About AVIF
AVIF stores a still image compressed with AV1, a royalty-free video codec built by the Alliance for Open Media, whose members include Google, Apple, Microsoft, Mozilla, Netflix and Amazon. The image format was finalised in 2019. Chrome supported it in 2020, Firefox in 2021, Safari in 2022 and Edge in 2024.
It is the most efficient image format in wide use. Photos are commonly around half the size of an equivalent JPG. It also supports transparency, animation, and high dynamic range with 10 or 12 bits per channel.
The trade-offs
- Encoding is slow. A large photo can take several seconds. Viewing is fast; only conversion is slow.
- Quality numbers run low. A quality of 50 to 60 in AVIF looks roughly like 85 in JPG.
- It degrades smoothly. Push it too far and textures turn soft and painterly rather than blocky.
- Support outside browsers is still growing. Keep a JPG or PNG copy for sharing and editing.
For websites, AVIF with a WebP or JPG fallback in a <picture> element gives modern browsers the smallest files while older ones still see an image.
AVIF at a glance
| First released | 2019 |
|---|---|
| Compression | Lossy (lossless possible) |
| Transparency | Yes |
| Animation or pages | Animation |
| Best for | The smallest images for websites |
| Support | Current browsers; patchy in desktop apps |
Questions people ask
Is AVIF better than WebP?
Usually smaller at the same visual quality, often by 20 percent or more, but slower to encode.
Why does AVIF conversion take a while?
The AV1 encoder does a lot of work to find compact descriptions of the image, and it runs on your own device here.
Can Safari show AVIF?
Yes, from Safari 16 onwards.