What is an AVIF file?
AVIF is an image format derived from the AV1 video codec, published by the Alliance for Open Media in 2019. It compresses better than WebP and far better than JPG at the same visual quality, supports transparency, animation, HDR, and wide color, and is royalty-free. Browsers adopted it quickly, so images saved from modern websites are increasingly AVIF files.
How to open an AVIF file
Chrome, Firefox, Safari 16 and later, and Edge display AVIF. Windows 11 Photos opens it with the AV1 Video Extension installed; macOS Ventura and later handle it natively. Older versions of Photoshop, most email clients, and many upload forms do not. Converting to JPG for photos or PNG for graphics solves it in one step, and the conversion happens in your browser.
When to use AVIF
On websites, where it makes pages load faster than any other widely supported format. For everything else, the compatibility gap still favours JPG and PNG. Encoding AVIF is slow and needs specialized software, so most people only ever decode it.
Frequently asked questions
Is AVIF better than WebP?
For compression, yes, by around 20 percent at the same quality. WebP is supported by more software and encodes much faster.
Why can I not open AVIF in Windows?
Windows needs the AV1 Video Extension from the Microsoft Store, and many programs never added support. Converting to JPG or PNG avoids the problem.