HEIC to AVIF

What is HEIC?

HEIC is a widely used image format. It is supported by virtually all modern browsers, image editors, and operating systems, making it a reliable choice for storing and sharing images.

The HEIC format balances image quality and file size, making it suitable for photographs, graphics, and web images. However, HEIC files can be relatively large compared to newer formats like AVIF.

What is AVIF?

AVIF (AV1 Image File Format) is a modern image format that delivers outstanding compression efficiency, often producing files that are 50% smaller than JPG at equivalent visual quality. AVIF supports both lossy and lossless compression, wide color gamut, HDR, and alpha-channel transparency.

AVIF has been adopted by major platforms as a next-generation format for the web. Converting your HEIC images to AVIF can dramatically reduce file sizes while maintaining or improving visual quality.

HEIC vs AVIF comparison

HEIC and AVIF serve the same broad purpose — compressing images — but they offer very different trade-offs in terms of compression efficiency and features.

Feature	HEIC	AVIF
Compression efficiency	Good	Excellent (~50% smaller)
Color depth	8-bit	Up to 12-bit, wide gamut
Transparency	Depends on format	Yes (alpha channel)
Browser support	Universal	Modern browsers (Chrome 85+, Firefox 93+)
Typical file size	Larger	Smaller at equal quality

Converting from HEIC to AVIF gives you significantly smaller files with equal or better quality, at the cost of requiring a modern browser for display.

When to use HEIC to AVIF conversion

Converting HEIC images to AVIF is beneficial in several scenarios:

• Web performance. Smaller AVIF files load faster, improving page speed and user experience.
• Bandwidth savings. Reduce hosting and CDN costs by serving smaller AVIF files.
• Modern web deployment. Use AVIF as part of a responsive image strategy with fallback formats.
• Storage optimization. Store more images in the same disk space by switching to AVIF.

Keep your original HEIC files as backups and serve AVIF to modern browsers for the best performance.

How to convert HEIC to AVIF

Converting a HEIC image to AVIF with this tool takes only a few seconds and happens entirely in your browser:

1. Upload your HEIC file. Click the upload area or drag and drop your file. The image is decoded locally and shown as a preview.
2. Adjust the AVIF quality. Use the quality slider to balance file size and visual quality. 90% is a good default.
3. Convert to AVIF. Click the "Convert to AVIF" button. The tool re-encodes the image to AVIF via the Canvas API.
4. Download the AVIF. Click "Download AVIF" to save the converted file to your device.

Because every step runs locally in your browser, your image is never uploaded to a server. This makes the conversion completely private and fast.