HEIC to AVIF Converter

HEIC vs AVIF — Differences Explained

As Apple’s default image file type on iPhone since iOS 11 (2017), HEIC stands for High Efficiency Image Container. HEIC images are stored as HEVC (H.265) video files and therefore enjoy the same high image quality at reduced file size compared to JPEG (around 30 to 50%, based on tests). Image quality is preserved at half the file size, and even 16-bit images, transparent images, Live Photos, and burst images can be stored in a single HEIC file. We are storing those iPhone images online and therefore look at the HEIC file type below.

These images are also restricted to the Apple ecosystem and are patent-licensed through MPEG-LA, which hinders most non-Apple software, including web browsers (outside of Apple Safari), Android-powered devices, older versions of Windows, and applications used for editing images, as well as content management systems that enable the uploading of web content.

AVIF (AV1 Image File Format) is an image file format developed by the Alliance for Open Media in 2019 (backed by large companies like Google and Amazon as a non-profit). The format is based on the royalty-free video codec AV1, which is already used by a lot of large media companies like Netflix, YouTube, and Twitch. For still images, AVIF uses the intra-frame compression of AV1 to create files that are up to 20-30% smaller than equivalent HEIC files at the same quality. The format supports all features of HEIC, like transparency, HDR, wide gamut color, and 10/12 bit depth. Importantly for many web developers, it is now supported by all major browsers including Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari (16.4+) and Opera – covering more than 90% of all web usage.

To share the photos you take with your iPhone, convert them to AVIF. They’ll have the same quality as your HEIC photos and be of similar size. But you can freely distribute them online, and anyone with a web browser can open them. They’ll work in your WordPress, Ghost, or Shopify site; they’ll be even faster to download than a JPG that your site would convert to for you.

HEIC remains the best choice for storing your iPhone’s photos within Apple’s own ecosystem of apps, including iWorks apps like iPhoto and iMovie, as well as in iCloud, iMessage, and your Photos app. AVIF is best for when you actually share the images, however.

Why convert HEIC to AVIF?

The biggest reason is compatibility. HEIC will not work outside Apple’s ecosystem, especially if you plan to upload your iPhone photographs on a website. AVIF has better browser support and offers better compression, so it loads faster than HEIC.

• Universal browser support: AVIF works in Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Safari 16.4+ and Opera. HEIC images, on the other hand, only work in Apple applications and need to be converted to JPEG (or other formats) — for example with our HEIC to JPG converter — in order to work on websites, blogs, etc.
• Smaller files than HEIC: Typically 20-30% smaller than HEIC images of similar perceived quality, which means faster page loads, less bandwidth, better Core Web Vitals, and lower costs for your CDN.
• Non-Apple users are just fine: Unlike HEIC, AVIF images will open up on Android phones and Windows (or Linux) laptops as well as within image editors — all without forcing a file re-save as JPG.
• CMS and upload compatibility: AVIF is encoded not only in all browsers but is also supported by most CMS and upload services like WordPress, Ghost, Shopify, Webflow, and Squarespace. HEIC, on the other hand, is supported only by WordPress and needs to be converted first (which would then encode it into a suboptimal-quality JPG). If you still need JPG for a legacy CMS, use our HEIC to JPG tool.
• Royalty-free & future-proof: AVIF is built on the open-source video codec library AV1, backed by Google, Netflix, Amazon, Microsoft, Apple, Mozilla, and many more; HEIC is licensed by MPEG-LA, so many platforms refuse to support it for now.
• Preserves advantages of HEIC: Like HEIC, AVIF maintains support for transparent, HDR, wide color gamut images as well as images with 10/12-bit depth. If you want AVIF-level compression on existing JPG assets, try our JPG to AVIF converter as well.

When should I keep HEIC?

If you’re not sharing or uploading photos to a website or a non-iOS user, then keep the HEIC format (there’s no need to convert to AVIF).

• Staying inside Apple: If the photo is stored in iCloud Photos, sent in Messages, shared by AirDrop, or even just remains within the Photos app on your iPhone or Mac (and will never leave Apple’s ecosystem), then HEIC is the optimal format, and there is no conversion cost as HEIC is rendered natively by iOS and macOS alike.
• Live Photos and burst sequences: HEIC supports the storing of multiple frames (including the short video sequence behind a Live Photo) in a single file. AVIF is a still image format, and by converting HEIC photos to AVIF, the Live Photos and burst sequences will be flattened to single frames.
• Editing a photo on an iPhone or Mac: As with capturing images, the majority of editing tasks involving photos on an iPhone or Mac can be completed using Photos and a variety of other apps, including Pixelmator, Affinity Photo, and Final Cut, to name a few. As long as the images are opened in these applications on an iPhone or Mac, the need to convert HEIC images to AVIF prior to editing is unnecessary, and images should be converted at export time instead.
• Printing: Print labs and other photo services such as photo-book makers usually expect JPG or TIFF files and not AVIF files. For print, use our HEIC to JPG converter instead.
• Archiving originals: The HEIC file as captured by your camera is your original. Any lossy encoding (even AVIF) of this file will result in you losing some information, and you can never get it back. Make copies to work with and then encode those.

So, the rule of thumb for now is to convert photos that you intend to send to the web or to share outside of the Apple Ecosystem to AVIF. If not, there’s no need to convert. Need a different output? Try our HEIC to WebP, HEIC to PNG, or HEIC to JPG tools.