AV1 Converter

How to Convert AV1 to Any Format

1. Upload Your AV1 File: Drag and drop your video or click "Add Files". The converter accepts AV1-coded video whether it arrives as a raw .av1 stream or wrapped in MP4, MKV, or WebM. Batch is supported — drop in several files and each converts in parallel.
2. Pick an Output Format and Quality Preset: Choose the target container from the Video File Extension dropdown — MP4, MOV, MKV, WebM, AVI, and 25+ more — or extract the audio to MP3. The default Quality Preset is "Very High (Recommended)". Switch File Compression to Specific file size to cap output at an exact MB target, Constant Bitrate for predictable streaming sizes, Variable Bitrate for smaller files at equal quality, or Constant Quality (CRF) to tune by perceptual quality (18 = visually lossless, 23 = default, 28 = noticeably smaller).
3. Resize, Trim, or Change Codec (Optional): Under Video resolution, keep original, pick a Preset Resolution (2160p / 1440p / 1080p / 720p / 480p), scale by Resolution Percentage, or set a custom Width × Height. Under Trim, choose Time Range and enter start + duration. To make the file play on older devices, override the Video Codec to H.264 (the most compatible option); other choices are H.265, VP9, AV1, MPEG-4, MJPEG, and XviD, with Audio Codec choices AAC, MP3, Opus, FLAC, AC3, and PCM.
4. Convert and Download: Click Convert. Files are uploaded over an encrypted connection, processed on our servers, and deleted automatically after a few hours — no sign-up, no watermark, never shared.

Popular AV1 Conversions

• AV1 to MP4 — re-encode to H.264 for universal device and browser playback
• AV1 to MOV — import into Final Cut Pro and Apple editing workflows
• AV1 to MKV — keep AV1 efficiency in a multi-track container for media servers
• AV1 to WebM — re-wrap AV1 into the web's open container for HTML5 embeds
• AV1 to AVI — legacy Windows editors and players that reject modern codecs
• AV1 to HEVC — H.265 for Apple devices and TVs with HEVC but not AV1 hardware
• AV1 to MP3 — pull just the audio track out of the file

Why Convert an AV1 File?

AV1 (AOMedia Video 1) is the first codec released by the Alliance for Open Media, a consortium that includes Google, Mozilla, Microsoft, Amazon, Netflix, Intel, and Apple. Its bitstream specification was published in 2018, and unlike H.264 and H.265 it is completely royalty-free. AV1 compresses noticeably better than older codecs — roughly 30% smaller than H.265 (HEVC) and meaningfully smaller than H.264 at the same perceptual quality — which is why YouTube, Netflix, and other large streamers encode in AV1 to save bandwidth.

That efficiency comes at a cost: AV1 is expensive to encode and to decode. The reasons people convert away from it are almost always about compatibility and CPU load, not quality:

• The file won't play (no hardware decode) — AV1 hardware decoding is recent. On the desktop it arrived with Intel Arc and 11th-gen Core, NVIDIA RTX 30-series, and AMD Radeon RX 6000-series (RDNA 2) GPUs; on Apple, with the M3 Mac chips and the iPhone 15 Pro's A17 Pro (September 2023). Older machines fall back to software decoding, which can stutter on 4K, or fail outright. Converting AV1 to MP4 with the H.264 codec produces a file that plays on essentially every device made since around 2010.
• Windows shows a codec error — Windows' built-in Movies & TV and Media Player apps need the separate "AV1 Video Extension" from the Microsoft Store before they'll open an AV1 file. Re-encoding to an H.264 MP4 sidesteps that requirement entirely.
• Your editor rejects it — Adobe Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve have limited AV1 import support, and AV1 is a delivery codec, not an edit-friendly one. Transcoding to an H.264 MOV or MP4 (or a ProRes MOV for grading) gives a timeline that scrubs smoothly.
• Browser fallback for the open web — Chrome 70+, Firefox 67+, and Edge 121+ decode AV1, but Safari only added partial, hardware-dependent support in version 17. Sites that must reach every visitor still ship an MP4 (H.264) fallback alongside the AV1.

AV1 vs. Its Common Targets

Frequently Asked Questions

Why won't my AV1 video play on my phone or computer?

Almost always because the device lacks AV1 hardware decoding. AV1 decode support only reached mainstream hardware recently — Intel Arc, NVIDIA RTX 30-series, AMD RX 6000-series GPUs, Apple M3 Macs, and the iPhone 15 Pro (A17 Pro). Anything older has to decode AV1 in software, which can stutter on high-resolution clips or fail entirely, and Windows' built-in players additionally need the AV1 Video Extension installed. The reliable fix is to convert AV1 to MP4 with the H.264 codec, which plays on practically every device and browser without extra software.

Will converting AV1 to MP4 (H.264) make the file bigger?

Usually yes, at matched visual quality. AV1 is one of the most efficient codecs available, so re-encoding to the older H.264 typically lands the same clip 30-50% larger. That is the trade you make for universal compatibility. If you want to keep file size down while gaining broader playback, target H.265 (HEVC) instead — it sits between AV1 and H.264 on efficiency and plays natively on Apple devices and most recent hardware. You can also offset the size increase by trimming dead footage or downscaling 4K to 1080p before converting.

Does converting from AV1 lose quality?

Re-encoding AV1 to a different codec is a lossy step — the frames are decoded and compressed again. In our testing, a 1080p AV1 clip re-encoded to H.264 at Constant Quality (CRF) 18-20 is visually indistinguishable from the source in normal side-by-side viewing, so the loss is invisible in practice even though it is mathematically present. The only way to avoid re-encoding entirely is to keep the AV1 stream and just change the wrapper — converting AV1 to MKV or WebM can re-wrap the existing AV1 bytes without a second encode, preserving quality exactly while still solving a container-compatibility problem.

Can I convert AV1 to MP4 without re-encoding the video?

Sometimes. MP4 can legally carry an AV1 stream, so re-wrapping AV1 into an .mp4 container without re-encoding is technically possible — but it does not solve the usual problem, because a device that can't decode AV1 still can't decode it inside an MP4 wrapper. If your goal is compatibility, you need to actually re-encode the video to H.264, not just change the extension. If your goal is only to get AV1 into a container a specific app accepts, re-wrapping to MP4 or MKV keeps the original quality and is much faster.

What's the best format to convert AV1 to for editing in Premiere or DaVinci Resolve?

Convert AV1 to an H.264 MOV or MP4 for light editing, or to a ProRes-based MOV if you're doing color grading or compositing. AV1 is a delivery codec built for streaming, not an edit-intermediate format, and both Premiere Pro and DaVinci Resolve have limited AV1 support. Transcoding to H.264 gives a timeline that scrubs and renders smoothly; ProRes goes further by storing lightly-compressed frames that editors handle far more responsively, at the cost of a much larger file. See AV1 to MOV for the Apple-editing path.

How long do you keep my AV1 file after converting?

AV1 encoding and decoding are CPU-intensive, so the conversion runs on our servers rather than in your browser. Your file is uploaded over an encrypted (HTTPS) connection, processed, and then deleted automatically after a few hours — it is never shared, made public, or used for anything other than your conversion. There's no sign-up and no watermark on the output. Because the work is server-side, the practical limit on big files is upload size and connection speed, not your device's processing power, so multi-gigabyte 4K AV1 files convert fine.