Format comparison
WebM vs AVI
How do WebM and AVIcompare? Here's everything you need to know to choose the right format — and how to convert between them.
.webm
Full guide →Web Media
WebM is Google's open-source video format designed specifically for the web. It offers excellent compression and quality, especially with the VP9 and AV1 codecs, and is royalty-free.
.avi
Full guide →Audio Video Interleave
AVI is one of the oldest and most recognized video formats. While it has been largely superseded by MP4 and MKV, AVI files are still commonly found in legacy video libraries and older applications.
| Specification | WebM | AVI |
|---|---|---|
| Full name | Web Media | Audio Video Interleave |
| Extension | .webm | .avi |
| MIME type | video/webm | video/x-msvideo |
| Category | Video | Video |
| Developer | Microsoft | |
| Year introduced | 2010 | 1992 |
WebM advantages
- Royalty-free and open source
- Excellent web browser support
- Great compression with VP9/AV1
- Designed for HTML5 video
WebM limitations
- Limited support outside web browsers
- Fewer editing tools available
- Hardware decoding less common
- Less universal than MP4
AVI advantages
- Wide compatibility
- Simple container format
- No compression overhead
- Good for uncompressed video
AVI limitations
- Large file sizes
- Limited codec support compared to MKV
- No native streaming support
- Outdated format
Which should you use?
WebM and AVI target different use cases. WebM is ideal for html5 web video, while AVI works best for legacy video archives.
Best uses for WebM
HTML5 web video
YouTube (internal format)
Web applications
Open-source projects
Best uses for AVI
Legacy video archives
Uncompressed video capture
Compatibility with older players
Simple video recording
Convert between WebM and AVI
Need to switch formats? Convert for free with SquishConvert.