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What is a AVIF file?
AVIF is an image format built on the royalty-free AV1 video codec and published in 2019. It generally compresses better than both JPG and WebP at the same perceived quality, and supports transparency, wide colour and HDR. Encoding is slower than the older formats.
At a glance
- Full name
- AV1 Image File Format
- Extensions
- .avif
- Type
- Image
- Introduced
- 2019
- Created by
- Alliance for Open Media
- Compression
- Both
- MIME type
- image/avif
Strengths
- Best compression of the mainstream web image formats
- Supports transparency, wide colour gamut and HDR
- Royalty-free
Limitations
- Encoding is slower and more CPU-hungry than JPG or WebP
- Support outside browsers is still patchy
When to use AVIF
Use it when
You control the delivery pipeline and want the smallest possible web images.
Avoid it when
Files must open in arbitrary desktop applications, or encode time matters more than size.
AVIF conversions
Each page states what the target format cannot carry before you run it.
AVIF compared
Related image formats
Last updated 2026-08-03