-conscious users, especially younger ones, the manual methods work perfectly well without sharing your contacts.

Final thoughts

Finding and adding friends on Snapchat is straightforward once you know the five methods: username search and Quick Add for everyday adding, Snapcodes and Add Nearby for connecting in person, and contact sync for people you already know. Together they make building your circle quick.

The part that matters most, especially for younger users, is doing it safely: keep your privacy settings to friends only, be cautious about adding people you don’t recognise, and remember that disappearing content isn’t a substitute for good judgement. For more on managing the friends you add, see our guide to Snapchat’s friendship features, and for the bigger picture, our overview of the Snapchat app.

Is Snapchat advertising worth it?

Snapchat advertising is worth it if your customers are young: it reaches a large, highly engaged audience of teens and young adults that’s hard to match elsewhere, through immersive, vertical, often AR-based ad formats. With 483 million daily active users who open the app more than 30 times a day, and ad reach concentrated among under-35s, it’s a precise channel for brands targeting Gen Z and younger millennials, and a weaker fit for older audiences.

Key Takeaways

• Snapchat reaches about 709 million people with ads, including 90% of 13-to-24-year-olds in its major markets (DataReportal, 2025; Snap for Business).
• Core formats: Single Image or Video Ads, Story Ads, Collection Ads, Commercials, and AR Lenses and Filters.
• The Snap Pixel tracks on-site conversions so you can optimise toward sales.
• Snapchat’s ad business is large and growing: Snap’s 2025 revenue was $5.93 billion (Snap Inc., 2026).

Snapchat is a visual, interactive platform, which makes it well suited to creative advertising that doesn’t feel like advertising. The key is matching the format to your goal and audience. This guide covers who Snapchat reaches, the ad formats, how to set up and optimise campaigns, and what to measure, building on our overview of the Snapchat app.

Who does Snapchat advertising reach?

Snapchat advertising reaches a young, frequent, highly engaged audience: roughly 709 million people are reachable with ads, and the platform reaches 90% of 13-to-24-year-olds in its core markets (DataReportal, 2025; Snap for Business). That demographic concentration is the single most important thing to understand before you spend.

The audience matters more than the raw size. If you sell to teenagers and young adults, fashion, beauty, gaming, entertainment, food, apps, Snapchat puts you in front of them at a frequency few channels match, since users open the app more than 30 times a day. They also interact mostly with close friends rather than strangers, which makes the environment feel personal and can make ads more receptively received. The flip side is that if your customers are older, your money is usually better spent elsewhere; Snapchat is a specialist channel, not a general one. Knowing whether your audience is actually on Snapchat is the first decision, and it’s a genuine filter, not a formality.

What Snapchat ad formats are available?

Snapchat offers several ad formats built for its vertical, full-screen, camera-first environment: Single Image or Video Ads, Story Ads, Collection Ads, Commercials, and AR Lenses and Filters. Each suits a different goal, and all are designed to fit naturally between the content people are already watching.

Format	What it is	Best for
Single Image or Video	A full-screen vertical snap between content	Reach and direct response
Story Ads	A branded tile in the Discover feed	Telling a fuller brand story
Collection Ads	A main image or video with tappable product tiles	Ecommerce and product ranges
Commercials	Non-skippable video (3-6s) or extended play	Guaranteed brand messages
AR Lenses & Filters	Branded augmented-reality experiences	Engagement and brand awareness

The formats share a vertical 9:16, 1080×1920 spec, so creative can often be reused across them. The standout is AR: Snapchat’s Lenses let people interact with your brand by putting it on their face or in their space, which drives engagement no static ad can. Brands from Domino’s to Starling Bank have used Snap Ads and AR Lenses to reach younger audiences, the AR experiences in particular tend to deliver strong engagement and brand recall. Match the format to the job: Commercials for a guaranteed message, Collection Ads for products, Lenses for engagement.

How do you set up and optimise a Snapchat ad campaign?

You set up a Snapchat campaign in Ads Manager by choosing an objective, defining your audience, setting a budget, and building creative, then you optimise by giving the system time to learn and acting on the data. The platform’s logic mirrors other ad systems, but its creative demands are distinct: vertical, fast, and native to the app.

Start with a clear objective, awareness, traffic, app installs, or sales, because it shapes delivery. Define your audience using Snapchat’s demographic, interest, and behaviour targeting, and build Custom Audiences from your own data. Create genuinely native creative: vertical, quick to grab attention, and designed for sound-on, casual viewing rather than a repurposed landscape TV ad. Set a realistic budget and bidding strategy. Then, crucially, give it time: avoid changing an ad in its first few days so Snapchat’s system can learn who responds, much as other ad platforms have a learning phase. After that, use split testing to compare creative and audiences, and shift budget toward what performs. The discipline is the same as any paid channel: launch, learn, refine, scale what works.

What’s the step-by-step Snapchat Ads Manager setup?

Setting up a campaign in Snapchat Ads Manager follows a three-level structure, campaign, ad set, and ad, the same logic as other ad platforms. Here’s the sequence:

1. Create the campaign and pick an objective (awareness, traffic, app installs, engagement, or sales). The objective tells Snapchat what to optimise for.
2. Build the ad set: define your audience (below), choose placements, and set your budget and schedule.
3. Set budget and bidding: choose a daily or lifetime budget and a bid strategy, starting modestly while you learn what works.
4. Create the ad: upload your vertical 9:16 (1080×1920) creative, add a headline and a clear call to action, and set the destination (website, app, or a Snap-native page).
5. Add the Snap Pixel if you’re optimising for website actions, so conversions are tracked (covered below).
6. Review, publish, and let it learn: avoid editing in the first few days so Snapchat’s system can find who responds, then read results and refine.

For a first campaign, Snapchat also offers Instant Create, a simplified flow that builds a basic campaign from a few inputs, but the full Ads Manager gives the control and measurement that serious campaigns need.

What targeting options does Snapchat offer?

Snapchat’s targeting falls into three groups, predefined audiences, custom audiences, and lookalikes, which together let you reach a precise slice of its young audience rather than spending broadly (Snap for Business).

• Predefined audiences: target by location (country down to postcode), demographics (age, gender, and more), and interests and behaviours (Snap Lifestyle Categories), reaching people by who they are and what they engage with.
• Custom Audiences: built from your own data, a customer list (email, phone, or device ID, the current home of what used to be called Snap Audience Match), website visitors via the Snap Pixel, app users, or people who engaged with your ads or profile.
• Lookalike Audiences: new people who resemble a Custom Audience, with options to favour high similarity, wider reach, or a balance of the two.

The highest-performing targeting is usually Custom and Lookalike Audiences, because they start from people who already know you or closely match those who do. Combine them with Snapchat’s demographic strength, its young, frequent users, and you can reach a relevant audience efficiently. Whatever you choose, the Snap Pixel underpins the data, so install it early.

How does the Snap Pixel improve results, and what should you measure?

The Snap Pixel improves results by tracking what people do on your website after seeing your ad, so Snapchat can optimise toward conversions and you can measure real return, not just clicks. Installed on your site, it records actions like purchases and sign-ups and reports them back to Ads Manager.

That data does two valuable things: it lets you build audiences (for example, people who visited but didn’t buy) and lets the system optimise delivery toward people likely to convert.

On what to measure, focus on outcomes over vanity metrics. Track amount spent and paid impressions for reach, click-through rate for creative effectiveness, and, most importantly, conversions and return on ad spend (ROAS) for whether the campaign makes money. Video view metrics matter for video and Commercial formats. As with any channel, cost per result and ROAS are the numbers that decide whether to scale or stop, the rest tell you why. Snapchat’s ad business is substantial and growing, with Snap’s 2025 revenue reaching $5.93 billion (Snap Inc., 2026), which means a mature, well-tooled platform to work with.

Snapchat vs TikTok ads: which is right for your brand?

Snapchat and TikTok both run full-screen vertical video to young audiences, but they suit different goals, and many brands use both. The quickest way to choose is by what you’re trying to do and who you want to reach.

Choose Snapchat when AR and Gen Z matter most: its standout advantage is augmented reality, branded Lenses are used billions of times a day and around three-quarters of its users engage with AR daily, which makes it powerful for try-on, product visualisation, and playful brand experiences with a close-friend audience. Choose TikTok when broad, sound-led viral discovery is the goal: its algorithmic feed reaches a wider age range (its largest single cohort is now 25–34) and rewards trend-driven content that can scale fast regardless of follower count. In practice, Snapchat is the AR-and-Gen-Z specialist and TikTok the broad discovery engine; a brand selling visual products to young people often runs both, leading with Lenses on Snapchat and trend content on TikTok. As with any channel, match the platform to where your customers actually are and what your creative does best.

Frequently asked questions

How much does Snapchat advertising cost?

There’s no fixed price; you set a budget and pay based on competition and targeting, and Snapchat is accessible for smaller budgets. Costs are measured in metrics like cost per thousand impressions and cost per result, and they vary by audience, season, and creative quality. The practical approach is to start with a modest daily budget, find creative and an audience that deliver a positive return on ad spend, then scale. What matters isn’t the cost per impression but whether each pound returns more than it costs, which is why measuring conversions with the Snap Pixel is essential.

Is Snapchat advertising good for small businesses?

It can be, if your customers are young and your product is visual. The targeting lets a small budget reach a specific young audience rather than wasting spend broadly, and AR Lenses and vertical video can punch above their weight on engagement. The key filter is audience fit: a small business selling to teens or young adults can do well, while one selling to an older demographic usually shouldn’t start here. Begin small, create native vertical creative rather than repurposed ads, and measure return before scaling.

What makes a good Snapchat ad?

A good Snapchat ad is vertical, fast, and native to the app, it grabs attention in the first second and feels like it belongs between friends’ snaps, not like a TV commercial dropped in. Use full-screen 9:16 video, design for casual sound-on viewing, keep the message simple with one clear call to action, and lean into Snapchat’s strengths like AR where it fits. Test variations and let performance decide. The biggest mistake is repurposing landscape or overly polished ads that feel out of place; native, authentic-feeling creative consistently outperforms it.

How is Snapchat advertising different from Facebook ads?

The main differences are audience and creative. Snapchat skews much younger and is camera-first, so its ads are vertical, full-screen, and often AR-based, suited to reaching Gen Z. Facebook reaches a broader, older audience with deeper targeting and a wider range of placements and formats. Many brands use both: Snapchat to reach young audiences with immersive creative, Facebook for broad reach and detailed targeting. Which to prioritise depends on where your customers are, our guides to Facebook advertising and Facebook for business cover that side.

Final thoughts

Snapchat advertising is a specialist channel that does one thing exceptionally well: reaching young, engaged audiences with immersive, vertical, often AR-based creative. With 483 million daily users and 90% reach of 13-to-24-year-olds in its core markets, it’s hard to beat for brands targeting that demographic, and a poor fit for those who aren’t.

If your customers are there, match the format to your goal, build native vertical creative, use the Snap Pixel to measure real conversions, and give campaigns time to learn before judging them. Start small, measure return, and scale what works. For the wider context of how the platform works, see our overview of the Snapchat app.

What is a Snapchat streak?

A Snapchat streak, or Snapstreak, is a count of how many consecutive days two friends have exchanged snaps, shown by a fire emoji and a number next to the friend’s name. It starts once you and a friend have each sent the other a photo or video snap within 24 hours for three days running, and it keeps climbing as long as that daily exchange continues. It’s a simple feature, but it’s become one of the most engaging parts of the app, a small daily ritual that keeps friends in touch.

Key Takeaways

• A streak starts after three consecutive days of both friends exchanging snaps, then shows a fire emoji and day count.
• Only photo and video snaps count, not text chats, voice notes, or stories.
• The hourglass emoji warns the streak is about to expire; you have roughly a few hours to act.
• Streaks help explain why users open Snapchat more than 30 times a day (Snap for Business).

Streaks tap into something simple but compelling: the satisfaction of not breaking a chain. For a platform whose 483 million daily users open the app dozens of times a day, that daily habit is a big part of the appeal. This guide explains how streaks work, how to keep them going, and how to recover a lost one, and it’s part of our wider guide to the Snapchat app.

How do you start and keep a streak going?

You start a streak by exchanging snaps with a friend every day for three days, and you keep it going by making sure you both send at least one snap each within every 24-hour window. The rule that trips people up most is that only snaps count, a text chat, however chatty, does nothing for your streak.

To start one, send a photo or video snap to a friend and have them snap you back, then repeat for three consecutive days. Once the fire emoji appears with a number, the streak is live. To maintain it, both of you must send a snap to the other inside each 24-hour window, every day, without fail. A few habits make that easier:

• Send simple snaps. On a busy day, a photo of the ceiling or a quick selfie keeps the streak alive just as well as anything elaborate.
• Set a daily reminder. A phone alarm at a consistent time stops you forgetting.
• Keep streak friends near the top. Pinning or prioritising the people you have streaks with makes the daily exchange quick.
• Agree a routine. Snapping at a set time each day turns it into a shared habit rather than a chore.

The key thing to remember is reciprocity: it doesn’t count unless you both snap each other. One-way snaps won’t keep a streak alive.

What do the streak emojis mean?

The streak emojis tell you a streak’s status at a glance: the fire emoji means an active streak with its day count, and the hourglass emoji is an urgent warning that it’s about to expire. Learning to read them is the difference between keeping a long streak and losing it by accident.

The fire emoji appears once a streak is established, with a number showing how many days it’s run; longer streaks become a small point of pride between friends. The hourglass emoji is the one to watch: it appears when the 24-hour window is nearly up and neither of you has snapped, giving you a short window, often a few hours, to send a snap before the streak resets to zero. If you ever see the hourglass next to a streak friend, treat it as a prompt to snap immediately. There are other friendship emojis on Snapchat too (for best friends and mutual best friends), but the fire and hourglass are the two that govern streaks specifically.

Are there streak milestones, trophies, or badges?

Snapchat no longer has a trophy or badge system tied to streaks, the old Trophy Case was discontinued in 2019, so the milestone is really the number itself climbing next to the fire emoji. There’s no level or reward you “unlock” at a set day count the way some apps gamify streaks.

A few markers do exist, though. At 100 days a 💯 (hundred) emoji appears next to the fire to mark the milestone, and the longer the number grows, the bigger the bragging rights between friends. Snapchat also replaced trophies with Charms: small shareable graphics in a friendship’s profile that mark things like how long you’ve been friends or that you have an active Snapstreak together. So while there’s no formal badge to earn, the rising number, the 100-day 💯, and Friendship Charms are the recognition Snapchat gives a long streak. The streak itself stays separate from your Snap Score, which reflects overall snapping activity.

How do you manage streaks with several friends at once?

Keeping streaks with multiple friends comes down to making the daily round of snaps fast and hard to forget, since every streak needs its own reciprocal snap inside each 24-hour window. There’s no single button that maintains all your streaks automatically, so a little organisation helps.

The practical tactics: send one photo to several streak friends at once by selecting multiple recipients on the send screen (a quick ceiling-or-selfie snap to all of them keeps every streak alive in one action), watch the chat list for any ⏳ hourglass that signals a streak about to expire, and set a daily reminder so the whole round happens at a consistent time. Snapchat shows the fire emoji and day count next to each friend in your chat list, so a quick scan tells you which streaks are active. If juggling many streaks becomes a chore, it’s worth being honest about which ones you actually value, a streak is only fun while it’s effortless.

What happens to your streaks if you delete and reinstall Snapchat?

Deleting the app doesn’t delete your account or its data, your friends, Memories, and settings all return when you reinstall and log back into the same account, but it does not pause your streaks. The 24-hour rule keeps running: if more than a day passes with no snap exchanged (likely while the app is uninstalled), the streak breaks like any other missed day.

So a streak survives a reinstall only if you don’t miss the daily exchange: log back in quickly and snap your streak friends within the window and it’s fine; leave the app off for more than a day and the streak resets. Reinstalling doesn’t automatically restore a streak that has already broken. If one does break unfairly, Snapchat offers limited restores, a Snapchat+ subscription includes one free Streak Restore per month (non-subscribers can pay for one), and on iOS there’s a “Restore All” option to recover several recently-expired streaks at once (Snapchat Support). The safest approach is simply not to let the app sit uninstalled across a 24-hour window if you care about your streaks.

Can you get a lost Snapstreak back?

Sometimes, yes. Snapchat offers a limited ability to restore a lost streak, and if the streak disappeared because of a technical glitch rather than a missed day, Snapchat Support may reinstate it. The recovery options depend on why and how the streak was lost.

If a streak vanishes, first check the chat for a restore option, Snapchat sometimes shows a prompt or badge offering a one-time restore, which you simply follow. If there’s no restore option and you’re sure you both snapped within the window (so it was a bug, not a missed day), you can report it to Snapchat Support through the app’s help section, providing your friend’s username and the streak details; if they verify a technical fault, they may restore it, often within about a day. Be honest, though: support restores genuine glitches, not streaks lost to forgetting. If neither route works, the only option is to start the streak again from day one.

Frequently asked questions

Why did my Snapchat streak disappear?

Usually because one of you didn’t send a snap within the 24-hour window, the most common cause is simply forgetting or assuming a text chat counted (it doesn’t). Other causes include connectivity problems that stopped a snap sending in time, or, occasionally, a genuine app bug. Check whether you both actually exchanged photo or video snaps that day. If you did and it still vanished, it may be a technical fault you can report to Snapchat Support. If a snap was genuinely missed, the streak resets and has to be rebuilt.

Do text messages count toward a Snapstreak?

No. Only photo and video snaps sent directly between the two of you count toward a streak. Text chats, voice notes, stickers, and posting to your story do nothing for it, which catches a lot of people out. Both friends must send an actual snap to the other within each 24-hour window. This is the single most common reason streaks break: people chat all day, assume they’re maintaining the streak, and lose it because neither sent a snap. When in doubt, send a quick photo snap, not a message.

How long do you have before a streak expires?

You have 24 hours from the last snap exchange to send another, and when that window is nearly up the hourglass emoji appears as a final warning, giving you a short additional window (often a few hours) to act. So in practice you get a full day plus a brief grace period. The safest habit is not to rely on the hourglass at all: snap your streak friends at a consistent time each day, well within the window, so you’re never depending on the last-minute warning to save a long streak.

Do streaks affect your Snap Score?

Streaks themselves don’t directly add to your Snap Score, but the activity that maintains them does. Your Snap Score rises as you send and receive snaps, and keeping streaks means doing exactly that every day, so an active streaker’s score climbs steadily as a side effect. The streak number and the Snap Score are separate things, though: the streak counts consecutive days with one friend, while the Snap Score reflects your overall snapping activity across everyone. Maintaining lots of streaks will tend to grow your score over time.

Final thoughts

Snapchat streaks are a small feature with an outsized pull: a daily fire emoji and a rising number that turn staying in touch into a habit. The rules are simple, both friends must exchange a photo or video snap every 24 hours, but the discipline is real, which is exactly why streaks keep people coming back to the app day after day.

Keep them going with simple snaps and a daily reminder, watch for the hourglass warning, and report genuine glitches to support if a streak disappears unfairly. Most of all, remember that only snaps count, not chats. For the bigger picture of how the platform works and why these habits matter, see our guide to the Snapchat app.

What is Snapchat and how does it work?

Snapchat is a camera-first social app built around disappearing photo and video messages called snaps, plus stories, augmented-reality lenses, and a map of friends. What sets it apart from other social networks is its temporary, in-the-moment nature: most content vanishes after it’s viewed or after 24 hours, which encourages casual, authentic sharing rather than polished, permanent posts. You open it to the camera, not a feed, which tells you everything about how it’s meant to be used.

Key Takeaways

• Snapchat has 483 million daily active users and about 956 million monthly users (Snap Inc., 2026).
• Its core features are disappearing snaps, 24-hour stories, AR lenses, and Snap Map.
• It skews young: under-35s make up roughly three-quarters of its audience (DataReportal, 2025).
• Founded in 2011, Snap Inc. went public on the NYSE in 2017.

Snapchat is one of the most widely used apps in the world, especially among younger people, yet it works differently enough from Instagram or Facebook that it’s worth understanding properly. This guide covers its core features, its history, and what makes it distinct, and it’s the hub for our deeper guides to Snapchat advertising, Snapchat streaks, and finding friends on Snapchat.

What are snaps and stories?

Snaps and stories are Snapchat’s two core ways of sharing: a snap is a photo or video sent to specific people that disappears after viewing, while a story is a collection of snaps visible to your friends for 24 hours. Both are built on the same idea, that content is temporary, which is what gives Snapchat its casual, low-pressure feel.

A snap is the basic unit. You take a photo or video, optionally add text, lenses, or filters, and send it to chosen friends; once they’ve viewed it (you can set a 1-to-10-second timer, or no limit), it’s gone. Because there’s no permanent record, people share freely, the mundane, the silly, the everyday, rather than curating a perfect grid. A story works differently: you add snaps to it through the day, and any friend can watch the whole sequence as many times as they like within 24 hours before it expires. Stories are how you broadcast your day to everyone, while snaps are how you talk to specific people. Together they cover both private messaging and casual broadcasting in one app.

What are lenses, filters, and Snap Map?

Lenses, filters, and Snap Map are the features that make Snapchat distinctive: lenses and filters add augmented-reality effects to your camera, while Snap Map shows where your friends are and what’s happening nearby. These are the parts of Snapchat that other apps later copied, and they remain central to how it feels.

Lenses use augmented reality to transform what the camera sees, reshaping your face, adding 3D animations, or changing your surroundings in real time, and they’re interactive, responding to gestures and movement. Filters are simpler overlays: a colour wash, the time, the weather, or a location-based design. Snapchat pioneered this kind of playful AR, and it’s still a defining feature. Snap Map, meanwhile, is a live map showing the location of friends who choose to share it (location sharing is off by default), plus public snaps from events and places around the world. It turns the app into a way to see what’s happening, both among your friends and globally, and it’s something most rival apps still don’t match.

What are Snapchat Memories?

Memories is Snapchat’s built-in archive: a private place to save snaps and stories so they don’t disappear, then revisit, edit, and reshare them later. It’s the counterweight to the app’s disappearing nature, a personal collection of the moments you choose to keep, organised by date and searchable.

You save a snap to Memories with the save icon, and open your collection by swiping up from the camera. Saved content is stored in Snapchat’s cloud and tied to your account, so it follows you to a new phone when you log in, rather than living only on the device. One current detail worth knowing: since late September 2025, free Memories storage is capped at 5GB, with paid Memories Storage Plans (and Snapchat+) raising the limit for heavy users (Snap Newsroom). Snapchat also resurfaces old saves automatically through “On This Day” flashbacks and year-end recaps, and for businesses, Memories doubles as a store of reusable branded snaps. We cover it in depth in our guide to Snapchat Memories.

What is Spotlight, and how does it differ from TikTok?

Spotlight is Snapchat’s algorithmic short-form video feed, its answer to TikTok, where vertical videos are surfaced based on what you engage with rather than only who you follow. Like TikTok, it tests a video with a small audience first and scales its reach if people watch and engage, so anyone can go viral regardless of follower count.

The difference is context. TikTok is discovery-first: the algorithmic feed is the whole app, built around viral, sound-led trends. Spotlight sits inside Snapchat, which is fundamentally a camera-and-friends app, so it’s the discovery layer attached to a private messaging core rather than the main event. For creators, Snapchat folded Spotlight into its unified Creator Monetization Program: since February 2025, eligible creators can earn from ads in qualifying Spotlight videos and Stories (Snap Newsroom). The practical read: TikTok is where you go to discover, while Snapchat is where you talk to friends and Spotlight is the reach engine alongside that.

What’s the history of Snapchat?

Snapchat was founded in 2011 by Evan Spiegel, Bobby Murphy, and Reggie Brown, and grew from a simple disappearing-photo app into a major platform owned by the publicly listed Snap Inc. Its history is a steady run of features that the rest of social media often followed.

The app began as “Picaboo” in 2011 before being renamed Snapchat later that year; Brown left early, but the disappearing-photo idea endured. The milestones since show how it evolved:

Year	Milestone
2011	Founded (as Picaboo, then Snapchat)
2013	Stories introduced
2015	Lenses and AR filters launched
2016	Company rebranded as Snap Inc.; Spectacles released
2017	Snap Inc. IPO on the NYSE
2020s	Spotlight, AR platform, and AI features added

That trajectory, from a single clever idea to a public company with hundreds of millions of daily users, is why Snapchat remains a platform worth understanding, whether you use it personally or for business.

Who uses Snapchat, and why does it matter for businesses?

Snapchat’s audience skews strongly young, which is exactly why it matters for businesses trying to reach teenagers and young adults. Under-35s make up roughly three-quarters of its audience (DataReportal, 2025), and Snap reports that its ads reach 90% of 13-to-24-year-olds in its major markets.

That demographic concentration is the platform’s defining commercial trait. If your customers are Gen Z or younger millennials, Snapchat reaches them at a scale and frequency few channels match, users open the app more than 30 times a day (Snap for Business). For brands targeting older audiences, the fit is weaker, and platforms like Facebook may serve better, which is worth weighing with our comparison of Instagram vs Facebook for marketing. The practical point is that Snapchat isn’t a general-purpose marketing channel; it’s a precise one, strongest for reaching the young, visually engaged audience that lives on it. For how to actually advertise there, see our guide to Snapchat advertising.

Snapchat vs Instagram vs TikTok: how do they compare?

The three platforms overlap but serve different jobs, and the quickest way to see it is side by side. The table below compares them on audience, format, and best use.

	Snapchat	Instagram	TikTok
Core audience	Skews under 25; camera-and-friends	Broad Gen Z and millennial	Broad; largest single cohort 25–34
Built around	Disappearing snaps, Stories, Spotlight, AR	Photos, Reels, Stories, a polished feed	An algorithmic short-video discovery feed
Discovery	Secondary (Spotlight); friends-first	Hashtags, Explore, Reels	The whole app is discovery
Standout strength	AR Lenses and a private friend graph	Visual brand-building and shopping	Viral reach regardless of follower count
Best for	Reaching Gen Z, AR, close-friend sharing	Brand presence and visual commerce	Trend-driven viral discovery

For a business the takeaway is that they’re complementary, not interchangeable: Snapchat for Gen Z reach and AR, Instagram for a polished brand presence, TikTok for viral discovery. Short vertical video made for one often works across all three, so many brands repurpose a single clip everywhere. To weigh the two Meta platforms specifically, see our comparison of Instagram vs Facebook for marketing.

Frequently asked questions

Is Snapchat still popular in 2026?

Yes, very. Snapchat has 483 million daily active users and around 956 million monthly users (Snap Inc., 2026), both up year on year. While it competes with TikTok and Instagram for younger users’ attention, it remains one of the most-used apps among teens and young adults, who open it dozens of times a day. Its disappearing-content model and AR features keep it distinct from feed-based rivals, which is part of why it has stayed relevant rather than being absorbed by them.

How is Snapchat different from Instagram or TikTok?

Snapchat opens to the camera, not a feed, and most of its content disappears, which makes it feel more like private messaging than public broadcasting. Instagram and TikTok are feed-first and built around permanent, discoverable posts and algorithmic recommendation; Snapchat is built around talking to people you already know, with stories and Spotlight as secondary discovery. It also pioneered AR lenses and the friend-map concept. In short, Snapchat is closer to a camera and messaging app with social features, where the others are closer to content-discovery platforms.

Do snaps really disappear forever?

By default, yes, snaps are designed to delete after viewing, but with caveats. Recipients can screenshot or photograph a snap with another device, and Snapchat notifies you of screenshots but can’t prevent them. Some content can be saved deliberately (to Memories, or by both people in a chat). So treat “disappearing” as the normal behaviour, not a guarantee of secrecy: don’t send anything you’d be uncomfortable existing if someone captured it. The temporary design encourages casual sharing, but it isn’t a substitute for real privacy.

Is Snapchat safe to use?

Snapchat has solid privacy and safety controls, but like any social app, safety depends on using them. Location sharing on Snap Map is off by default, you control who can contact you and view your stories, and there are tools to report and block users. For younger users especially, it’s worth reviewing privacy settings, keeping the friend list to people you know, and using Ghost Mode on the map. The disappearing-content model can create a false sense of security, so the same caution about what you share applies as on any platform.

Final thoughts

Snapchat is best understood as a camera-first, in-the-moment app rather than another feed: snaps and stories for casual sharing, lenses and Snap Map for the playful, location-aware features it pioneered. With 483 million daily users concentrated among the young, it remains one of the most significant social platforms, especially if that’s the audience you care about.

For most people it’s a fun, low-pressure way to stay in touch; for businesses it’s a precise channel for reaching teens and young adults. Whichever applies to you, the features above are the foundation. To go deeper, see our guides to Snapchat advertising, keeping Snapchat streaks, and finding and adding friends.

Instagram vs. Facebook: which is better for marketing?

Neither platform is universally better; the right choice depends on your audience’s age and your content. Instagram wins for younger, visually driven audiences and brand building, while Facebook wins for broader reach across older age groups and sophisticated ad targeting. Both run on Meta’s shared advertising system, so the real question isn’t which is stronger, it’s which one your customers actually use and which suits what you have to post.

Key Takeaways

• Facebook reaches about 2.39 billion users with ads each month; Instagram reaches about 1.99 billion (DataReportal, 2026).
• Instagram skews young: 80% of US 18-29s use it, versus 19% of those 65+; Facebook peaks among 30-49s (Pew Research, 2025).
• Marketers rate Facebook highest for ROI (54%), with Instagram second (43%) (Statista via Sprout Social, 2025).
• For most businesses a combined approach beats choosing just one.

Both platforms are enormous and both belong to Meta, so you’re not choosing between rival companies, you’re allocating effort between two channels with different strengths. This guide compares them on audience, reach, engagement, content, and advertising, then helps you decide, complementing our wider work on getting found online through SEO services.

The table below summarises how they differ.

Factor	Instagram	Facebook
Core audience	18-34, visually driven	Broad, skews 30+
Monthly ad reach	~1.99 billion	~2.39 billion
Content strength	Photos, Reels, Stories	Text, video, links, Groups
Engagement	Higher per post	Lower, but huge scale
Best for	Brand building, younger reach	Broad reach, ad targeting, community

How do the audiences differ?

The audiences differ most by age: Instagram skews young while Facebook reaches a broader, older spread, which is the single biggest factor in choosing between them. If your customers are teenagers and young adults, Instagram is where they are; if you need to reach people across all age groups, including 40s and up, Facebook’s spread is hard to match.

The data is clear. Among US adults, 80% of 18-29 year-olds use Instagram, falling to just 19% of those 65 and older, while Facebook usage peaks among 30-49 year-olds at 80% (Pew Research, 2025). Overall US adult reach is higher for Facebook (71%) than Instagram (50%), but Facebook is notably weaker with teenagers, who have largely moved to Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube. Instagram also skews slightly female among US adults.

Both platforms are massive in absolute terms. Meta’s family of apps reaches 3.54 billion daily active people on average (Meta, 2025), so neither is short of audience. The decision is about which slice of that audience matches your customers, not which is bigger overall.

Which platform gets more reach and engagement?

Facebook delivers more raw reach, while Instagram delivers higher engagement per post, so the better metric depends on your goal. Facebook’s larger ad audience (about 2.39 billion monthly, versus Instagram’s 1.99 billion) means more potential eyeballs (DataReportal, 2026), but Instagram users interact more actively with the content they see.

On organic reach, both have declined as algorithms prioritise content from friends over brands, and Facebook’s brand reach in particular is now low without paid support. Instagram holds up better for genuinely engaging visual content, though its engagement has softened too: the median Instagram post sees about 0.48% engagement, with carousels (0.55%) and Reels (0.52%) outperforming static images (0.37%) (Socialinsider, 2025). The practical reading is that format matters: video and multi-image posts pull ahead of single photos.

For most brands, organic reach alone won’t carry results on either platform anymore. Both increasingly reward paid promotion, which is where Facebook’s targeting and Instagram’s visual formats each earn their place.

What content works best on each platform?

Instagram rewards polished visual content (high-quality images, Reels, and Stories), while Facebook rewards variety (text, links, video, and community discussion). Matching your content to the platform’s strength is what separates accounts that grow from ones that stall.

On Instagram, lead with strong visuals and short video. Reels drive a large share of time on the platform and reach beyond your followers, Stories keep your regular audience engaged with timely or behind-the-scenes content, and carousels are the highest-engagement feed format. A consistent visual identity and well-chosen hashtags help discovery. If your business is visual, fashion, food, design, travel, fitness, Instagram plays to that directly.

On Facebook, the strength is range and community. It handles text posts, links, long-form video, and external articles in a way Instagram doesn’t, and Facebook Groups remain one of the most effective tools on either platform for building an engaged community around your brand. Live video and Events add real-time and promotional formats. If your strategy depends on sharing links, sparking discussion, or reaching a broad age range with mixed content, Facebook’s flexibility is the advantage.

Which platform offers better advertising and ROI?

Facebook generally offers better advertising value for broad, targeted campaigns, while Instagram delivers strong returns for visually driven brand campaigns, and both run through the same Meta Ads system. Marketers rate Facebook highest for ROI (54%), with Instagram close behind at 43% (Statista via Sprout Social, 2025), which reflects their complementary strengths rather than a clear winner.

Because both platforms share Meta’s targeting and Ads Manager, you can run a single campaign across both and let the system optimise placement. Facebook’s edge is its broad reach and the depth of its targeting and ad formats (Carousel, Video, Lead Ads), which make it cost-effective for reaching defined audiences at scale. Instagram’s edge is immersive visual placements, Story Ads, Feed Ads, and Shoppable Posts, that suit brands whose products sell on how they look, and a large share of Instagram ads now run on Reels. Instagram clicks can cost more, but visual brands often see that repaid in stronger engagement and brand lift.

The practical takeaway: you don’t have to choose your ad platform up front. Run across both through Meta Ads, watch which placements perform for your specific goal, and shift budget toward what works.

How do Facebook and Instagram ad costs compare?

Facebook and Instagram share the same auction and Ads Manager, so their costs move together, but Instagram placements often carry a slightly higher CPM (cost per 1,000 impressions) while Facebook frequently delivers a lower cost per click and cost per result, especially for link-driven campaigns. The reason is competition and intent: Instagram’s visual, younger inventory is in high demand and built for awareness, while Facebook’s broader inventory and link formats convert clicks more cheaply.

Two caveats matter more than any headline number. First, absolute costs vary enormously by industry, audience, country, season, and ad quality, the same campaign can cost very differently in fashion versus B2B, or in Q4 versus January, so any published “average CPM” is only a loose guide. Second, cheaper impressions aren’t the goal; cost per result is. Instagram’s higher CPM is often repaid for visual brands through stronger engagement and brand lift, while Facebook’s cheaper clicks suit direct response and lead generation. Because both run through one auction, the practical approach is to run across both with Advantage+ placements, then read your own cost-per-result by placement and shift budget to whichever delivers, rather than deciding on generic benchmarks.

Where does TikTok fit for under-25 audiences?

If your audience skews under 25, the honest answer is that the Instagram-versus-Facebook question is increasingly a three-way one, because TikTok now competes hard for that age group’s attention. Facebook barely registers with teens, and even Instagram shares its youngest users with TikTok, which has become a primary discovery and short-video platform for under-25s.

For a brand targeting that demographic, the practical reading is: Facebook is rarely the priority, Instagram (especially Reels) remains essential for reaching young adults and for shoppable visual content, and TikTok is worth testing as the discovery engine where younger audiences first find brands. The three aren’t mutually exclusive, short vertical video made for one often works on the others, so many brands repurpose a single clip across Reels, TikTok, and YouTube Shorts. This guide focuses on the two Meta platforms because they share an ad system and are the usual starting decision, but if your customers are Gen Z, treat TikTok as a serious third channel rather than an afterthought.

Which platform suits your business type?

The quickest way to decide is to match the platform to your business type and audience rather than weighing every feature. The table below gives a starting recommendation; treat it as a default to test, not a rule.

Your business	Lead with	Why
Visual product, young audience (fashion, beauty, food, fitness)	Instagram (+ TikTok)	Visual formats and the younger, highly engaged audience
Local service or trade (broad/older audience)	Facebook	Broad local reach, Groups, Events, reviews
B2B / professional services	Facebook (+ LinkedIn off-Meta)	Targeting depth and older decision-makers; Instagram is weak for B2B
Community-driven brand	Facebook (Groups)	Groups are the strongest community tool on either platform
Ecommerce / D2C	Both	Instagram for discovery and shopping, Facebook for retargeting and reach
Content or link publisher	Facebook	Handles links and long-form far better than Instagram

Whatever the starting point, the principle from the rest of this guide holds: confirm with your own audience data, and because both run on Meta Ads, you can run across both and let results refine the split.

Should you use both Instagram and Facebook?

For most businesses, yes: using both lets you reach a wider age range and run more complete campaigns, since they share an ad system and complement each other’s strengths. Rather than an either/or decision, treat them as two channels in one strategy, with content suited to each.

A combined approach works because the platforms cover different audiences and formats from a single Meta account. Use Instagram for visual brand building and reaching younger customers; use Facebook for broad reach, community through Groups, and link-driven content for older audiences. Cross-promote between them, run ads across both through Meta Ads Manager, and use the insights from each to sharpen the other. The main reason to focus on just one is limited time or a sharply defined audience, for example a youth-focused brand that should put its energy into Instagram, or a community organisation whose members live in Facebook Groups. If you can sustain both well, doing so almost always beats picking one.

Frequently asked questions

Which platform is better for a small business?

It depends on your customers and your content, not your size. A visual small business reaching younger buyers (a boutique, a cafe, a fitness studio) will usually do best starting on Instagram. A local service or community-focused business reaching a broad or older audience often gets more from Facebook, especially its Groups and Events. If you’re time-limited, pick the one where your customers clearly are and do it well, rather than spreading thin across both. You can always add the second platform once the first is working.

Are Instagram and Facebook the same company?

Yes. Both are owned by Meta, which is why they share an advertising system (Meta Ads Manager), cross-posting tools, and overlapping features. This is an advantage for marketers: you can manage ads for both from one place, run unified campaigns, and let Meta optimise placement across them. It also means audience and ad-targeting data flow between them. So while they’re separate apps with different cultures and strengths, behind the scenes they’re one platform, which makes using both together straightforward.

Is organic reach still worth it on Facebook and Instagram?

It’s worth it, but it rarely carries results alone anymore. Both platforms’ algorithms favour content from friends and family over brands, so organic brand reach has declined, more sharply on Facebook than Instagram. Engaging visual content, especially Reels and carousels on Instagram, still earns meaningful organic reach, and Facebook Groups remain strong for organic community engagement. The realistic approach is to build an organic presence for trust and community while using paid promotion to reach beyond your existing followers.

How do I know where my audience is?

Check your own data and your customers’ demographics. Instagram Insights and Facebook Page Insights both show your followers’ age, location, and active times; Google Analytics shows which social platforms send traffic to your site. Combine that with what you know about your customers: if they’re mostly under 35 and visually engaged, Instagram; if they span a broad or older age range, Facebook. Looking at where similar businesses get the most engagement also helps. Let the data, not assumptions, decide where you focus.

Final thoughts

Instagram versus Facebook isn’t a contest with one winner; it’s a question of fit. Instagram is your platform for younger, visually engaged audiences and brand building, while Facebook gives you broader reach across age groups, deeper community tools, and ad targeting at scale. Both run on Meta’s shared system, so they’re more partners than rivals.

For most businesses the strongest move is to use both, with content matched to each platform’s strengths, while letting your audience data decide where to concentrate. Start where your customers clearly are, measure what converts, and expand from there. To pair your social presence with durable traffic from search, see our approach to SEO services.

What is unused JavaScript, and why does reducing it matter?

Unused JavaScript is code your browser downloads and parses but never actually runs on a given page, and reducing it makes your site load faster, respond quicker, and rank better. Most of that dead weight comes from third-party scripts, large libraries where you use one small feature, and plugins that load their code on every page whether it’s needed or not. The browser still has to fetch, parse, and compile all of it before it can get on with showing your page, so every unused kilobyte is pure cost with no benefit.

Key Takeaways

• The median web page ships 558 KB of JavaScript on mobile, and about 206 KB of it (44%) goes unused during load (HTTP Archive Web Almanac, 2024).
• Unused JavaScript hurts the most where it counts: it delays interactivity (INP) and slows your largest content paint (LCP).
• Removing it improves Core Web Vitals, SEO, bandwidth costs, mobile experience, and security at once.
• You find it with Chrome’s Coverage panel and fix it with code splitting, deferral, and removing scripts you don’t use.

About half of the JavaScript on a typical page is doing nothing for the user. That’s not a rounding error, it’s the single biggest, most ignored chunk of waste in front-end performance. This guide explains the concrete benefits of trimming it, then shows you how to find and remove it, building on our wider guide to improving Core Web Vitals.

The table below maps each benefit to why it happens.

Benefit	What changes	Why it happens
Faster loading	Lower LCP	Fewer, smaller files to fetch and parse
Better responsiveness	Lower INP	Less script tying up the main thread
Improved SEO	Stronger Core Web Vitals	Google assesses page experience on field data
Lower bandwidth	Smaller payloads	Fewer bytes transferred per visit
Better mobile performance	Faster on weak devices	Less to download and execute on slow CPUs
Tighter security	Smaller attack surface	Fewer third-party scripts to exploit

How does reducing unused JavaScript speed up loading?

Reducing unused JavaScript speeds up loading because the browser spends less time downloading, parsing, and compiling code before it can render your page. JavaScript is one of the most expensive resources on the web, byte for byte, because unlike an image it has to be parsed and executed, not just decoded. The median mobile page already ships 558 KB of it, and that figure rose 14% in a single year (HTTP Archive Web Almanac, 2024).

The metric most affected is Largest Contentful Paint (LCP), which measures how long until the largest visible element appears, and good is 2.5 seconds or less at the 75th percentile (web.dev). Render-blocking and long-parsing scripts push LCP out because the browser is busy with JavaScript instead of painting content. Cutting the unused portion directly shortens that critical path. If render-blocking is your specific problem, our guide to eliminating render-blocking resources covers the deferral techniques in detail.

Speed isn’t a vanity metric, it’s tied to whether people stay. As mobile page load goes from one second to ten, the probability of a visitor bouncing rises 123% (Think with Google, 2018). Less JavaScript to process is one of the most direct ways to keep that number down.

How does it improve responsiveness and INP?

Reducing unused JavaScript improves responsiveness because less code competes for the browser’s main thread, the single thread that handles both running scripts and reacting to taps and clicks. When that thread is busy evaluating JavaScript, interactions queue up and the page feels laggy. This is measured by Interaction to Next Paint (INP), where good is 200 milliseconds or less; INP replaced the older First Input Delay metric as a Core Web Vital on 12 March 2024 (web.dev).

The mechanism is “long tasks.” Any task that occupies the main thread for more than 50 milliseconds is a long task, and while one runs, the interface can’t respond (web.dev). Interactions during page load are especially vulnerable, because the browser is busy evaluating scripts exactly when a user might first try to tap something. Most unused JavaScript still gets parsed and compiled during load, so it inflates those long tasks even though its functions never fire.

Removing it shortens and breaks up the work, so the main thread is free more often to answer the user. A page can have a perfect LCP and still feel broken if INP is poor, which is why trimming script is one of the highest-impact things you can do for perceived speed.

Does reducing unused JavaScript help SEO?

Yes. Reducing unused JavaScript helps SEO because Google uses Core Web Vitals as a page-experience ranking signal, and the metrics it grades, LCP and INP, are exactly the ones unused script degrades. A faster, more responsive page is more likely to pass the thresholds Google measures on real-user field data, not just lab tests.

There are three connected gains. First, faster pages clear the Core Web Vitals bar, which feeds into rankings. Second, a quick, responsive site keeps visitors engaged, and engagement signals reinforce that your page satisfied the query. Third, lighter pages are cheaper for search bots to crawl and render, so your important content gets indexed more reliably. None of these is a magic ranking lever on its own, but together they remove a real handicap. If you want to measure where you stand before changing anything, our guide to reading your site’s speed with Core Web Vitals walks through the tools.

What are the other benefits: bandwidth, mobile, and security?

Beyond speed and SEO, reducing unused JavaScript lowers bandwidth costs, improves mobile performance, and shrinks your security attack surface. These follow from the same root cause: less code shipped means less to transfer, less to execute, and fewer places for things to go wrong.

On bandwidth, every visit transfers smaller files, which matters at scale for your hosting bills and for visitors on metered mobile data. On mobile performance specifically, the gains are amplified because phones have slower CPUs and less stable connections than desktops, so the parse-and-execute cost of JavaScript hits hardest there, precisely where most of your traffic now is. On security, much unused JavaScript arrives via third-party scripts and dependencies, each of which is a potential entry point; removing what you don’t use cuts the number of moving parts an attacker could exploit and the number of packages you have to keep patched. Cleaner dependencies also mean simpler maintenance, fewer bugs to chase, and faster updates.

How do you find and remove unused JavaScript?

You find unused JavaScript with Chrome DevTools’ Coverage panel and remove it through code splitting, deferral, and cutting scripts you don’t need. The workflow is measure, then act, then re-measure, so you’re fixing real waste rather than guessing.

To find it, open Chrome DevTools, run the Coverage tool, and reload the page. It reports each script’s unused bytes as a red-and-green bar, showing exactly which files ship code the page never runs. Lighthouse and PageSpeed Insights also flag “Reduce unused JavaScript” with the specific files and estimated savings.

To remove it, work through these in order:

1. Audit your plugins and third-party tags. On most sites the biggest culprits are analytics, chat widgets, and plugins that load their scripts site-wide. Remove what you don’t use and load the rest only on pages that need them.
2. Use code splitting. Break large bundles so each page loads only the code it actually uses, instead of one giant file for the whole site. Modern build tools (Webpack, Vite, and most frameworks) support this directly.
3. Defer and lazy-load. Add defer or async to non-critical scripts, and load below-the-fold or interaction-triggered code only when it’s needed, not during the initial render.
4. Tree-shake your dependencies. Tree shaking removes unused exports from libraries at build time. Importing one helper from a large utility library shouldn’t ship the whole thing.
5. Re-measure in the field. After each change, confirm the lab improvement in PageSpeed Insights, then watch your field data over the following weeks to confirm it for real users.

Done in this order, you get the largest wins first (usually the plugin and third-party audit) before spending effort on build-tooling refinements.

How do you audit unused JavaScript on WordPress, Shopify, and WooCommerce?

The biggest sources of unused JavaScript are usually platform-specific, so where you look depends on what you run. The method is the same everywhere, use Chrome’s Coverage panel to see which scripts go unused, then trace each back to its source, but the usual culprits differ.

• WordPress: plugins are the prime offender. Many load their CSS and JS on every page, even ones that don’t use them (a contact-form or slider script running site-wide). Audit your active plugins, remove what you don’t need, and use a performance plugin (or an asset-manager like Asset CleanUp or Perfmatters) to stop plugin scripts loading where they aren’t used.
• Shopify: the weight comes from the theme and installed apps. Each app often injects its own script into every page through the theme; remove apps you no longer use (uninstalling doesn’t always strip leftover code, so check the theme for orphaned snippets), and prefer apps that load only on the pages they serve.
• WooCommerce: it loads cart, checkout, and WooCommerce scripts on all pages by default, even your blog. Restrict those scripts to the store pages that actually need them, and audit extensions the same way as WordPress plugins.

The common thread is conditional loading: ship each script only where it’s used. Because so much of this dead weight arrives via third-party tools, pair this with the tactics below and our guide to minimising third-party impact.

How do you manage third-party scripts (tag managers, chat widgets)?

Third-party scripts, analytics, tag managers, chat widgets, and ad pixels, are often the largest chunk of unused JavaScript, because they load on every page and you don’t control how efficiently they’re written. Managing them deliberately is usually the single biggest win.

A few habits keep them in check. Audit your tag manager (Google Tag Manager and similar) and remove tags for campaigns, pixels, and tests that are no longer live, since containers accumulate dead tags over time. Load heavy widgets only when needed: a chat widget or video embed can use a lightweight “facade”, a placeholder that loads the real script only when the user clicks it, so it costs nothing on first load. Defer non-essential third-party scripts so they run after the page is interactive, and scope each tag to fire only on the pages where it’s needed rather than site-wide. Anything stable you can safely self-host removes an external connection too. Our dedicated guide to minimising third-party impact covers the auditing, facades, and performance-budget approach in full.

Frequently asked questions

How much unused JavaScript is normal?

A lot, unfortunately. At the median, mobile pages ship 558 KB of JavaScript and around 206 KB of that, about 44%, goes unused during load (HTTP Archive Web Almanac, 2024). So roughly half being unused is typical, not exceptional. That’s why it’s worth auditing: most sites have a meaningful amount to cut, and the heaviest pages carry far more. Treat anything PageSpeed Insights flags under “Reduce unused JavaScript” as a starting list rather than an edge case.

Will removing unused JavaScript break my site?

It can if you remove code that’s used on some pages but not the one you tested, so change carefully. Unused on one page doesn’t mean unused everywhere. The safe approach is to load scripts only where they’re needed rather than deleting them outright, test interactive features after each change, and lean on code splitting and conditional loading instead of blanket removal. Deferring non-critical scripts is lower-risk than deleting, and gives most of the speed benefit.

What’s the difference between unused and render-blocking JavaScript?

Unused JavaScript is code that downloads but never runs; render-blocking JavaScript is code that stops the browser from displaying the page until it has loaded and executed. They overlap but aren’t the same: a script can run (so it’s “used”) yet still block rendering, and unused code adds parse cost even when it isn’t render-blocking. You handle unused code by removing or splitting it, and render-blocking code by deferring it, as our guide to eliminating render-blocking resources explains.

Which tools measure unused JavaScript?

Chrome DevTools’ Coverage panel is the most direct: it shows unused bytes per file as you load and interact with a page. Lighthouse and Google PageSpeed Insights both run a “Reduce unused JavaScript” audit that lists the offending files with estimated savings, and PageSpeed Insights adds real-user field data so you can see whether a fix improved things for actual visitors. Start with PageSpeed Insights for the headline issues, then use Coverage to pinpoint exactly which code to cut.

Final thoughts

Reducing unused JavaScript is one of the highest-impact, lowest-glamour performance wins available, because about half the script on a typical page is doing nothing while still costing you load time, responsiveness, bandwidth, and security exposure. The benefits all trace back to one idea: ship less code, and the browser has less to download, parse, and run before it can serve your visitor.

Start by measuring, audit your plugins and third-party scripts first since they’re usually the biggest offenders, then split, defer, and tree-shake what remains, confirming each change in the field. For the full performance picture and the metric-by-metric fixes, pair this with our guide to improving Core Web Vitals.

How do you convert WebP to PNG?

You convert WebP to PNG in one of three ways: an online converter, your computer’s built-in image apps, or a command-line tool, depending on how many files you have and how often you do it. WebP and PNG are both common web image formats, but PNG has broader support in older software and tools (MDN). The quickest option for a single file is an online converter or your operating system’s built-in image viewer; for many files at once, the command line is fastest.

Key Takeaways

• You can convert WebP to PNG online, with built-in apps like Preview (Mac) or Paint (Windows), or via the command line.
• WebP is a Google format that’s often 25 to 34% smaller than JPEG, which is why sites use it (Google).
• PNG is a lossless format with universal support and transparency, making it ideal for editing and compatibility (MDN).
• Converting WebP to PNG usually increases the file size, because PNG is lossless and less compressed.
• For many files, a command-line tool like ImageMagick converts them in one batch (ImageMagick).

This guide walks through each conversion method step by step, then explains what to watch out for and when each format is the right choice. It’s a companion to our wider guide on choosing the right image file type.

What is WebP?

WebP is an image format developed by Google that supports both lossy and lossless compression, transparency, and animation, designed to make web images smaller without losing visible quality (Google). Google’s own figures put lossy WebP at roughly 25 to 34% smaller than comparable JPEG files, and lossless WebP around 26% smaller than PNG.

That size advantage is why WebP became common across the web: smaller images load faster, which improves performance and Core Web Vitals. WebP is now supported in all major browsers, including Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Safari (MDN). The catch is outside the browser: some older desktop software, editing tools, and systems still don’t open WebP files, which is the usual reason people need to convert one to PNG.

What is PNG?

PNG (Portable Network Graphics) is a lossless raster image format that supports transparency and is universally supported across browsers, operating systems, and editing software (MDN). Being lossless means it preserves every pixel exactly, with no compression artefacts, which makes it the standard for graphics, logos, screenshots, and any image you’ll edit repeatedly.

The trade-off is file size. Because PNG doesn’t discard data the way lossy formats do, PNG files are typically larger than the equivalent WebP or JPEG. That’s a fair price for images where quality and compatibility matter more than download size, which is exactly the situation when you’re converting a WebP for editing or sharing. PNG’s combination of lossless quality, alpha transparency, and support everywhere is why it remains the safe, universal choice.

What’s the difference between WebP and PNG?

The core difference is that WebP is built for small file sizes on the web, while PNG is built for lossless quality and universal compatibility (Google). They overlap in features, both support transparency, but they’re optimised for opposite priorities, which is why each suits different situations.

WebP offers both lossy and lossless modes, supports transparency and animation, and produces noticeably smaller files, around 25 to 34% smaller than JPEG in Google’s figures. That makes it ideal for serving images on a live website where load speed matters. PNG, by contrast, is always lossless, supports transparency through a reliable alpha channel, and opens in essentially every program and platform ever made, but its files are larger. WebP’s weakness is support outside the browser: some desktop software and older systems still can’t open it. PNG’s weakness is size: it’s heavier to download. Put simply, WebP wins on efficiency and PNG wins on compatibility and editing, which is exactly why converting between them is so common. You pick the format that matches the job rather than treating one as universally better.

Why would you convert WebP to PNG?

You’d convert WebP to PNG mainly for compatibility: many editing tools, older systems, and some platforms still don’t fully support WebP, while PNG works almost everywhere (MDN). If you’ve downloaded a WebP image and your software won’t open it, conversion is the fix.

The common reasons are practical:

• Software compatibility. Some image editors and design tools don’t open WebP, but all of them handle PNG.
• Editing. PNG is lossless, so it’s better suited to images you’ll edit and re-save repeatedly without accumulating compression damage.
• Transparency you can rely on. PNG’s alpha transparency is universally supported, which matters for logos and graphics.
• Sharing and uploading. Some older platforms or systems reject WebP uploads but accept PNG.
• Printing and archiving. PNG’s lossless quality and broad support make it a safer choice for long-term storage and print.

In short, you convert when you need compatibility or lossless editing rather than the smallest possible file. For the web itself, WebP is usually the better format to keep.

What are the best tools to convert WebP to PNG?

The best tool depends on volume: online converters and built-in apps suit one or a few files, while command-line tools handle batches (ImageMagick). You almost certainly already have at least one option available without installing anything. The table below summarises the main routes.

Method	Tools	Best for
Online converter	Squoosh, CloudConvert	A single file, no install
Built-in app (Mac)	Preview	Quick conversion on macOS
Built-in app (Windows)	Paint, Photos	Quick conversion on Windows
Image editor	GIMP, Photoshop	When you’re already editing the image
Command line	ImageMagick, dwebp	Many files at once (batch)

Each has its place. Online tools are the fastest for a one-off when you don’t want to install anything, though you should avoid uploading sensitive images to third-party sites. Built-in apps keep the file on your machine and need no setup. Image editors make sense when you’re working on the image anyway. And the command line is unbeatable for converting dozens or hundreds of files in a single step. The sections below cover each method in detail.

How do you convert WebP to PNG online?

To convert WebP to PNG online, upload the file to a browser-based converter such as Squoosh or CloudConvert, choose PNG as the output, and download the result (Google). It’s the quickest route for a single image when you don’t want to install software.

The steps are the same across most online tools:

1. Open the converter in your browser.
2. Upload or drag in your WebP file.
3. Select PNG as the output format.
4. Start the conversion.
5. Download the resulting PNG.

A couple of cautions apply. First, don’t upload confidential or sensitive images to a third-party website, since you’re handing the file to an external service; use a local method for anything private. Second, free online converters sometimes limit file size or the number of conversions, so for many files a built-in or command-line method is more practical. For a quick, one-off public image, though, an online converter is hard to beat for convenience.

How do you convert WebP to PNG on your computer?

You can convert WebP to PNG without any extra software using your operating system’s built-in apps: Preview on macOS or Paint and Photos on Windows (MDN). This keeps the file on your machine, which is the safer choice for anything private.

On macOS, open the WebP file in Preview, choose File then Export, select PNG from the format menu, and save. Preview handles WebP natively on recent macOS versions. On Windows, open the file in Paint, choose File then Save as, and pick PNG; the Photos app offers a similar option. If you use an image editor like GIMP (free) or Photoshop, the process is the same: open the WebP, then export or save as PNG. These methods are ideal when you have one or a few files and want to keep everything local. They’re slower than the command line for large numbers of files, but for everyday conversions they’re more than enough and require nothing extra to install.

How do you convert WebP to PNG with the command line?

For converting many files at once, the command line is fastest, and ImageMagick is the standard tool for the job (ImageMagick). Once installed, a single command converts one file, and a short loop converts an entire folder.

To convert a single file with ImageMagick:

magick input.webp output.png

To convert every WebP file in the current folder to PNG, use a simple loop (this example is for macOS or Linux shells):

for f in *.webp; do magick "$f" "${f%.webp}.png"; done

Google also provides a dedicated WebP decoder called dwebp, which converts a WebP straight to PNG:

dwebp input.webp -o output.png

The command line has a learning curve, but for batch work it’s transformative: converting a hundred images takes the same single command as converting one. It’s also scriptable, so you can build it into an automated workflow. If you regularly handle large numbers of images, learning this one command pays for itself quickly. For occasional single files, though, the built-in apps above are simpler.

How do you convert PNG back to WebP for the web?

Since WebP is the better format for a live website, you’ll often want to go the other way too, converting PNG to WebP, and Google’s cwebp tool does exactly that (Google). The workflow of keeping lossless PNG source files and exporting WebP for the web is common, so it’s worth knowing both directions.

The cwebp command-line tool converts a PNG to WebP:

cwebp -q 80 input.png -o output.webp

The -q 80 sets quality (0 to 100); around 75 to 85 is a good balance of quality and size for most web images. ImageMagick handles it too, with the same syntax pattern as before:

magick input.png output.webp

Most modern image editors and build tools can also export or generate WebP automatically, and many content management systems now create WebP versions of uploaded images for you. The reason to bother is performance: serving WebP instead of PNG cuts the download size, which speeds up your pages and helps your Lighthouse score, as covered in our guide to improving your Lighthouse performance score. Keep PNG for your originals and editing; serve WebP to visitors.

What should you watch out for when converting?

The main thing to expect is that the PNG will usually be larger than the WebP, because PNG is lossless and less compressed (Google). That’s normal and expected, not a sign anything went wrong; you’re trading file size for compatibility and lossless quality.

A few other points are worth checking:

• Transparency. If your WebP has transparent areas, make sure your conversion method preserves the alpha channel; PNG supports transparency, but some converters flatten it.
• Quality. Converting from WebP to PNG won’t recover detail the WebP already lost if it was saved as lossy; PNG preserves what’s there, but it can’t restore what’s gone.
• Animation. Animated WebP files don’t convert cleanly to PNG, which is a static format; you’d need APNG or a GIF for animation.
• Batch consistency. When converting many files, spot-check a few outputs to confirm dimensions, transparency, and quality came through as expected.

None of these is a serious obstacle, but knowing them upfront saves confusion, especially the file-size increase, which surprises people who expect conversion to shrink the file rather than grow it.

What are common WebP-to-PNG problems and how do you fix them?

Most conversion problems come down to a few recurring causes: lost transparency, a tool that won’t open WebP, animation that doesn’t carry over, or confusion about file size (MDN). All of them have straightforward fixes once you know what’s happening.

The table below maps the common symptoms to their solutions.

Problem	Cause	Fix
Transparency turned white or black	Converter flattened the alpha channel	Use a tool that preserves transparency (Preview, GIMP, ImageMagick)
Software won’t open the WebP at all	Older app without WebP support	Convert with a built-in app or online tool first, then open the PNG
Animated WebP became a single frame	PNG is a static format	Use APNG or GIF for animation, or extract the frame you need
Output PNG looks no sharper than the WebP	The WebP was already lossy	Expected; PNG can’t restore detail the WebP discarded
Converted file is much larger	PNG is lossless and less compressed	Normal; use WebP if size matters more than compatibility

When a conversion goes wrong, the quickest diagnosis is to open the result and check transparency and dimensions first, since those are the most common casualties. If a batch conversion produced odd results, convert one file manually to confirm the settings, then re-run the batch. And remember that converting can’t improve quality, it can only preserve what’s already in the file, so if the source WebP was low quality, the PNG will match it rather than exceed it.

When should you use WebP versus PNG?

Use WebP for images on the live web where speed matters, and PNG for editing, compatibility, and graphics that need guaranteed lossless quality (web.dev). They’re not rivals so much as tools for different jobs, and most workflows use both. The table below sums up the choice.

Use case	Best format	Why
Images on a live website	WebP	Smaller files, faster loading
Editing and re-saving	PNG	Lossless, no compounding compression
Logos and graphics with transparency	PNG	Universal, reliable transparency
Maximum compatibility	PNG	Opens everywhere
Performance and Core Web Vitals	WebP	Smaller payload improves load time

The practical pattern is to keep your working and source files as PNG (or another lossless format) for editing, then export to WebP for the live site to get the speed benefit. That smaller payload directly helps page performance, which is why image format is part of the wider work in our guide to improving Core Web Vitals and to picking the right format in image file types explained.

How does AVIF compare to WebP and PNG?

AVIF (AV1 Image File Format) is a newer image format that often compresses smaller than WebP at similar quality, making it the current cutting edge for web images, though its tooling and software support still lag WebP’s slightly (web.dev). If WebP replaced JPEG and PNG for many web images, AVIF is the format increasingly doing the same to WebP.

The practical picture is this. AVIF supports both lossy and lossless compression, transparency, and wide colour and HDR, and it typically produces smaller files than WebP for comparable quality, which is its main draw for performance. It is now supported in all major browsers, including Chrome, Firefox, and Safari (MDN). The trade-offs are that AVIF encoding can be slower, and desktop and editing-software support still trails WebP and PNG, so you would convert an AVIF to PNG for the same compatibility reasons covered above. For the live web, the common pattern now is to serve AVIF with a WebP fallback and a PNG or JPEG fallback beneath that, using the HTML <picture> element so each browser gets the best format it supports. For editing and guaranteed compatibility, PNG remains the safe choice.

How do WordPress and other CMSs generate WebP automatically?

Many modern content management systems can create and serve WebP versions of your images automatically, so you upload a PNG or JPEG and the platform handles the conversion, removing the manual step entirely. WordPress added support for uploading and serving WebP images in version 5.8 (WordPress), while automatic conversion of every upload into WebP is provided by performance plugins rather than turned on in core by default.

In practice that gives a WordPress site two routes. You can upload WebP files directly and use them like any other image, or, more conveniently, install a plugin, such as the official Performance Lab plugin’s Modern Image Formats feature, or popular options like EWWW, Imagify, or ShortPixel, that automatically generates WebP (and increasingly AVIF) versions of everything you upload and serves them to supporting browsers (WordPress). Other platforms work similarly, and many hosts and CDNs convert and serve modern formats on the fly. The upshot for most site owners is that you rarely need to convert images by hand for the web at all, the system keeps a compatible original and serves the optimised format automatically. Manual conversion, the focus of this guide, is mainly for the reverse case: getting a WebP file out of the system and into a tool that needs PNG.

Frequently asked questions

Why is my PNG bigger than the original WebP?

Because PNG is lossless and less aggressively compressed than WebP, so it stores more data (Google). WebP was designed to make web images small, often 25 to 34% smaller than JPEG, while PNG prioritises preserving every pixel exactly. A larger PNG after conversion is normal and expected; you’re gaining compatibility and lossless quality in exchange for size.

Does converting WebP to PNG lose quality?

No, the conversion itself doesn’t lose quality, because PNG is lossless and preserves whatever the WebP contained (MDN). However, if the original WebP was saved as lossy, that detail was already discarded and converting to PNG can’t bring it back. PNG keeps exactly what’s in the file at the point of conversion; it doesn’t add or restore anything.

Can I convert WebP to PNG without installing software?

Yes. You can use your operating system’s built-in apps, Preview on macOS or Paint and Photos on Windows, or a browser-based online converter, none of which need an install (MDN). Built-in apps are the safer choice for private images since the file stays on your machine, while online tools are convenient for a quick, non-sensitive one-off.

How do I convert many WebP files to PNG at once?

Use a command-line tool like ImageMagick, which can convert an entire folder with a single loop command (ImageMagick). This is far faster than converting files one by one through an app, and it’s scriptable so you can automate it. For a handful of files, a built-in app is simpler; for dozens or hundreds, the command line is the clear choice.

Should I use WebP or PNG on my website?

For most images on a live website, WebP is the better choice because its smaller file size speeds up loading and helps Core Web Vitals (web.dev). Reserve PNG for graphics that need guaranteed lossless quality or where a tool requires it. A common approach is to keep PNG source files for editing and serve WebP versions to visitors.

Final thoughts

Converting WebP to PNG is straightforward once you match the method to the job: an online converter or built-in app for a single file, and a command-line tool like ImageMagick for batches. The key thing to expect is that the PNG will be larger, since you’re trading WebP’s compression for PNG’s lossless quality and universal compatibility. That trade is exactly why you convert: for editing, for tools that don’t support WebP, and for reliable transparency. For the live web, though, keep using WebP where you can, because its smaller files load faster. To go deeper on choosing formats and on image performance, see our guides to image file types and improving Core Web Vitals. Match the format to the task, lossless PNG for editing and compatibility, compact WebP for the live web, and conversion becomes a routine step rather than a headache.