AVIF: the future of web images

Full guide

Images are usually the heaviest thing on a web page. They are also the easiest performance win most sites never take. If your pages feel sluggish, there is a good chance a handful of oversized photos are to blame. AVIF is the format built to fix exactly that: it delivers the same picture your visitors see today at a fraction of the file size, so your pages load faster, your hosting bills shrink and your search performance improves. For an Australian business competing on a crowded results page, that combination is hard to ignore.

In this guide we explain what AVIF is, how it compares to the formats you already use, where browser support stands in 2026, and the practical steps to roll it out without breaking anything for older visitors.

What exactly is AVIF?

AVIF stands for AV1 Image File Format. It is a still-image format derived from AV1, the open video codec developed by the Alliance for Open Media, a group whose members include some of the largest technology and streaming companies in the world. Because it borrows the compression intelligence of a modern video codec, AVIF can describe the same image using far less data than older formats designed decades ago. It is open and royalty-free, which means there are no licensing fees standing between you and adoption.

Crucially, AVIF is not a one-trick format. It handles lossy and lossless compression, transparency, animation, HDR and wide colour gamuts in a single file type. In other words, it can replace JPEG, PNG and animated GIF all at once, while looking better and weighing less.

How does AVIF compare to JPEG, PNG and WebP?

The short answer is that AVIF usually wins on file size at a given level of quality. JPEG, the workhorse of the web for thirty years, simply cannot match modern compression. PNG keeps perfect quality but produces enormous files, especially for photographs. WebP was the previous step forward and is still excellent, yet AVIF typically squeezes images smaller again, particularly for detailed photography and visuals that benefit from HDR or rich colour.

The trade-offs are real but manageable. AVIF can take longer to encode than WebP, so generating it at build time or through a content delivery network is sensible. WebP also has a slightly longer history of support in legacy browsers. None of this is a reason to avoid AVIF; it is a reason to serve it intelligently, with a fallback in place, which is straightforward to do.

Is browser support good enough in 2026?

Yes. AVIF is now supported in the current versions of every major browser, including Chrome, Firefox, Edge and Safari. According to the compatibility data tracked by Can I Use, that adds up to the overwhelming majority of global web traffic, with only a small slice of older or specialised browsers left out. Compared with a few years ago, when AVIF was promising but patchy, the situation today is comfortable for production use.

For the handful of visitors whose browser cannot read AVIF, the HTML picture element solves the problem cleanly. You list an AVIF source first, then a WebP or JPEG fallback, and the browser quietly chooses the best file it understands. Nobody sees a broken image, and most of your audience gets the lightest, fastest version.

Why does AVIF matter for performance and SEO?

Page speed is no longer a nice-to-have. Google measures real user experience through Core Web Vitals, and Largest Contentful Paint, the time it takes for the main content to appear, is frequently dominated by a large hero image. Google's own guidance on Largest Contentful Paint makes clear that optimising and right-sizing images is one of the most effective ways to improve it. Switch that hero from a heavy JPEG to a lean AVIF and you can cut its weight substantially, pulling LCP down with it.

The benefits ripple outwards. Faster pages reduce the number of visitors who give up and leave before anything loads. They cost less in bandwidth, which adds up on image-heavy sites. They feel smoother on the mobile connections most Australians browse on. And because page experience feeds into how Google ranks pages, a faster site competes better in search. AVIF will not rank you on its own, but it strengthens nearly every signal that does.

How do you start using AVIF?

You do not need to convert your entire library overnight. Begin where the gains are largest:

• Identify your heaviest images first, typically hero banners, product shots and full-width photography.
• Generate AVIF versions through a build tool, an image CDN or a design app that exports the format.
• Serve them with a picture element that falls back to WebP, then JPEG or PNG, so every visitor is covered.
• Add width and height attributes and lazy loading to avoid layout shift and defer off-screen images.
• Measure before and after with a speed tool, so you can see the weight and LCP improvements clearly.

Many modern content platforms and content delivery networks can produce AVIF automatically, choosing the right format per visitor without you touching any markup. If yours can, enabling that is often the single fastest performance improvement available to you.

Where does AVIF make the biggest difference?

Any site that leans on visuals feels the impact most. Online stores with large catalogues cut the weight of every product image and shorten the path to a sale. Hospitality, property and tourism sites, all of which sell through rich photography, load their galleries faster and hold attention longer. Photography and portfolio sites preserve the detail that matters to them while shedding the file bloat that slows pages to a crawl. Wherever images carry the message, AVIF lets that message arrive faster.

Adopting AVIF is one of those rare changes that improves the experience for visitors, the economics for the business and the standing of the site in search, all at the same time. It is not a passing trend; it is where modern web images are heading, and the sites that move now will feel lighter and faster than the ones that wait.

AVIF at a glance: strengths and trade-offs

AVIF is a clear win for most sites, but it pays to adopt it with both sides in view. Here is the honest balance.

Watch: why next-generation image formats matter