WebP vs AVIF: The Ultimate 2025 Showdown for Speed-Obsessed Devs

TL;DR: WebP is still king for compatibility and ease. AVIF wins on raw compression (up to 50% smaller) but lags in browser support and encoding speed. Use WebP for 95% of sites, AVIF for hero images or bleeding-edge projects—and let WebPict handle both flawlessly.

1. Compression Showdown (Real-World Test)

Tested on 4K product photo (3840×2560). Encoded with cwebp and cavif at visually lossless settings.

Before and after compression comparison of a 4K image in JPEG, WebP, and AVIF

Format	File Size (KB)	Quality	Notes
JPEG (baseline)	285 KB	85%	Your grandma’s format
WebP	112 KB	85%	-61% vs JPEG
AVIF	68 KB	50 (visual match)	-76% vs JPEG, -39% vs WebP

Winner: AVIF — but only if you can afford the CPU cost.

2. Browser Support (Nov 2025)

Browser logos for Chrome, Firefox, Safari showing support timelines for WebP and AVIF

Browser	WebP	AVIF
Chrome / Edge	✅ 2015	✅ 2020
Firefox	✅ 2019	✅ 2021
Safari	✅ 2020 (iOS 14+)	✅ 2023 (iOS 16+)
Samsung Internet	✅	✅
Legacy Android (<6.0)	❌	❌

Reality Check: 98%+ global support for WebP. AVIF? ~92% (still shaky on older iOS).

Winner: WebP — no fallbacks needed.

3. Encoding Speed (Your Server Will Thank You)

Graph showing encoding time comparison between WebP and AVIF on a VPS

Tool	Time to Encode 1 Image (4K)
cwebp -q 80	0.8s
cavif -q 50	4.2s

On a $5 VPS (1vCPU). AVIF = 5× slower.

Pro Move: Use WebPict’s batch mode → drag 100 images → WebP in <10s total.

4. When to Pick Which?

Use case illustrations for e-commerce, hero banners, and user uploads with WebP and AVIF icons

Use Case	Best Format	Why
E-commerce product grids	WebP	Fast, universal, no layout shift
Hero banners (above fold)	AVIF	Max savings where it counts
User uploads (UGC)	WebP	Faster processing, lower server load
Email newsletters	WebP	Gmail/Outlook support AVIF? Nope.
Next.js / React apps	WebP + <picture> fallback	Future-proof with zero risk

5. Code Snippet: Smart Responsive Delivery

<picture>
  <source srcset="hero.avif" type="image/avif">
  <source srcset="hero.webp" type="image/webp">
  <img src="https://file-hosting.dashnexpages.net/webp/hero.jpg" alt="Hero" loading="eager" width="1920" height="1080">
</picture>

Code snippet visualization for responsive image delivery with WebP and AVIF

Bonus: Use WebPict’s API to auto-generate both:

curl -F "[email protected]" https://api.webpict.com/convert \
  -o photo.{webp,avif}

6. SEO & Core Web Vitals Impact

Format	LCP Gain (vs JPEG)	CLS Risk
WebP	+0.6s	Low
AVIF	+0.9s	Medium (decoding lag on low-end phones)

Google Says: "Use modern formats" → WebP = safe A+. AVIF = bonus points if you nail decoding.

Final Verdict (2025 Edition)

Factor	WebP	AVIF
Compression	⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Compatibility	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐⭐
Speed	⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐	⭐⭐⭐
Overall	🏆 WINNER	Future champ

Your Move: Start with WebP everywhere. Swap heroes to AVIF only if you’re on Next.js + CDN with Accept: image/avif detection.

Convert Images with WebPict Now →