WebP vs JPEG vs AVIF in 2026: Which Should You Actually Use?
· 6 min read
Real-world byte savings, browser support, and the one format we recommend for almost every web image today.
Three years ago this answer was complicated. Today it isn't. For nearly every web image in 2026, the right choice is WebP — with JPEG as a fallback for the dwindling list of clients that don't support it, and AVIF reserved for hero images you can afford to encode slowly.
The numbers, at the same visible quality
- JPEG at quality 80: baseline (100%)
- WebP at quality 80: 65–75% of the JPEG size
- AVIF at quality 60: 45–55% of the JPEG size
- PNG (lossless): 200–400% of the JPEG size for photos
Browser support, finally
As of 2026, WebP support sits at 98%+ globally — every modern browser including Safari, every iOS version since 14, and every Android since Chrome shipped it in 2010. AVIF crossed 95% in 2025 when Safari and Edge caught up.
When to use which
- WebP: default choice for photos, screenshots, hero images, blog images, thumbnails
- AVIF: hero images and brand assets you can encode once and serve forever
- JPEG: only when the destination explicitly demands it
- PNG: screenshots, icons, anything needing transparency
- GIF: animated stickers only
Related tools
- JPG to WebP — Bulk convert with a quality slider
- WebP to JPG — Fallback conversion for legacy systems
- Image Converter — Any-format-to-any-format conversion
- Image Compressor — Tune quality to a target size