EN

What is an AVIF file, and how do you open it?

Last updated: 4 November 2026

You right-click a picture on a website, choose Save image as, and end up with a file called photo.avif. Your photo viewer cannot show it, a document editor will not insert it, and an upload form says the format is not supported. The image is fine. It is saved in AVIF, one of the newest image formats on the web, and plenty of software has not caught up yet.

What AVIF is

AVIF stands for AV1 Image File Format. It stores still images using the compression of AV1, a modern video codec developed by the Alliance for Open Media, a group that includes Google, Mozilla, Microsoft, Apple, Netflix and Amazon. The format was finished in 2019 and is free to use.

Its selling point is size. An AVIF photo is often around half the size of a JPG that looks the same, and noticeably smaller than WebP too. On top of that it supports transparency like PNG, animation like GIF, and HDR and wide colour, which JPG cannot store.

Why you keep getting AVIF files

Because AVIF files are so small, large websites, online shops and image services increasingly deliver their pictures as AVIF to browsers that support it. When you save such an image, your browser writes the file in exactly the format it received. The same picture saved in an older browser might have arrived as a JPG.

Which apps can open AVIF

  • Browsers: current versions of Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Opera, and Safari from iOS 16 and macOS Ventura onwards. Dragging the file into a browser tab is the quickest way to look at it.
  • Windows 10 and 11: the Photos app can show AVIF once the free AV1 Video Extension from the Microsoft Store is installed. Many other desktop programs still cannot.
  • Mac and iPhone: Preview and Photos open AVIF on recent system versions.
  • Image editors, office programs and upload forms: support is patchy. Some recent editors read AVIF, while many older tools, slide programs and websites reject it.

So viewing an AVIF file is usually possible. Using it somewhere else, such as in a document, an email to someone with an older device or an upload form, is where problems start.

How to convert AVIF to JPG or PNG

Converting gives you a file that opens everywhere. With the AVIF to JPG converter it takes a few seconds:

  1. Open the converter and drop in your .avif files, or click Choose files. You can add many at once.
  2. Keep JPG quality at the default for a result that looks like the original, or lower it for smaller files. If the image has transparent areas, choose the background colour they get, white by default.
  3. Download each JPG, or click Download all (ZIP).

The conversion uses your browser’s own AVIF decoder and runs on your device, so nothing is uploaded. If the tool cannot read a file, your browser is probably too old to understand AVIF: update it or try the latest Chrome or Firefox.

JPG or PNG?

  • Choose JPG for photos you want to share, print or upload. Expect the JPG to be roughly twice the size of the AVIF, because JPG compression is less efficient.
  • Choose AVIF to PNG for logos, graphics and anything with a transparent background, or when you want to edit the image without adding more compression. PNG files are larger again, but lossless.

Not sure which suits your image? The JPG vs PNG guide explains the difference in plain terms.

Should you keep the AVIF original?

If storage matters, yes. AVIF is the most compact of the common formats, and support keeps growing. Keep the original for your archive and use a JPG or PNG copy wherever the AVIF is not accepted.

Tools used in this guide

More guides