March 24, 20265 min read

AVIF to JPG — When the Future Arrives Too Early

Convert AVIF images to JPG for compatibility. Why AVIF is technically superior but practically problematic, and how to convert correctly.

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AVIF: The Best Image Format Almost Nobody Can Use

AVIF (AV1 Image File Format) is, by most objective measures, the best image format ever created. It compresses photos 50% better than JPEG at equivalent quality. It supports transparency, animation, HDR, wide color gamut, and 10/12-bit color depth. It's royalty-free and open-source.

It's also a compatibility nightmare.

The Support Landscape in 2026

Platform	AVIF Support
Chrome	Yes (since 2020)
Firefox	Yes (since 2021)
Safari	Yes (since Safari 16, 2022)
Edge	Yes (since 2020)
Photoshop	Yes (since 2022, with plugin)
GIMP	Yes (since 2.10.22)
iOS (native)	Partial (viewing yes, saving/sharing inconsistent)
Android	Partial (depends on app)
Windows Photos	Yes (Windows 11, requires extension on 10)
macOS Preview	No direct support (opens via quick look but can't export)
Outlook email	No
Slack	No inline preview
WordPress media library	Yes (since 6.1)
Canva	No
PowerPoint	No

Notice the pattern: browsers support it, but desktop apps, email clients, and media tools are still catching up. If you're serving images on a website, AVIF is excellent. If you're sharing files with humans via email, Slack, or a USB drive, JPG remains king.

Why AVIF Compression Is So Good

AVIF uses the AV1 video codec's intra-frame compression (the same tech that compresses individual video frames). AV1 was developed by the Alliance for Open Media — Google, Apple, Meta, Netflix, Amazon, Microsoft, and Mozilla all contributed.

The result benefits from 30 years of video codec research: advanced intra-prediction, directional filters, and a massive tool chest of compression techniques that JPEG's 1992-era DCT can't match.

Format	Bits per pixel (same quality)	Relative Size
JPEG (quality 85)	1.0 bpp	100%
WebP (quality 80)	0.7 bpp	70%
AVIF (quality 60)	0.5 bpp	50%

At visually equivalent quality, AVIF is roughly half the size of JPEG.

When to Convert AVIF to JPG

Email attachments: Recipients can't preview AVIF in Outlook or many mobile email apps
Social media posts: Some platforms re-encode AVIF poorly (or reject it)
Print services: Photo labs, poster printers, and book services expect JPG or TIFF
Documents: Embedding in Word, PowerPoint, or PDF is unreliable with AVIF
Design tools: Canva, older Figma, and some Adobe apps don't import AVIF
Stock photo submission: Adobe Stock, Shutterstock, Getty require JPG

How to Convert AVIF to JPG

Online

MyPDF's image converter converts AVIF to JPG with quality control. Squoosh (by Google) gives excellent visual comparison. Desktop tools like GIMP or XnConvert handle batches.

Desktop Tools

XnConvert (free, cross-platform): Handles AVIF natively. Add files → Set output to JPG, quality 90 → Convert. Great for batch processing. GIMP (free): File → Open → Select AVIF → File → Export As → JPG → Set quality to 90. IrfanView (Windows, free): With the appropriate plugins installed, IrfanView can open and re-save AVIF as JPG.

Quality Settings for the Conversion

AVIF's compression is so efficient that a quality 60 AVIF looks like a quality 85 JPEG. When converting to JPG, you need to choose a JPG quality that matches:

If AVIF was saved at	Use JPG quality	Result
Quality 80+	95	Near-lossless
Quality 60-80	90	Excellent
Quality 40-60	85	Good (matches perceived quality)
Quality below 40	80	Acceptable

At JPG quality 90, the output is visually indistinguishable from the AVIF source for most images.

File Size Reality

Converting AVIF to JPG will always increase file size — you're going from a superior format to an inferior one:

Image	AVIF Size	JPG (q90) Size	Increase
Photo (12 MP)	180 KB	550 KB	3x
Screenshot	50 KB	120 KB	2.4x
Product image	35 KB	90 KB	2.6x

This is the price of compatibility. You're trading file size for universal playback.

AVIF's One Weird Limitation: Slow Encoding

AVIF encoding is computationally expensive. Converting a batch of 100 images to AVIF can take minutes, while JPG and WebP take seconds. This is improving with hardware acceleration (AV1 encoders in newer GPUs), but it's still the format's biggest practical drawback.

Decoding (viewing) is fast. It's only creation that's slow.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is AVIF better than WebP?

Yes, in terms of compression efficiency (20-30% smaller at the same quality). WebP has better compatibility and faster encoding. In 2026, WebP is the pragmatic choice for most websites; AVIF is the technically superior choice for those willing to deal with slower encoding.

Will AVIF replace JPEG?

Eventually, probably. But JPEG has survived for 30+ years precisely because of its universal support. AVIF will likely first replace WebP as the web standard, then gradually displace JPEG in other contexts as software support matures. This will take years.

Can AVIF images be animated?

Yes. AVIF supports animation (like WebP and GIF) with vastly better compression. An animated AVIF is essentially an AV1 video in an image container.

My AVIF image has HDR. Will the JPG preserve it?

No. JPG only supports 8-bit sRGB color. HDR content, wide color gamut (P3/BT.2020), and 10-bit depth will be tone-mapped to 8-bit sRGB during conversion. The result looks fine but loses the HDR advantage.

Convert Image — Convert any image format
Compress Image — Optimize the JPG output
Batch Convert Images — Convert folders of AVIF
Resize Image — Resize during conversion