How do HEIC and AVIFcompare? Here's everything you need to know to choose the right format — and how to convert between them.
High Efficiency Image Container
HEIC is Apple's preferred image format, used by iPhones and iPads since iOS 11. It delivers significantly better compression than JPG while maintaining higher quality, but compatibility remains limited outside the Apple ecosystem.
AV1 Image File Format
AVIF is a next-generation image format based on the AV1 video codec. It offers the best compression ratios available today — significantly better than WebP and JPG — while being royalty-free and open source.
| Specification | HEIC | AVIF |
|---|---|---|
| Full name | High Efficiency Image Container | AV1 Image File Format |
| Extension | .heic | .avif |
| MIME type | image/heic | image/avif |
| Category | Image | Image |
| Developer | MPEG (Moving Picture Experts Group) | Alliance for Open Media |
| Year introduced | 2015 | 2019 |
| Compression | Lossy | Lossy |
Both HEIC and AVIF have their strengths. HEIC excels at iphone and ipad photography, while AVIF is better for cutting-edge web performance optimization.
Need to switch formats? Convert for free with SquishConvert.