WebP vs AVIF: which is better?

Both formats do the same job: they replace JPEG for photos and PNG for graphics with one file type that offers lossy and lossless modes, alpha transparency and animation. The difference is age and ambition. WebP is the format Google built for the web in 2010; it compresses photos roughly 25–35% smaller than an equivalent-quality JPEG, and every mainstream browser has displayed it since 2020. AVIF arrived in 2019 from the Alliance for Open Media and applies the AV1 video codec to still images: at typical web quality its files land around 50% smaller than JPEG and 20–30% smaller than WebP, and it adds HDR and 10- or 12-bit colour, where lossy WebP stops at 8-bit.

That extra compression is paid for at encode time. AVIF is markedly slower to encode, especially on large images, its maximum image dimensions are lower than JPEG's, and support outside the browser is thinner: plenty of desktop software and older devices still cannot open an AVIF, while WebP has had almost a decade longer to spread. The format pages for WebP and AVIF go deeper on each.

Neither wins outright. Score them on what you actually care about:

• File size: AVIF. Around 20–30% smaller than WebP at the same visible quality, and about half of a JPEG.
• Compatibility: WebP. Both display in current Chrome, Firefox and Safari (AVIF in Safari only since 16.4 in 2023), but WebP opens in far more desktop apps, upload forms and messaging services.
• Encode speed: WebP. AVIF is slow to encode, especially on big photos, which you feel when converting hundreds at once.
• Transparency: a tie. Both keep an alpha channel in lossy and lossless modes.
• HDR and colour depth: AVIF. WebP's lossy mode is 8-bit only.
• Very large images: WebP. AVIF's maximum dimensions are lower than JPEG's, so a huge panorama or scan may need to stay JPEG or WebP.

So the short answer to which is better: AVIF for bytes and for picture quality per byte, WebP for reach and speed. The longer answer is that the right format depends on who will open the file.

Pick by destination, not by benchmark:

• A website you control. Use AVIF, and keep a WebP or JPG fallback for the browsers and crawlers that cannot read it. That combination is what page-speed tools reward; see fixing the efficiently encode images warning and the wider guide to the best image format for a website.
• Sending files to people or uploading to a service. Use WebP, or plain JPG if the form is old. A recipient who cannot open the file does not care that it was 20–30% smaller.
• Logos, icons and screenshots with transparency. Either lossless mode works; lossless WebP is the pragmatic choice because far more editors open it.
• HDR or wide-gamut photography. AVIF is the only one of the two that keeps it.
• Archiving. Neither. Keep the original camera JPG, RAW or PNG and treat WebP and AVIF as delivery copies.

If you only ever want one of them, WebP is the safe default today and AVIF is the better format tomorrow; the gap in support keeps narrowing. For the background on what lossy and lossless actually mean, read lossy vs lossless compression, and for JPG-specific web tuning see compressing JPEG for the web.

The EditItAll image converter turns JPG, PNG, WebP or AVIF into either format, and the compressor re-encodes an existing WebP or AVIF at a quality you choose. Everything runs entirely in your browser: nothing is uploaded, and it keeps working offline once the page has loaded.

1. Open the converter and drop in your images, one or a whole batch. There are direct routes for the common jobs: JPG to AVIF, PNG to WebP, WebP to AVIF and AVIF to WebP.
2. Choose the output format and set the quality slider. The top of the slider writes a lossless file; a photo usually looks identical at a setting well below that. There is no target-size box: size is the output, and each file lists its size before and after so you can nudge the slider and run it again.
3. Download one file, or the whole batch as a ZIP. EXIF and GPS metadata are stripped on export.

Two honest notes. Converting a lossy WebP into AVIF re-encodes it and discards a little more detail, so start from the original JPG, PNG or RAW export whenever you still have it. And AVIF encoding is slow by design: a large photo takes visibly longer than the same file to WebP, so expect a wait on a big batch. Already have the right format and just need it smaller? Use the WebP compressor or the AVIF compressor directly; both use professional-grade codecs and the same slider.