About AVIF Files

AVIF Image

Released 2019 By Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia)

AVIF is a next-generation image format based on the AV1 video codec. It offers significantly better compression than JPEG and WebP while maintaining excellent visual quality, including HDR and wide color gamut support.

Family

Raster & Vector Images

Extension

.avif

MIME Type

image/avif

Can Use As

Input Output

The story

HOW AVIF
CAME TO BE.

2018

2019

2020

2021

2022

AVIF — AV1 Image File Format — is the still-image cousin of the AV1 video codec. When the Alliance for Open Media (backed by Google, Amazon, Microsoft, Mozilla, Netflix, Intel and many others) published AV1 in 2018 as a royalty-free successor to HEVC, someone had the obvious idea: if a single video frame already compresses better than JPEG, why not ship it as an image file? The AVIF specification was finalized in February 2019.

Adoption followed quickly on the web. Chrome shipped decoding in August 2020, Firefox in October 2021, and Netflix moved billions of thumbnails over during 2021-2022. Apple, the last major holdout, finally added Safari support in October 2022 with iOS 16 and macOS Ventura. Today AVIF is the format every CDN quietly wants you to use — 30-50% smaller than JPEG at equal perceived quality, with native transparency and HDR.

CURIOSITIES &
TRIVIA.

AVIF files are technically single-frame AV1 video streams — the decoder is the same code used by YouTube for 4K playback.

At the same visual quality, an AVIF photo is typically 30-50% smaller than JPEG and 20% smaller than WebP.

The format supports 12-bit color depth — four times more tones per channel than JPEG — making it HDR-ready.

It can store animations (like GIFs) but nobody uses that feature in practice; APNG and WebP won that battle.

A 4K AVIF photo often fits in under 500 KB — the same shot as JPEG at visually equivalent quality usually exceeds 1.5 MB.

STRENGTHS &
LIMITATIONS.

Strengths

Best-in-class compression efficiency — 30-50% smaller than JPEG for the same quality.
Royalty-free and patent-unencumbered (unlike HEIC).
Supports alpha transparency, HDR, wide gamut (BT.2020), and up to 12-bit color.
Progressive decoding: a blurry preview appears while the file is still downloading.
Supported in all major browsers since late 2022 — no polyfills needed.

Limitations

Encoding is CPU-expensive — an AVIF export can take 10-30× longer than JPEG.
Older software (pre-2022) cannot open AVIF without plugins.
Email clients still largely ignore it — stick to JPEG for attachments.
Metadata support (EXIF, XMP) exists but tooling is less mature than for JPEG.

Typical Sizes & Weights

Thumbnail (400px)

10-30 KB

Web photo (1920px)

80-300 KB

4K photo (3840px)

300 KB - 1.2 MB

Lossless copy of 24MP photo

8-15 MB

Technical Specifications

MIME type: image/avif
Container: HEIF (ISOBMFF)
Codec: AV1 (intra-only)
Max dimensions: 65 536 × 65 536 px
Color depth: Up to 12-bit per channel
Color spaces: sRGB, Display-P3, BT.2020, arbitrary ICC

CONVERT FROM
AVIF

avif jpg avif png avif webp avif gif avif bmp avif tiff avif ico avif pdf avif pcx avif sgi avif dpx avif pnm avif xbm avif xpm avif wbmp avif miff

CONVERT TO
AVIF

jpg avif png avif webp avif jpeg avif gif avif bmp avif tiff avif ico avif svg avif heic avif heif avif psd avif jxl avif jp2 avif eps avif dng avif jfif avif pgm avif ppm avif pbm avif tga avif exr avif hdr avif xcf avif emf avif wmf avif cr2 avif nef avif arw avif orf avif rw2 avif cr3 avif raf avif sr2 avif pef avif icns avif svgz avif dds avif pcx avif sgi avif dpx avif pnm avif xbm avif xpm avif fits avif wbmp avif cin avif miff avif raw avif ai avif indd avif cdr avif

Common Use Cases

High-efficiency web images, HDR photography, next-gen web optimization.