How does AVIF compare to WebP?

AVIF (AV1 Image File Format) is the newest and most efficient raster image format for web use, derived from the AV1 video codec developed by the Alliance for Open Media. AVIF achieves 20–50% smaller file sizes compared to JPEG at equivalent visual quality, outperforming even WebP for most photographic content.

AVIF also offers HDR (High Dynamic Range) support, 12-bit colour depth, and both lossy and lossless modes - Capabilities that JPEG simply cannot match. For web developers targeting modern browsers, AVIF represents the state of the art in efficient image delivery. Browser support reached 90%+ in 2024, covering Chrome 85+, Firefox 93+, Edge 121+, and Safari 16+.

The trade-off is encoding time. AVIF encoding is computationally intensive -typically 5–30× slower than JPEG encoding. For online conversion of individual images this is barely noticeable, but for batch processing thousands of images on a server, encoding time becomes significant. AVIF is also not universally supported yet in all email clients and older browsers, where JPG fallbacks remain important.

Reasons to convert JPG to AVIF usually come down to compatibility, file-size, or specific feature requirements. Common situations:

• An app or platform only accepts AVIF uploads.
• You need a feature unique to AVIF (e.g. transparency, vector scaling, animation, multi-page pages, etc.) that JPG doesn't provide.
• You're optimising file size — modern formats often produce smaller files than the older format you started with.
• You need a single archival format across a project so files behave consistently in the same viewer.

1. Open the JPG → AVIF tool on jpg.now.
2. Drag your JPG file onto the drop zone, or click Select files. You can drop a whole folder of files at once.
3. The output is fixed to AVIF. If the format supports extra options (page size, transparency background, quality, EXIF stripping), tweak them in the right-hand panel.
4. Click Convert. The job runs on our server and finishes in a few seconds for typical photos.
5. Download the result. Files stay in storage for 24 hours and are then permanently deleted.

The entire flow is free for the first 10 jobs per day with no signup required. A free account doubles that quota; a premium plan removes the limit entirely.

• Use AVIF for hero images and large photographs on modern websites - It offers the best compression-to-quality ratio of any format.
• Pair AVIF with a JPG fallback in the HTML element for maximum compatibility: browsers that don't support AVIF will use the JPG automatically.
• Target quality 60–75% for AVIF - This typically matches JPEG quality 85–90% at 30–50% smaller file size.
• AVIF encoding is slower than WebP or JPEG - Expect slightly longer conversion times for large images.