ImagePipe never writes to your original media files. When WordPress stores an uploaded image in wp-content/uploads, that file stays exactly as it was uploaded, same bytes, same resolution, same metadata, for as long as it exists in your media library. Every resize, format conversion and compression ImagePipe performs happens on a separate copy, written to its own cache location, never in place.
That separation has a direct consequence: uninstalling ImagePipe, or switching to a different image tool entirely, doesn't put your media library at risk. The original files WordPress already had are still there, untouched, and continue to work normally with whatever theme or plugin references them next. There's no migration step to reverse and nothing to restore from backup.
The cache itself, product_card thumbnails, AVIF variants, watermarked copies, lives independently and can be cleared entirely at any time from the back office, on every tier. Clearing it simply removes the generated variants; the next request for any of them regenerates the file from the still-intact original. Nothing about that operation touches the source image.
In practice this means the decision to try ImagePipe on a live catalog isn't a one-way door. You can test it, compare results, or move on to something else, and your original product photography is never the thing at risk.