AVIF vs. WebP: Which Image Format is Better for Modern Web Apps?

Last Updated: 17 Nov, 2025

In the relentless pursuit of a faster, more engaging web, every kilobyte matters. Images are often the heaviest assets on a page, making format choice a critical performance decision. For years, WebP has been the go-to modern format, championed by Google for its impressive compression. But a powerful new contender has entered the ring: AVIF.

The question on every developer and site owner’s mind is: AVIF vs. WebP, which one should I use?

This isn’t just a technical debate; it’s a decision that directly impacts your Core Web Vitals, user experience, and SEO. Search engines like Google prioritize fast-loading sites, and choosing the right image format is a foundational step. Let’s dive deep into both formats, compare them head-to-head, and provide a clear, actionable strategy for your modern web applications.

What is WebP?

Created by Google and released in 2010, WebP is an image format designed to create smaller, richer images that make the web faster. It uses predictive coding (similar to the VP8 video codec) to encode an image, resulting in both lossless and lossy compression that is significantly more efficient than older formats like JPEG and PNG.

Key Features of WebP:

• Superior Compression: Consistently produces files 25-35% smaller than equivalent JPEGs with minimal quality loss.
• Versatility: It supports both lossy (like JPEG) and lossless (like PNG) compression.
• Alpha Channel (Transparency): It supports transparency with lossy compression, something PNG can only do losslessly (resulting in huge files).
• Animation: It can replace animated GIFs with much smaller file sizes.

For a decade, WebP has been the undisputed king of web performance, offering a “one format to rule them all” solution.

What is AVIF?

AVIF (AV1 Image File Format) is a relatively newer, open-source image format that leverages the power of the AV1 codec, developed by the Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia)—a consortium including Google, Apple, Microsoft, Mozilla, and Netflix. It represents the next generation of image compression.

Key Features of AVIF:

• Revolutionary Compression: This is AVIF’s killer feature. It can deliver files 30-50% smaller than WebP at the same visual quality.
• Full Feature Parity: Like WebP, it supports lossy, lossless, transparency, and animation.
• Modern Feature Support: AVIF goes a step further by supporting modern features like:
  • High Dynamic Range (HDR)
  • Wide Color Gamut (WCG)
  • 10-bit and 12-bit color depth (resulting in smoother gradients and fewer color-banding artifacts).

AVIF was designed from the ground up to be the successor to all existing formats, including WebP.

Head-to-Head Comparison: Breaking Down the Key Factors

Let’s put these two formats through their paces across the most important criteria for web performance.

1. Compression Efficiency & File Size

This is the main event. The primary goal is to reduce file size without perceptibly sacrificing quality.

• AVIF: The Clear Winner. In nearly every test, AVIF demonstrates a substantial file size advantage over WebP at equivalent quality settings. We’re talking about reductions of 20-50% compared to WebP, and even more when compared to JPEG. This is due to the advanced compression techniques of the AV1 codec, which handles complex gradients, textures, and colors more efficiently.
• WebP: Still excellent and a massive improvement over JPEG/PNG, but it consistently produces larger files than AVIF when aiming for the same visual quality.

Verdict: AVIF for unmatched file size savings.

2. Image Quality & Features

File size isn’t everything if the image looks terrible. Let’s see how they handle quality.

• AVIF: Excels in preserving detail, especially in complex scenes. It supports:

  • High Bit Depth: Up to 12-bit color, enabling over 68 billion colors (HDR support).
  • Superior Color Format: Excellent support for 4:4:4 chroma subsampling (no color compression), which is great for graphics with sharp text and lines.
  • Advanced Compression: Handles blocks and artifacts much better than WebP, especially at very low file sizes.

• WebP: Provides very good quality and is a huge step up from JPEG. However, it can sometimes struggle with sharp edges and fine details, potentially introducing blurring or “smudging” in complex areas when aggressively compressed. It supports a more limited feature set compared to AVIF.

Verdict: AVIF for superior detail retention and advanced feature support (like HDR).

3. Browser & Platform Support

A fantastic format is useless if users’ browsers can’t display it.

• WebP: The Mature, Safe Choice. WebP enjoys excellent support across all modern browsers. It’s natively supported in Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Opera for years. With Safari 14 (released in 2020), Apple finally joined the party, making WebP a truly universal modern format.

• AVIF: Rapidly Growing, But Not Quite Universal. Support for AVIF is expanding fast but is not as comprehensive as WebP.

  • Supported: Chrome (85+), Firefox (93+), Opera (71+).
  • Recently Added: Safari (macOS Monterey & iOS 16+)
  • Not Supported: Older versions of Safari and Internet Explorer (obviously).

Verdict: WebP for its near-universal support and stability.

4. Performance & Decoding Speed

Saving bytes is great, but if it takes too long for the CPU to decode those bytes, you might see a blank space or a laggy user interface.

• WebP: Highly Optimized. Having been around for over a decade, WebP decoding is highly optimized and very fast across all devices, including low-powered mobile phones.

• AVIF: The Trade-Off. The advanced compression that makes AVIF files so small comes at a computational cost. Decoding AVIF images is more CPU-intensive than decoding WebP. While this is negligible on modern desktop CPUs, it can lead to slower decode times (and higher “Total Blocking Time”) on lower-end mobile devices. This is a crucial consideration for performance-critical apps.

Verdict: WebP for faster, more efficient decoding, especially on less powerful hardware.

5. Animation Support

Need an alternative to heavy GIFs?

• Both formats support animation. Animated WebP (often called WebP Animation) and Animated AVIF both provide far superior compression and quality compared to GIF, supporting 24-bit RGB color and alpha transparency.

• AVIF generally produces smaller animated files with better quality, but the same decoding complexity caveat applies.

Verdict: Slight edge to AVIF for compression, but consider decoding overhead.

Summary Table: AVIF vs. WebP at a Glance

The Practical Guide: Which One Should You Use Today?

So, with all this information, what’s the right call? The answer, as often in web development, is: it depends.

Use AVIF as your primary format if:

• Your target audience primarily uses modern browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Safari 16+, Edge).
• You are serving image-heavy content (e.g., photography portfolios, art sites, galleries) where the file size savings are most impactful.
• Performance is your absolute top priority and you can afford a slight CPU hit on low-end devices for massive bandwidth savings.
• You have a robust fallback strategy in place.

Use WebP as your primary format if:

• You need maximum compatibility and cannot risk users seeing broken images.
• Your audience includes a significant number of users on older devices or browsers (e.g., older iPhones, pre-2022 Safari).
• You are building a highly interactive web app where minimizing main-thread work (decoding time) is critical.
• You want a “set it and forget it” solution that works everywhere.

Conclusion: The Future is Fast, and It’s AVIF

While WebP paved the way and remains a dependable workhorse, AVIF is the clear winner for raw web performance. Its superior compression technology leads directly to smaller files, reduced bandwidth, and—most importantly—a faster Largest Contentful Paint (LCP).

For modern web apps obsessed with speed, the question is no longer if you should adopt AVIF, but how. By using the ‘picture’ tag to provide AVIF with a WebP fallback, you can ensure you are delivering the fastest possible experience to every user, every time.

FAQ

Q1: Which image format provides better compression, AVIF or WebP?

A: AVIF consistently provides superior compression, often creating files 20-50% smaller than WebP at the same quality.

Q2: Is AVIF supported in all major browsers now?

A: AVIF support is growing rapidly and is now in all major browsers, though its support is not yet as universal as WebP.

Q3: What is the main drawback of using the AVIF format?

A: The main drawback is that AVIF decoding is more CPU-intensive, which can lead to slower image rendering on lower-powered devices.

Q4: Should I completely replace WebP with AVIF on my website?

A: Not necessarily; the best practice is to serve both formats using the HTML element so the browser can choose the best one it supports.

Q5: Which format is better for animated images, AVIF or WebP?

A: Animated AVIF generally provides better compression and quality than animated WebP, making it a superior replacement for GIFs.

See Also

• Difference between BMP and PNG
• APNG vs BMP: Which Image file format is better?
• Raster VS Vector Images: A Brief Comparison