JPEG XL vs AVIF for web use-cases

A detailed benchmark compares JPEG XL against AVIF for real-world web image use-cases, covering file size, encode/decode speed, memory usage, progressive rendering, and HDR support. For lossy photos, AVIF almost always beats JPEG XL on file size (15-25% smaller at default effort, 6-20% at max effort), with the gap widening further for screenshots, illustrations, and transparent images. The JPEG XL encoder choice matters significantly: jixel typically outperforms libjxl except when images have detailed transparency, where jixel's lossless-only alpha handling becomes a major disadvantage. AVIF is generally faster to encode and decode and uses less memory. JPEG XL does win for lossless compression and for transcoding existing JPEGs losslessly (9-20% smaller). Progressive JPEG XL is nearly free at high effort but gives inferior intermediate previews compared to progressive AVIF, which is more complex but offers better control and speed. For HDR, JPEG XL lacks browser-supported gain maps, a significant limitation versus AVIF. The overall recommendation is AVIF 4:4:4 at highest feasible effort as the default, with JPEG XL via jixel as a fallback to check for smaller results on specific images.

Source: https://jakearchibald.com/2026/jpeg-xl-vs-avif. 8 Sync News only summarizes and links out; content copyright belongs to the authors and original sources.