diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index bf0e16f0..b759536d 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 20/6/19 started 8.9.0
 - add vips_image_get/set_array_int()
+- remove support for no-alpha webp images, it didn't work well
 
 24/5/19 started 8.8.1
 - improve realpath() use on older libc
diff --git a/libvips/foreign/webp2vips.c b/libvips/foreign/webp2vips.c
index 695e87c1..95bc8056 100644
--- a/libvips/foreign/webp2vips.c
+++ b/libvips/foreign/webp2vips.c
@@ -20,6 +20,9 @@
  * 30/4/19
  * 	- deprecate shrink, use scale instead, and make it a double ... this
  * 	  lets us do faster and more accurate thumbnailing
+ * 27/6/19
+ * 	- remove non-alpha output: it's very hard to decide if a webp image
+ * 	  really has zero transparency
  */
 
 /*
@@ -107,10 +110,6 @@ typedef struct {
 	int frame_width;
 	int frame_height;
 
-	/* TRUE for RGBA.
-	 */
-	int alpha;
-
 	/* Number of frames in file.
 	 */
 	int frame_count;
@@ -446,11 +445,10 @@ read_header( Read *read, VipsImage *out )
 
 	flags = WebPDemuxGetI( read->demux, WEBP_FF_FORMAT_FLAGS );
 
-	read->alpha = flags & ALPHA_FLAG;
-	if( read->alpha )  
-		read->config.output.colorspace = MODE_RGBA;
-	else
-		read->config.output.colorspace = MODE_RGB;
+	/* The alpha flag says if this square of pixels in this frame has an 
+	 * alpha, not if our output image should have an alpha.
+	 */
+	read->config.output.colorspace = MODE_RGBA;
 
 	if( flags & ANIMATION_FLAG ) { 
 		int loop_count;
@@ -534,8 +532,7 @@ read_header( Read *read, VipsImage *out )
 
 	read->frame = vips_image_new_memory();
 	vips_image_init_fields( read->frame,
-		read->frame_width, read->frame_height,
-		read->alpha ? 4 : 3,
+		read->frame_width, read->frame_height, 4,
 		VIPS_FORMAT_UCHAR, VIPS_CODING_NONE,
 		VIPS_INTERPRETATION_sRGB,
 		1.0, 1.0 );
@@ -545,8 +542,7 @@ read_header( Read *read, VipsImage *out )
 		return( -1 );
 
 	vips_image_init_fields( out,
-		read->width, read->height,
-		read->alpha ? 4 : 3,
+		read->width, read->height, 4,
 		VIPS_FORMAT_UCHAR, VIPS_CODING_NONE,
 		VIPS_INTERPRETATION_sRGB,
 		1.0, 1.0 );
@@ -598,8 +594,7 @@ read_frame( Read *read,
 
 	frame = vips_image_new_memory();
 	vips_image_init_fields( frame,
-		width, height, 
-		read->alpha ? 4 : 3,
+		width, height, 4,
 		VIPS_FORMAT_UCHAR, VIPS_CODING_NONE,
 		VIPS_INTERPRETATION_sRGB,
 		1.0, 1.0 );
diff --git a/test/test-suite/test_foreign.py b/test/test-suite/test_foreign.py
index b260705a..5383040c 100644
--- a/test/test-suite/test_foreign.py
+++ b/test/test-suite/test_foreign.py
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ class TestForeign:
         cls.tempdir = tempfile.mkdtemp()
 
         cls.colour = pyvips.Image.jpegload(JPEG_FILE)
+        cls.rgba = cls.colour.bandjoin(255)
         cls.mono = cls.colour.extract_band(1)
         # we remove the ICC profile: the RGB one will no longer be appropriate
         cls.mono.remove("icc-profile-data")
@@ -463,22 +464,22 @@ class TestForeign:
     def test_webp(self):
         def webp_valid(im):
             a = im(10, 10)
-            assert_almost_equal_objects(a, [71, 166, 236])
+            assert_almost_equal_objects(a, [70, 165, 235, 255])
             assert im.width == 550
             assert im.height == 368
-            assert im.bands == 3
+            assert im.bands == 4
 
         self.file_loader("webpload", WEBP_FILE, webp_valid)
         self.buffer_loader("webpload_buffer", WEBP_FILE, webp_valid)
         self.save_load_buffer("webpsave_buffer", "webpload_buffer",
-                              self.colour, 60)
-        self.save_load("%s.webp", self.colour)
+                              self.rgba, 60)
+        self.save_load("%s.webp", self.rgba)
 
         # test lossless mode
         im = pyvips.Image.new_from_file(WEBP_FILE)
         buf = im.webpsave_buffer(lossless=True)
         im2 = pyvips.Image.new_from_buffer(buf, "")
-        assert im.avg() == im2.avg()
+        assert abs(im.avg() - im2.avg()) < 1
 
         # higher Q should mean a bigger buffer
         b1 = im.webpsave_buffer(Q=10)