AVIF vs WebP vs JPEG: Which Should You Actually Use in 2026?

Someone probably told you to "switch to WebP" or "use AVIF for better compression." Maybe you read that JPEG is outdated. Or you're staring at your website's PageSpeed score and wondering if changing image formats would actually help.

Here's the thing: there's a lot of conflicting advice out there. Some of it is outdated. Some of it is written by companies trying to sell you their image optimization service. And some of it is so technical that you'd need a computer science degree to follow along.

This isn't that kind of article. I'm going to tell you which format to use, and why, without making you understand what chroma subsampling means.

The 30-Second Answer

But the details matter, especially if you're making decisions for a website or trying to understand what's actually happening. So keep reading.

Why Are There New Formats Anyway?

JPEG was invented in 1992. That's not a typo. The format you're probably using for most of your photos is older than Google, older than most smartphones, older than a lot of people reading this article.

It's honestly kind of impressive that JPEG has lasted this long. But the internet has changed. Screens got sharper (retina displays need bigger images), phones got better cameras (more megapixels means larger files), and people started expecting websites to load instantly even on mobile connections.

Google created WebP in 2010 to solve this. The idea was simple: same visual quality, smaller files. It took forever for browsers to actually support it (Safari held out until 2020, which felt like an eternity), but now it works basically everywhere.

AVIF came along in 2019, built on the same video compression technology that Netflix and YouTube use. It makes even smaller files than WebP. But, like WebP before it, browser support took a while to catch up. Safari didn't fully support AVIF until iOS 16, which meant a lot of iPhones couldn't display AVIF images until late 2022.

Today, in 2026, both formats work in the vast majority of browsers. But "vast majority" isn't "everything," and that's where the decisions get tricky.

JPEG: The One That Works Everywhere

JPEG

Let's start with the oldest option. JPEG is still used on something like 70-80% of websites. Not because it's the best, but because it's the safest.

Every device made in the last 30 years can open a JPEG. Your grandma's ancient Windows laptop? JPEG works. That weird smart fridge with a screen? Probably handles JPEG. Email clients, social media platforms, messaging apps, random photo viewing software from 2008? All of them expect JPEG.

The downsides are real though. JPEG files are big compared to modern formats. We're talking 25-50% larger than WebP, sometimes more than double the size of AVIF. And JPEG doesn't support transparency, so if you need a logo on a transparent background, you're out of luck.

But here's the thing: JPEG is fine. You're not a bad person for using JPEG. If your website loads fast enough and your visitors can see the images, you've solved the actual problem. Not everything needs to be optimized to the bleeding edge.

WebP: The Safe Modern Choice

WebP

WebP is Google's format, and after more than a decade of pushing it, they've mostly won. About 96% of browsers globally support WebP now. That includes all versions of Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Safari released in the last several years.

The file size savings are meaningful. We're talking 25-34% smaller than JPEG at equivalent visual quality. On a page with lots of images, that adds up fast. Your site loads quicker, you use less bandwidth, and Google's Core Web Vitals metrics improve.

WebP supports transparency too, which means you can replace both your JPEGs and your PNGs with a single format if you want. It also supports animation, so technically you could replace GIFs, but honestly most people don't bother with that.

The catches? A few. Some older software can't open WebP files. If you download a WebP image and try to open it in Photoshop versions before CC 2022, or Windows Photo Viewer on Windows 7, or that random image editor from 2015, it might not work. Social media platforms sometimes re-compress WebP uploads, which can cause quality loss. And some print services don't accept WebP.

But for web use in 2026, WebP is the sweet spot. Modern enough to make a real difference, supported widely enough that you don't have to worry about fallbacks for most audiences.

AVIF: Smallest Files, Newest Kid

AVIF

AVIF is the new hotness. It uses the same compression technology as the AV1 video codec (the one Netflix switched to because it's so efficient), and the results are impressive. We're talking about files that are 50% smaller than JPEG. Sometimes more.

That's a massive difference. If you have a photo-heavy website, switching from JPEG to AVIF could cut your image bandwidth in half. For mobile users on slow connections, that's the difference between a page loading and a page being abandoned.

AVIF also supports HDR and wide color gamuts (10-bit and 12-bit color depth), which matters to photographers and anyone working with high-end displays. The colors can be more accurate and vibrant than what JPEG can represent.

Browser support sits around 94% globally. Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Safari, Opera. All the major ones. The gap between WebP (~96%) and AVIF (~94%) might seem small, but that 2-3% can represent millions of users depending on your audience.

There are some real tradeoffs though:

• Encoding is slow. Converting images to AVIF takes 2-3x longer than WebP or JPEG. A few seconds per image instead of nearly instant. For a browser-based tool like ours this doesn't matter much (your computer does the work while you wait), but if you're processing thousands of images on a server, it adds up.
• Sharp edges can suffer. AVIF's compression is optimized for photographs. Images with hard edges, text, or fine lines can get a bit smudgy. Not dramatically, but enough that PNG is still better for screenshots and graphics.
• Software support is still catching up. Some design tools, some CMSes, some image editors still don't fully support AVIF. It's getting better every month, but it's not as universal as WebP yet.

Head-to-Head Comparison

Let's put them side by side. These are generalizations, but they hold true for most use cases.

Feature	JPEG	WebP	AVIF
File size	Baseline (largest)	25-34% smaller	50%+ smaller
Visual quality	Good	Great	Great (photos), okay (graphics)
Transparency	No	Yes	Yes
Lossless mode	No	Yes	Yes
Browser support	100%	~96%	~94%
Software support	Universal	Good (most modern tools)	Growing (some gaps)
Encoding speed	Fast	Fast	Slow
Best for	Maximum compatibility	General web use	Maximum compression

Real file size example

Here's what happens when you convert the same photograph to each format at similar quality settings:

Format	File Size	Savings vs JPEG
JPEG (85% quality)	284 KB	Baseline
WebP (85% quality)	192 KB	32% smaller
AVIF (85% quality)	124 KB	56% smaller

Test image: 2000x1500px photograph. Results vary depending on image content.

At typical web sizes, you probably can't see any visual difference between these files. The compression is good enough across all three formats that quality isn't really the deciding factor anymore. It's about file size, compatibility, and your specific situation.

So Which Should You Use?

Depends entirely on what you're doing.

For your website

If you want maximum compatibility: Just use WebP. It works for 96% of visitors, the file sizes are good, and you don't have to think about fallbacks. WordPress, Shopify, Squarespace, and most modern platforms support it natively.

If you want maximum performance: Use AVIF with WebP as a fallback. This means using the HTML <picture> element to serve AVIF to browsers that support it, and WebP to those that don't. It's more work, but it gets you the best of both worlds.

If your audience might be on old devices: Stick with JPEG, or use WebP with JPEG fallback. Some enterprise environments and older mobile devices still don't handle modern formats well.

For sharing photos

Email and messaging: JPEG. Everything opens JPEG. You don't want your recipient calling you because they can't see the attachment.

Social media: Upload whatever's convenient. Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, they all re-compress to their own internal formats anyway. Your carefully optimized AVIF gets converted the moment you upload it.

Portfolio or photography sites: Depends on your audience. If you're showing work to tech-savvy clients, AVIF is fine. If your clients might be viewing on older corporate laptops, WebP or JPEG is safer.

For storage and archiving

Keep your originals in whatever format they came in. Seriously. Don't convert your photo library to AVIF to save space and then delete the originals. Compression always loses some data, and you can't get it back.

If you need smaller copies for viewing or sharing, sure, convert those to AVIF. But the originals should stay untouched.

For specific platforms

• WordPress: WebP is natively supported since 5.8, AVIF since 6.5. Either works, but WebP is more battle-tested.
• Shopify: Automatically converts and serves WebP where supported.
• Custom sites: Use whatever you want. AVIF with fallbacks is technically optimal.
• Print: Usually requires JPEG, TIFF, or PNG. Modern formats aren't widely supported in print workflows.

Common Questions

Does converting to WebP or AVIF ruin image quality?

All lossy formats lose some data during compression. At quality settings around 80-85%, most people genuinely can't see the difference. If you're archiving important photos, keep the originals. For web use or sharing, the quality loss is negligible.

Can I convert AVIF back to JPEG?

Yes, but you can't recover data that was discarded during the original compression. Think of it like making a photocopy of a photocopy. The conversion works fine, but you're not getting back what was lost. Try our AVIF to JPG converter if you need to do this.

What happened to JPEG XL?

JPEG XL was supposed to be the format that replaced everything. Technically impressive, backward compatible with regular JPEG, great compression. But Google removed support from Chrome in early 2023, and without Chrome (which dominates browser market share), it's essentially dead for web use. Safari supports it, Firefox has experimental support, but that's not enough. Maybe it'll come back someday, but I wouldn't bet on it.

My images have text or sharp graphics. Which format?

PNG for anything with hard edges. Text, logos, screenshots, UI elements. AVIF can smear fine details, WebP is better but still not as clean as PNG for this use case. The file sizes will be larger, but the quality matters more for graphics than compression efficiency.

How do I add AVIF or WebP to my website?

The simple way: just use them in regular <img> tags. If someone's browser doesn't support the format, the image won't load, but with 93%+ support that's a small minority.

The proper way: use the HTML <picture> element to provide fallbacks (see MDN's documentation for more details):

<picture>
  <source srcset="image.avif" type="image/avif">
  <source srcset="image.webp" type="image/webp">
  <img src="image.jpg" alt="Description">
</picture>

This serves AVIF to browsers that support it, WebP to those that don't, and JPEG as a final fallback. More code, but foolproof.

Do I need to manually convert all my images?

For existing sites with lots of images, that would be painful. Most image CDNs (Cloudflare, Cloudinary, imgix) can automatically convert and serve the right format based on the visitor's browser. For new images, you can convert them yourself using tools like ConvertPix before uploading.

The Bottom Line

Most people should use WebP. It's got near-universal support, meaningful file size savings, and you don't have to think about edge cases or fallbacks.

If you're optimizing aggressively and willing to implement fallbacks, AVIF gets you even smaller files.

And JPEG is still totally fine when you need maximum compatibility or just don't want to deal with any of this.

None of these choices are wrong. They're just tradeoffs. Pick the one that matches your situation and move on.

Need to convert some images? We've got converters for all of these:

• JPG to WebP and WebP to JPG
• JPG to AVIF and AVIF to JPG
• PNG to WebP and PNG to AVIF
• WebP to AVIF and AVIF to WebP

All of them work right in your browser. No uploads, no accounts, no waiting. Your images stay on your device.