AVIF vs WebP for Responsive Images — Compression and Browser Support

AVIF vs WebP: Choosing Formats for Responsive Images

Both AVIF and WebP offer significant compression improvements over JPEG, but they have different strengths.

Compression Comparison

Metric	JPEG	WebP	AVIF
Photo compression	Baseline	25-35% smaller	30-50% smaller
Transparency	Not supported	Supported	Supported
Animation	Not supported	Supported	Supported
HDR / wide gamut	No	No	Yes
Encoding speed	Fast	Fast	Slow (5-10x slower)
Decoding speed	Fast	Fast	Moderate
Max dimensions	65535×65535	16383×16383	8193×4096 (default)

Browser Support (as of 2025)

Format	Chrome	Firefox	Safari	Edge
WebP	32+	65+	16+ (macOS 11+)	18+
AVIF	85+	93+	16.4+	85+
JPEG XL	Removed	No	17+	Removed

Recommended Strategy

Use the <picture> element to serve both:

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

1. AVIF first — best compression for supporting browsers
2. WebP second — excellent fallback with near-universal support
3. JPEG last — ultimate fallback for any remaining browsers

When WebP Alone Is Sufficient

• When AVIF encoding time is too expensive for your build pipeline
• When your images exceed AVIF's default tile size limits (8193×4096)
• When you need animated images (AVIF animation support is less mature)
• When the 5-10% additional compression of AVIF over WebP doesn't justify the complexity