waifu2x.net dropped PNG output support

[nagadomi]

Starting in May 2026, Google Cloud Platform's data transfer prices increased.
waifu2x.net uses about 7 TB of bandwidth per month, so this price increase has a significant impact.
To reduce data transfer costs, PNG support has been discontinued, and only lossless WebP is now supported.
PNG is still available in the Supporters Area (patreon members).
You can also open a WebP file in Windows Paint and save it as PNG.

As of 2026, I do not believe WebP causes any practical issues.
If there is a use case where PNG is still necessary, please share it. I would like to take it into consideration.

Technically, it would also be possible to add a browser-side WebP-to-PNG conversion feature. This would solve both the PNG support issue and the bandwidth cost issue at once.
If enough people really need PNG, I am willing to make that change.

---

I am more interested in the specific software that does not support WebP than in opinions about it.
For example, are you using Windows XP? In that case, does your browser also lack WebP support? If so, browser based conversion would not be a practical solution.

---

I plan to add support for browser based conversion later.
EDIT:
This looks more difficult than I expected. Using Canvas for conversion may corrupt assets and other data that require exact formats because of premultiplied alpha. It also cannot preserve formats such as grayscale or grayscale with alpha, channel formats are lost, and ICC profiles are applied and discarded.
I may fall back to PNG only for those special cases.

[GioBenq]

Hi, nagadomi, I'm a user who's been using waifu2x since the end of waifu2x.booru.pics. Ofc yes it's still necessary for me to use PNG option because I have many old pics taken on my Nokia, Sony Ericsson, etc. phones from the past, but some pics are kind of blurred by pixels when I zoom in, so it'll be useful for me to use PNG. Thx.

[nagadomi]

Thank you for the feedback.

Only PNG output (saving) was dropped. PNG input is still supported.
Since WebP is lossless, the image content is identical to PNG. The main issue is that some software does not support WebP.
As of 2026, I believe all major browsers and the default Windows image viewer support it.

I do not see how having old photos is related to the need for PNG output.

[hills90-hash]

Hello,

I primarily use an old version of photoshop that I have a perpetual license for that does not support webp.

Krita also does not support webp.

I also use images to create menus for DVDs and Blue Rays that do not have official physical releases, and the authoring software I use does not support it.

I used this site to upscale art for box art for retro games to use on modded consoles. this is no longer possible either.

I am confused why the choice was made to sacrifice PNG instead of the much less usefull webp.

I took the time to make this github account just to tell you these things, but I imagine most people would not take the time before switching to a different upscaler. While I would hope to have this change reversed, I respect the decision and thank you for maintaining the tool while it was possible.

[nagadomi]

Thank you for the feedback.

The reason for changing from PNG to WebP is simply that WebP produces smaller files. It is purely a matter of cost.
I am interested in whether PNG is still truly necessary and how many people feel that way.

For actively maintained software, please request WebP support from the developers. If the software does not support WebP, that is an issue with the software itself.
You can also open a WebP file in Windows Paint and save it as PNG. So this is something that can be easily handled on the user side.

Technically, it would also be possible to add a browser-side WebP-to-PNG conversion feature. This would solve both the PNG support issue and the bandwidth cost issue at once.
If enough people really need PNG, I am willing to make that change.

[nagadomi]

Krita already supports WebP.
It looks like WebP support across macOS, Windows, and web browsers reached broad platform coverage around 2020-2023. Since WebP is now widely used as a standard web image format, many drawing and image editing applications have added support for it.

[takapgtr]

Hello,

I am one of those who want to continue using PNG files.

After reading your post yesterday, I learned that I could continue using PNGs if I became a Patreon member, so I joined your Patreon membership. I'm sorry I chose the cheapest plan.

After logging in as a patron, the checkbox to select PNG format on the web screen remains missing. Is this because my membership rank is low?
Or is there another way? Like a members-only webpage?

I apologize for bothering you with this question when you're so busy.

[nagadomi]

Hi,
After logging in, please click "Go to Supporter Area"(green link) at the top of the page. On that page, there should be no ads or CAPTCHA, and PNG output should be available as an option.
It uses a separate URL to to avoid auto ads.
That is the page shown when you first log in, but if you have bookmarked the top page, the URL will be different.

[takapgtr]

Thank you for your quick reply.
The issue has been resolved.
Please keep up the good work!

[Kirabeans]

Do you know any other places that do png output because the new file type is completely useless to me as a artist :(
I understand the reasoning but none of my art programs or sites that I post to allow this format.

[BobcatDreams]

Surprised to see that happen. But no loss to me. I assume anyone with half a brain should be able to find a way to convert it to PNG should they absolutely have to.

[The-Only-Hemes]

Hi,
i've been using ur site for a long time and it helped me A TON in upscaling wallpapers and stuff.. the PNG discontinuation was a shock to me as i relied on it heavily cuz of WEBP not being supported.
it'd be amazing if u made some workaround or something and thanks for ur time.

[Kastera-sun]

Hello, I’d like to see PNG output restored.
I use this site as part of my process for creating high-quality icons. If I export as WebP, I can’t complete the subsequent steps. So, could you please restore PNG output?
I used DeepL Translate.

[bcsbaraka]

Where is the PNG feature? It's the primary feature I use after image upscaling in Waifu2x 😢😢

[nagadomi]

I decided to change the behavior as follows:

1. PNG output will be available again.
2. When logged in through Patreon, PNG conversion will be performed on the server as before.
3. On the free site, if browser side PNG conversion is compatible, the server will return WebP and the browser will convert it to PNG. If browser side conversion is not compatible, PNG will be returned directly.

Browser side PNG conversion is considered incompatible in the following cases:

1. Grayscale images (including 16 bit grayscale, L, I;16) or Grayscale images with Alpha channel (LA)
2. Images that contain an ICC profile (Adobe RGB, CMYK, BGR, etc)

Most images do not fall into these categories, so bandwidth usage will be reduced by serving them as WebP.

In environments where WebGL is not available, images with an alpha channel may be affected by premultiplied alpha. However, I expect WebGL to be available in most environments, and very few people are likely to notice this issue.

---

To support these changes, the current behavior of opening results in a separate tab has been replaced. Results are now added inline at the bottom of the page. Click the image to view it at its original size.

There is no separate download button. Click the filename to download the file. You can also right click the link and select "Save Link As".

Note that if you right click the image itself and save it, the browser may use a randomly generated filename. The image content is identical. Only the filename differs.

This change is not live yet, but it will be applied later.

Edit:
The update is now live.
If the page does not display correctly, cached scripts or stylesheets may be the cause. Try a hard refresh (Shift + F5 or Ctrl + F5).

[bcsbaraka]

🎉yeay