AVIF vs WEBP
AVIF makes smaller files than WEBP — often 20–30% smaller again — and handles gradients and dark areas better. WEBP encodes far faster and is supported in more places, which for most sites still makes it the safer default.
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Choose AVIF when
- Large hero images where the saving is worth the encoding time.
- Photographs with skies, shadows or gradients, where WEBP shows banding.
- Sites that can serve a fallback format alongside it.
Choose WEBP when
- Anything that has to encode quickly or in bulk.
- Broad compatibility with older browsers and software.
- Images where the extra saving is a few kilobytes and not worth the complexity.
What AVIF actually is
AVIF is the smallest of the widely supported image formats, often half the size of a JPG that looks the same. It handles high dynamic range, wide colour, transparency and animation, and it degrades more gracefully than JPG when pushed hard.
Reading AVIF is nearly universal; writing it is not. A browser without an encoder quietly hands back a PNG instead of refusing, so the conversion looks as though it worked. Current Chrome on macOS is one of them. This site checks for a real encoder first and says so when there is none.
What WEBP actually is
WEBP does both jobs in one format: a lossy mode that beats JPG at the same visual quality, and a lossless mode that beats PNG. Unlike JPG it keeps an alpha channel, so a lossy image can still have a transparent background, which is the combination the web wanted for twenty years.
A WEBP renamed to .jpg still fails validation, because uploaders read the first bytes of the file rather than the name. Convert it properly.
AVIF and WEBP side by side
| AVIF | WEBP | |
|---|---|---|
| Extension | .avif | .webp |
| Media type | image/avif | image/webp |
| Compression | Lossy | Lossy |
| Transparency | Yes | Yes |
| Animation | No | Yes |
| Quality setting | Yes | Yes |
| We can write it | Yes | Yes |
Questions
Is AVIF worth switching to?
For big images, yes. For thumbnails and interface graphics the saving is often a few kilobytes and the slower encode is not repaid.
Why is AVIF so slow to make?
It is a still frame of AV1 video, and AV1 encoders spend a lot of effort finding the smallest possible result. That work happens once; the download happens every time, which is the trade it is making.