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WebP is the image format most websites now serve, and it can carry the same hidden data as a JPEG: camera and GPS details in an EXIF chunk, editing history in an XMP chunk, and a Content Credentials manifest. A WebP metadata remover deletes those chunks and clears the flags that announce them, and copies the picture, its transparency and its animation exactly as they were. Add your WebP files above and download clean copies. Nothing is uploaded.
What is inside a WebP file
A WebP file is a RIFF container: a short header followed by chunks, each with a four-character name and a length. Which chunks appear depends on how the file was made.
| Chunk | What it holds | In the clean file |
|---|---|---|
VP8 | A lossy picture | Kept |
VP8L | A lossless picture | Kept |
ALPH | The transparency channel of a lossy picture | Kept |
ANIM, ANMF | Animation settings and the frames | Kept |
ICCP | The colour profile | Kept, so colours do not shift |
VP8X | An extended header with a set of flags | Kept, with the EXIF and XMP flags cleared |
EXIF | Camera and phone details, date and time, GPS | Removed |
XMP | XML metadata: creator tool, edit history, AI source labels | Removed |
C2PA | Content Credentials manifest | Removed |
| Unknown chunks, bytes after the RIFF container | Anything a tool added that WebP does not define | Removed |
As with our other cleaners, the tool keeps a list of what a decoder needs and drops everything else. A new kind of chunk that appears in the future is removed by default instead of slipping through.
The flags byte, and why it has to be cleared
An extended WebP starts with a VP8X chunk whose first byte is a set of flags. They tell a decoder what to expect: a colour profile (0x20), transparency (0x10), an EXIF chunk (0x08), an XMP chunk (0x04) and animation (0x02). If you delete the EXIF chunk but leave the EXIF flag set, the file claims something it no longer has, and some programs reject files like that.
So the tool clears the EXIF and XMP flags when it removes those chunks, and leaves the colour-profile, transparency and animation flags exactly as they were. It also rewrites the container’s total length, so the file stays well formed.
Lossy, lossless, transparent and animated files
The compressed picture inside a VP8 , VP8L or ANMF chunk is copied byte for byte, so none of these cases is re-encoded. We checked each with files from the WebP encoder, adding EXIF, XMP and an ICC profile with ExifTool, then comparing decoded pixels before and after.
| File | Chunks before | Chunks after | Pixels |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lossy | VP8X ICCP VP8 EXIF XMP | VP8X ICCP VP8 | Identical |
| Lossless | VP8X ICCP VP8L EXIF XMP | VP8X ICCP VP8L | Identical |
| Lossy with transparency | VP8X ALPH VP8 EXIF XMP | VP8X ALPH VP8 | Identical |
| Lossless with transparency | VP8X VP8L EXIF XMP | VP8X VP8L | Identical |
| Animated | VP8X ANIM ANMF… plus EXIF | The same, without EXIF | Every frame identical |
Where WebP files pick up metadata
- Converters and encoders. The standard
cwebpencoder copies no metadata unless you ask for it with-metadata, and many web converters follow that habit. Others, and some desktop editors, carry EXIF and XMP across from the source file. - ExifTool and similar tools, which can write EXIF, XMP and ICC data into a WebP file.
- Cameras and apps that save WebP directly, which store the same capture details a JPEG would hold.
- AI tools, which can attach XMP source labels and Content Credentials to what they export.
Do not assume a WebP is clean because it came from a website. If you downloaded the original, or received it as a file, drop it in and look at the list before you share it. Most files show nothing, and the ones that do are worth knowing about.
Other ways to strip a WebP
| Tool | How | Notes |
|---|---|---|
webpmux | webpmux -strip exif in.webp -o out.webp, then the same with xmp | Part of the WebP tools. One kind of metadata per run. Lossless. |
cwebp | -metadata none | Re-encodes from a source image, so it is a conversion, not a clean-up of an existing WebP. |
| ExifTool | exiftool -all= image.webp | Lossless. Removes the colour profile as well unless you put it back. |
| This page | Drop, clean, download | Lossless, keeps the colour profile, shows what was removed and checks the result. |
Clean WebP files in four steps
- Drop the WebP files on the page, or choose them.
- Press Clean. The processing happens in your browser.
- Read the report. EXIF, XMP and Content Credentials are listed by name, and a second scan confirms nothing is left.
- Download the files or a .zip.
Guests clean 1 file at a time, up to 25 MB each and 50 images a day. A free account allows 5 at a time, 25 MB each and 500 a day, and Starter, Pro and Business have no daily limit. If you pick a different output format in the options, for example JPG or PNG, the picture is redrawn and saved again instead of being cleaned in place, which is a conversion and changes the pixels slightly for lossy formats.
To confirm a result yourself, run exiftool -a -G1 -s image-clean.webp. A clean file lists image size and, if present, the colour profile, and no Make, Model, GPS, Creator or Software lines. The image metadata remover covers JPG, PNG and AVIF, and the PNG page explains the equivalent chunks in PNG files.
Look inside before and after
webpmux -info image.webpThat one line is a fast way to tell whether a file carries metadata at all, and it is independent of our report, which makes it a good second opinion.
Many files, or a regular job
The API accepts JPEG, PNG and WebP files and returns the clean file with the number of fields removed and left in the response headers, and the MCP server lets an assistant clean a folder of images on your computer. The guide to cleaning many files at once compares the browser, the API and the assistant.
Frequently asked questions
Does a WebP file have EXIF data?
It can. WebP supports EXIF and XMP chunks, but they are optional, and many WebP files have none. Files converted from camera photos with metadata copying turned on, and files edited by tools that preserve metadata, often do.
Will removing metadata change how the WebP looks?
No. The compressed picture, the transparency channel and the animation frames are copied unchanged, and we checked that decoded pixels are identical for lossy, lossless, transparent and animated files.
Does it keep transparency?
Yes. The alpha channel is stored with the picture data, and the transparency flag in the header is left as it was.
What about animated WebP?
Animated files keep every frame, the timing and the loop setting. Only metadata chunks are removed.
Does it remove C2PA Content Credentials from a WebP?
Yes, when the manifest is stored in the file as a C2PA chunk. A provider may keep a separate online copy, which a file cleaner cannot change.
Is the colour profile removed?
No. The ICCP chunk is kept so colours do not shift. It describes a colour space, not you.
Are my WebP files uploaded?
No. They are cleaned in your browser, and nothing is sent to us.
Can I convert WebP to JPG and clean it at the same time?
Yes, by choosing JPG as the output format. That redraws the picture and saves it again, which removes all metadata but is not a lossless step. For a pure clean-up, keep the format set to Original.