About AVIF (AV1 Image File Format)
AVIF stores still images using the AV1 video codec, developed by the Alliance for Open Media — a consortium that includes Google, Netflix, Mozilla, and Apple. The format arrived in 2019 and is now displayed by every major browser. Its claim to fame is efficiency: at typical web quality settings, an AVIF file is often around half the size of an equivalent JPEG, and it also supports transparency, HDR, and 10-bit color.
Reach for AVIF when file size matters most — image-heavy websites, bandwidth-limited delivery, or shrinking a large photo collection. It is a weaker choice for archival masters, where TIFF or lossless JPEG XL make more sense, and for sending to people who may be on older software.
Convertmaxxing encodes and decodes AVIF entirely in your browser, free and without uploads. One caveat worth knowing up front: AVIF encoding is more computationally demanding than other formats, so large images can take a while to convert.
Strengths
- Best-in-class compression — often about half the size of JPEG at the same quality
- Supports transparency, HDR, and 10-bit color
- Displayed by all major modern browsers
- Royalty-free, with backing from Google, Netflix, Mozilla, and Apple
Limitations
- Encoding is slow — large images take noticeably longer than JPEG or WebP
- Older operating systems and desktop apps often cannot open it
- Lossless mode is inefficient — PNG or JPEG XL are better for lossless work