What Is AVIF? The Next-Generation Image Format
AVIF is one of the newest widely-discussed image formats, built on the same underlying compression technology as the AV1 video codec, and it generally achieves even smaller file sizes than WEBP for equivalent visual quality — at the cost of being the least universally supported of the modern formats.
Where AVIF's efficiency comes from
AVIF benefits from being built on genuinely newer compression research than either JPG, PNG, or even WEBP — each successive generation of image format tends to find more efficient ways to represent visual information, and AVIF represents the current frontier of that progress. In practical terms, this means an AVIF file can often be meaningfully smaller than a WEBP file at a visually similar quality level, which matters directly for page load speed on image-heavy websites.
The tradeoff: support isn't as universal yet
Being newer means AVIF support, while growing, isn't as broad as WEBP's — some older browsers, certain software, and various platforms don't yet handle it. This is the classic tradeoff with adopting a cutting-edge format early: you get the efficiency benefit, but you take on somewhat more risk of hitting a compatibility gap somewhere in your intended audience.
Where AVIF makes the most sense today
For a website where every bit of load-speed improvement matters and the intended audience skews toward modern browsers, AVIF is worth adopting for at least the most impactful images (like a large hero image). For contexts where broad compatibility matters more than squeezing out the last bit of file size efficiency, WEBP remains a safer middle ground, and JPG or PNG the most universally safe choice of all.
Converting away from AVIF when needed
If you've received or downloaded an AVIF image and need it somewhere that doesn't yet support the format, converting to JPG or PNG trades away some of AVIF's efficiency for much broader compatibility — a reasonable trade whenever the destination doesn't support AVIF directly.
AVIF to JPG and AVIF to PNG both handle this conversion directly in your browser. For the reverse direction or other format pairs, the image converter covers the full range.