What Is AVIF? The Newer Image Format

AVIF is a modern image format that stores AV1-compressed pictures inside an HEIF container, producing noticeably smaller files than JPEG or WebP at the same visual quality. It is open, royalty-free, and comes from the Alliance for Open Media, the same group behind the AV1 video codec that AVIF borrows its compression from.

The short version: AVIF takes the math that makes AV1 video efficient and points it at a single still frame. Mozilla's format guide puts a lossy AVIF at roughly 50% smaller than the same JPEG, and ahead of WebP on median compression. Fewer bytes, same picture, faster page.

Where AVIF comes from

AVIF is two things stacked together. The codec is AV1, the video-compression standard the Alliance for Open Media built as a royalty-free rival to the licensed H.265/HEVC. The container is HEIF, the same wrapper Apple's HEIC photos use, which is why AVIF and HEIC look like cousins. AVIF is what you get when you save one AV1 frame into that container instead of a stream of them.

What AVIF can actually do

AVIF is unusually capable for a single format, which is part of why it is being pushed as a JPEG replacement:

• Lossy or lossless. One format covers both, the way lossless compression and lossy sit in separate formats elsewhere.
• Transparency. It carries a full alpha channel, so cut-outs and soft edges survive, like PNG.
• HDR and wide colour. Higher bit depths and a wider colour gamut, so it can hold brighter highlights and more shades than an 8-bit JPEG.
• Animation. It stores multi-frame sequences, an animated GIF's job done at a fraction of the size.

Which browsers open AVIF

Every current major browser displays AVIF. Support arrived at different times, and the laggard was Edge, which only switched it on in early 2024 despite being built on the same Chromium engine that had it years earlier.

One quirk worth knowing: AVIF does not render progressively, so the browser waits for the whole file before it shows anything, rather than fading in a blurry version first. On a large hero image that can feel slower even when the file is smaller, which is why sites usually pair it with a fallback in a <picture> element.

The catch: everything outside the browser

Browser support is settled; software support is not. Plenty of desktop photo editors, older operating systems, print services, and upload forms still cannot open an AVIF. Encoding one is also slower than encoding a JPEG or WebP, because AV1's compression does more work. So AVIF is excellent for images you control on your own website, and still awkward for a file you need to hand to someone else's software.

Can I make an AVIF on babapic?

Not yet. babapic's converters take JPG, PNG, WebP, and HEIC as input, and none of them read or write AVIF. The closest thing you can make here is WebP, which gives you most of AVIF's page-weight win while opening in even more software. JPG to WebP and PNG to WebP convert a photo or a whole folder in your browser, and if you would rather keep the original format and just cut the size, Compress Image does that. For the wider picture of how these formats relate, our field guide to image formats lays them out side by side.

FAQ

Is AVIF better than WebP?
On file size, usually yes, and on features it is broader, with HDR and higher bit depth WebP lacks. The trade-offs are slower encoding and thinner support in software outside the browser. For most websites either format is a solid win over JPEG.

Is AVIF better than JPEG?
For a modern website, on almost every measure: smaller files, transparency, HDR, and animation. JPEG's one lasting advantage is that it opens in absolutely everything, which still matters when a file leaves your control.

How do I open an AVIF file?
Any current browser will display it, and recent versions of Windows and macOS open it in their photo viewers. If an older program refuses it, the fix is to convert it to JPG or PNG in software that can read AVIF first.