Image Format Comparison

JPG vs AVIF: Old Standard vs Next-Generation Format

AVIF is the newest major image format — derived from the AV1 video codec, developed by the Alliance for Open Media (Google, Apple, Mozilla, Netflix, and others). Its compression efficiency is remarkable: AVIF achieves roughly 50% better compression than JPG at similar perceptual quality, and outperforms WebP as well. The catch: it's new, encoding is slow, and software support is still growing.

JPGvsAVIF

Quick Verdict

Use JPG when…

Use JPG for maximum compatibility — older software, email clients, print, and any context where AVIF support is uncertain.

Use AVIF when…

Use AVIF for modern web delivery where cutting-edge compression matters — 50% smaller than JPG at similar quality, with full browser support in Chrome, Firefox, and Safari 16+.

JPG vs AVIF: Feature Comparison

Feature	JPG	AVIF
Compression vs. JPG	Baseline	~50% smaller at similar quality
Transparency	Not supported	Supported
HDR support	No (standard JPEG)	Yes — 10-bit and 12-bit colour depth
Browser support	Universal	Chrome 85+, Firefox 93+, Safari 16+ (2022)
Software support	Universal	Growing — Photoshop, GIMP, recent versions
Encoding speed	Very fast	Slow — encoding is computationally expensive

When JPG wins

✓Compression vs. JPG: Baseline
✓Transparency: Not supported
✓HDR support: No (standard JPEG)

When AVIF wins

✓Compression vs. JPG: ~50% smaller at similar quality
✓Transparency: Supported
✓HDR support: Yes — 10-bit and 12-bit colour depth

Frequently asked questions

Is AVIF better than WebP?

Generally yes — AVIF achieves better compression than WebP at the same quality level, particularly for photographic images. AVIF also supports HDR, wider colour gamuts, and more advanced compression options. The trade-off is encoding speed: AVIF encoding is significantly slower than WebP. Browser support is also newer for AVIF (Safari 16+, 2022) versus WebP (Safari 14+, 2020).

Should I use AVIF on my website?

For new web projects targeting modern browsers, yes. AVIF's size reduction can meaningfully improve load times. Use the HTML <picture> element to serve AVIF first, WebP as a fallback, and JPG for older browsers. Most modern image CDNs and Cloudflare Image Resizing support AVIF delivery automatically.

Can I open AVIF files in Photoshop?

Yes, in recent versions. Adobe added AVIF support in Photoshop 23.2 (released February 2022). For older versions, AVIF support is not available — convert to PNG or JPG first.