Why you should be using AVIF images on your website?

After years of watching the web struggle with image optimization, I’ve been closely following the emergence of AVIF (AV1 Image File Format) as a potential game-changer.

Having implemented it across several projects over the past two years, I can confidently say that 2024 is the year you should seriously consider making the switch.

Browser Support

Remember when WebP was the new kid on the block, and we all had to create elaborate fallback systems because Safari refused to play nice? Those days are behind us with AVIF. The landscape has dramatically shifted, and browser support is now excellent across all major browsers.

I’ve been tracking the adoption closely, and the numbers speak for themselves. Chrome added support in 2020, Firefox followed shortly after, and even Safari – traditionally the holdout – jumped on board in 2022.

Today, we’re looking at over 90% global browser support. That’s a threshold where you can confidently deploy AVIF without losing sleep over compatibility issues.

In my recent projects, I’ve stopped implementing complex fallback systems altogether. The few remaining users on unsupported browsers are typically on very old versions that have other significant limitations anyway.

The development overhead of maintaining multiple image formats often outweighs the benefit of supporting that tiny fraction of users.

AVIF >> WEBP

I’ll be honest – when AVIF first appeared, I was skeptical. We’d been through this dance before with WebP, and while it delivered improvements, they weren’t always as dramatic as promised. AVIF is different.

The compression efficiency is genuinely impressive. In my testing across hundreds of images, I consistently see 50-80% smaller file sizes compared to JPEG at equivalent quality levels. This isn’t just marketing fluff – it’s measurable, real-world improvement that you can verify yourself.

Test image: 1920x1080 product photo with complex details and gradients

What really sold me was the quality retention. Unlike aggressive JPEG compression that introduces obvious artifacts, AVIF maintains visual fidelity even at high compression ratios.

I’ve served images compressed to 20KB in AVIF format that would require 80KB+ in JPEG to achieve similar quality. For product photos, hero images, and other high-impact visuals, this difference is transformative.

The format also handles both lossy and lossless compression, supports transparency (goodbye, PNG for complex graphics), and can even handle animations. It’s like having a Swiss Army knife where every tool actually works well.

Improved Performance

Here’s where things get interesting from a user experience perspective. Smaller file sizes don’t just mean faster downloads – they mean better perceived performance across the entire loading experience.

On mobile connections, which now represent the majority of web traffic, the difference is particularly noticeable. A 60% reduction in image payload translates directly to faster page loads, reduced bounce rates, and better user engagement.

I’ve seen Core Web Vitals scores improve significantly just from switching to AVIF.

The benefits compound on slower connections. Users on 3G or in areas with poor connectivity experience dramatically better performance. It’s not just about the wealthy markets with fiber internet – AVIF makes your site more accessible to users worldwide.

Even on desktop, the improvements are meaningful. Faster image loading means smoother scrolling, quicker page transitions, and an overall more responsive feel.

Users might not consciously notice that images are loading faster, but they definitely notice when sites feel snappy and responsive.

Mobile Storage should be in AVIF

Here’s something that doesn’t get talked about enough – the massive missed opportunity in mobile device storage. While both iOS and Android can display AVIF images in browsers and apps, neither platform has adopted AVIF as their default format for photo storage. This is a huge oversight that’s costing users dearly.

I’ve been watching this space with growing frustration. The average smartphone user has thousands of photos stored locally, taking up precious storage space.

If iPhone and Android were to adopt AVIF for photo storage, those images could be 50-70% smaller without any noticeable quality loss. We’re talking about potentially gigabytes of saved storage space on every device.

Think about the impact: users with 64GB or 128GB devices are constantly juggling storage, deleting photos and apps to make room for new content. If Apple and Google simply switched to AVIF for photo storage, that storage pressure would largely disappear.

Users could keep more memories, install more apps, and stop playing the storage management game.

The benefits would extend to cloud storage too. Smaller photo files mean faster backups, lower cloud storage costs, and reduced bandwidth usage for sync operations. Users backing up to iCloud or Google Photos would see dramatic improvements in sync speed and storage efficiency.

This is one of those cases where the technology is ready, the benefits are clear, but adoption is lagging because it requires platform-level decisions. I’m hopeful that as AVIF gains more traction on the web, mobile platforms will finally make this obvious optimization. The user experience improvements would be immediate and substantial.

AVIF is Economic

Let’s talk about the elephant in the room – cost. Every byte you serve costs money, whether through CDN charges, bandwidth costs, or server resources. When you’re serving millions of images, those savings add up quickly.

I’ve calculated the impact across several projects, and the numbers are compelling. A typical e-commerce site serving 100GB of images monthly could reduce that to 40-50GB with AVIF.

At standard CDN rates, that’s hundreds of dollars in monthly savings. For larger operations, we’re talking about thousands of dollars annually.

The savings extend beyond just bandwidth. Smaller images mean faster page loads, which means lower bounce rates and higher conversion rates. Better performance metrics can improve SEO rankings, driving more organic traffic. The ROI calculation becomes very favorable very quickly.

There’s also the environmental angle, which is increasingly important. Smaller file sizes mean less data transfer, which translates to lower energy consumption across the entire delivery chain. It’s a small contribution to sustainability, but it’s measurable and meaningful at scale.

Should you use AVIF?

The transition isn’t without challenges, but they’re manageable. Your existing toolchain might need updates – not all image processing libraries support AVIF yet, though adoption is accelerating.

I’ve found that most modern build systems can handle AVIF conversion with the right plugins.

Quality settings require some experimentation. AVIF’s compression characteristics are different from JPEG, so you can’t just translate quality settings directly.

I typically start with quality settings around 50-60 for AVIF where I might have used 80-85 for JPEG.

Storage and processing costs might initially increase as you maintain multiple formats during transition, but this is temporary. Once you’ve fully migrated, you’ll likely reduce storage requirements overall.

After implementing AVIF across multiple projects and seeing the consistent benefits, I’m convinced it’s no longer a question of “if” but “when” you should make the switch. The browser support is there, the performance benefits are real, and the economic case is compelling.

For new projects, I now default to AVIF unless there’s a specific reason not to. For existing sites, I recommend a gradual migration, starting with your highest-impact images and working through your catalog systematically.

The web is moving toward more efficient image formats, and AVIF represents the current state of the art. Early adoption gave me a competitive advantage in site performance, and now that advantage is available to everyone willing to make the technical investment.

If you’re still on the fence, start with a small test – convert a few key images to AVIF and measure the impact. I’m confident you’ll see the same improvements that convinced me to make the switch wholesale.

The future of web images is here, and it’s time to embrace it.