AVIF Format Explained — The Next-Gen Image Format Based on AV1
AVIF explained: AOMedia's 2019 format, AV1 in a HEIF container, 10/12-bit HDR, transparency, royalty-free, 2026 browser support and slow encoding.
AVIF (AV1 Image File Format) is an image format created by the Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia), whose members include Google, Mozilla and Netflix. It compresses an image as a single frame (intra frame) of the royalty-free video codec AV1 and stores it in a HEIF-family container. Specification 1.0.0 was published in February 2019, and after further revisions, 1.2.0 was released in October 2025.
Features
- High compression efficiency: At the same quality, it often comes out smaller than both JPG and WebP. At low bitrates in particular, quality degrades by softly smudging instead of showing JPG-style block artifacts, which is less distracting.
- Wide color and HDR: It can carry 10 or 12 bits per channel and HDR transfer characteristics, making it suitable for photos meant for modern HDR displays.
- Transparency and animation: Supports both alpha channels and image sequences.
- Licensing: Under the AOMedia patent policy it can be used royalty-free, so unlike HEVC-based HEIC, browsers have adopted it widely.
Browser support (as of 2026-09-23)
According to Can I use data, about 95% of browser users worldwide can display AVIF.
| Browser | Supported since | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Chrome | 85 | — |
| Firefox | 93 | Animated AVIF from 113 |
| Safari | 16.4 (partial support in 16.1, macOS 13 or later) | Some 16.x versions lack animation support |
| Edge | 121 | Supported from early 2024 |
File structure and its relationship to HEIC
AVIF uses the same ISO base media file structure as HEIF, so the start of the file has an ftyp box with the brand avif for still images or avis for image sequences. In other words, HEIC and AVIF put images compressed with different codecs (HEVC and AV1) into the same family of boxes. The difference in codec licensing decided the fate of the two formats: browser support for HEVC-based HEIC stayed limited to Safari, while royalty-free AV1-based AVIF was adopted by every major browser.
Android support
According to the Android developer documentation, an AVIF (baseline profile) decoder and encoder are mandatory from Android 14. On older devices, AVIF may not open unless an app bundles its own decoder.
Limitations
- Slow encoding: Compression is computationally heavy, so converting many large photos takes much longer than with JPG or WebP. When encoding in the browser, differences in device performance show clearly.
- No progressive display: According to MDN, AVIF doesn't support progressive rendering that shows a blurry full image first while downloading.
- Tool compatibility: Older editors, viewers and document programs outside the browser sometimes can't open it. Depending on the browser, saving to AVIF from Canvas may not be supported either.
Main uses
Images that are encoded once and delivered many times, such as a website's hero images and photos. The more traffic a site has, the bigger the benefit. It's common to include JPG or WebP fallbacks in a <picture> element for older browsers.
Converting to other formats
- AVIF → JPG/PNG: 10/12-bit and HDR information is reduced to 8-bit sRGB. HDR photos may show clipped highlights or different-looking colors.
- JPG → AVIF: Size drops considerably, but setting quality too low makes skin and textures look smudged. Check the result with the comparison slider.
- Criteria for choosing a format are summarized in JPG vs PNG vs WebP vs AVIF.