Quick Guides 2 min read · April 13, 2026 · Updated October 7, 2026

What Should I Use in 2026: WebP, AVIF, or JPEG XL?

For most web projects in 2026, use AVIF as your primary format and WebP as your fallback. AVIF now sits at 95%+ global browser support and delivers 20–50% smaller files than WebP at comparable quality. JPEG XL decodes by default in Chrome 155 (October 6, 2026) and Firefox 158 (October 13), and in Safari 17 and later for still images; add it as the first source where it is smaller or where you need lossless or progressive loading, and keep the AVIF and WebP fallbacks while installed browsers, Edge and email clients catch up.

Published April 2026 by the Mochify Engineering Team. This guide reflects browser support data and format recommendations current as of April 2026, based on caniuse.com tracking.

A reliable <picture> element covers all three in a sensible order:

HTML picture element

<picture>
  <source srcset="image.avif" type="image/avif">
  <source srcset="image.webp" type="image/webp">
  <img src="image.jpg" alt="...">
</picture>

2026 browser support at a glance

Format	Global support 2026	vs JPEG file size savings	Best for
WebP	96–97%	25–35% smaller	Broad compatibility fallback
AVIF	~95%	20–50% smaller than WebP	Primary web delivery
JPEG XL	~17% on Oct 7, 2026, rising: Chrome 155+, Firefox 158+, Safari 17+ (stills)	35–60% potential	Archival, print, native apps

Sources: caniuse.com/avif, caniuse.com/jpegxl (read October 7, 2026)

Where JPEG XL stands after Chrome 155

Google brought JPEG XL back to Chrome behind a flag in February 2026 and switched it on by default in Chrome 155 on October 6, 2026; Firefox 158 does the same on October 13, and Safari has decoded still JXL images since version 17. Edge and Samsung Internet had not shipped it as of October 7, installed browsers update over weeks, and email clients do not render it, so JPEG XL belongs at the top of a picture element rather than on its own. AVIF and WebP still cover 95%+ of real-world users without any conditional logic. Our guide to JPEG XL in Chrome and what changes now has the dated per-browser table.

AVIF vs WebP: the trade-off that matters

AVIF delivers superior quality at low bitrates - it is the right choice for hero images, product photography, and any asset where visual fidelity matters. WebP encodes faster and has wider legacy support, which makes it the right fallback in the <picture> stack rather than a primary target. For the vast majority of web workflows in 2026, the pattern above handles both automatically.

Product photography is the one case where the answer can be "neither, manually". On a hosted storefront the CDN already negotiates the format per browser, so converting by hand duplicates work the platform does for you. For that decision, see the product-image version of this question.

Serving AVIF is the right call for the web - but compatibility questions still come up once a file leaves your site, like when someone downloads an image and needs to open it in a tool that doesn't support AVIF yet. For those cases, see our AVIF to JPG conversion guide, or convert the file in seconds with the AVIF to JPG converter. The equivalent problem on the WebP side, including why the browser handed you one in the first place, is covered in our guide to saving a WebP as JPG in Chrome. If you want that conversion in the right-click menu itself, our guide to choosing a safe right-click image converter covers what to check before installing one.

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