{"id":1096,"date":"2026-08-04T15:13:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-04T19:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.xconvert.com\/blog\/?p=1096"},"modified":"2026-07-16T19:39:51","modified_gmt":"2026-07-16T23:39:51","slug":"av1-vs-hevc-vs-h264","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.xconvert.com\/blog\/av1-vs-hevc-vs-h264","title":{"rendered":"AV1 vs HEVC vs H.264: The Next-Gen Codec Showdown"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">YouTube and Netflix already stream a big slice of their catalogs in AV1 \u2014 the newest of the three codecs that matter today \u2014 because it shrinks video further than anything else in wide use. So why isn\u2019t AV1 the obvious default for your own exports? Because the same three-way trade-off that governs <a href=\"https:\/\/www.xconvert.com\/blog\/h264-vs-h265-which-to-use\/\">H.264 vs H.265<\/a> extends one step further: every gain in compression efficiency costs you in encode time and playback support. This guide ranks AV1, HEVC, and H.264 honestly on both axes and gives you a \u201cwhich to pick when\u201d framework. We verified the efficiency figures, the royalty status, and the current browser\/hardware-decode state against AOMedia, MDN, and caniuse \u2014 and hedged the numbers that are genuinely content-dependent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Quick answer:<\/strong> On <strong>efficiency<\/strong>, the ranking is <strong>AV1 &gt; HEVC (H.265) &gt; H.264<\/strong> \u2014 AV1 needs roughly <strong>30% less data than HEVC<\/strong> and about <strong>50% less than H.264<\/strong> at the same quality. On <strong>compatibility<\/strong>, it flips: <strong>H.264 &gt; HEVC \u2248 AV1<\/strong> \u2014 H.264 plays on essentially everything, while AV1 and HEVC are newer and hardware-gated. <strong>Pick H.264 to play anywhere, HEVC for the Apple\/modern-device sweet spot, and AV1 when you want the smallest file for a modern web audience and can absorb a much slower encode.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Jump to a section<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><a href=\"#glance\">The three codecs at a glance<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#efficiency\">Efficiency ranking: AV1 &gt; HEVC &gt; H.264<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#compatibility\">Compatibility ranking: H.264 &gt; HEVC \u2248 AV1<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#catch\">The catch with AV1: encode speed and royalties<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#framework\">Which codec to pick when<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#tool\">Convert to AV1 (or H.264\/HEVC) on xconvert<\/a><\/li><li><a href=\"#faq\">FAQ<\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"glance\">The three codecs at a glance<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">All three are <strong>video compression codecs<\/strong> \u2014 algorithms that shrink raw video into a playable file. None of them is a container format: an <code>.mp4<\/code> or <code>.webm<\/code> file can carry any of them. They sit on a clear timeline, each newer one trading compatibility for efficiency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><strong>H.264 \/ AVC<\/strong> \u2014 standardized by the ITU-T and ISO\/IEC in 2003. The de-facto default for web video, Blu-ray, broadcast, and recording on nearly every camera and phone. Its defining trait is <strong>ubiquity<\/strong>: if a device plays video at all, it almost certainly plays H.264.<\/li><li><strong>H.265 \/ HEVC<\/strong> \u2014 ratified in 2013, designed to deliver roughly the same quality as H.264 at about half the bitrate. Strong on Apple platforms and modern phones, but <strong>patent-licensed<\/strong> and patchy in web browsers.<\/li><li><strong>AV1<\/strong> \u2014 developed by the <strong>Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia)<\/strong>, a Joint Development Foundation project, founded in 2015 and counting Google, Amazon, Netflix, Microsoft, Apple, Intel, and others among its members. AV1 was published in 2018 as a <strong>royalty-free<\/strong> codec under the Open Media Patent License 1.0, explicitly built for video on the web. It is the most efficient of the three \u2014 and the slowest to encode.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The pattern is consistent: each newer codec does more analysis per frame, so it produces a smaller file but costs more compute to create, and arrives with narrower playback support until hardware catches up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"efficiency\">Efficiency ranking: AV1 &gt; HEVC &gt; H.264<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On pure compression efficiency, the order is unambiguous. Per Bitmovin\u2019s encoding analysis, <strong>AV1 reaches the same visual quality using roughly 50% less data than H.264\/AVC and about 30% less than H.265\/HEVC<\/strong> (and VP9). MDN states the same upper bound from the other direction: AV1 \u201cachieves higher data compression rates than VP9 and H.265\/HEVC, and as much as 50% higher rates than AVC.\u201d HEVC, in turn, \u201ccan achieve compressed file sizes half that of AVC\u201d at comparable quality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Stacked up, the design targets look like this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><thead><tr><th>Codec<\/th><th>Year<\/th><th>Efficiency vs H.264<\/th><th>Efficiency vs HEVC<\/th><\/tr><\/thead><tbody><tr><td>H.264 \/ AVC<\/td><td>2003<\/td><td>baseline<\/td><td>~2\u00d7 larger files<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>H.265 \/ HEVC<\/td><td>2013<\/td><td>~50% smaller<\/td><td>baseline<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>AV1<\/td><td>2018<\/td><td>~50% smaller, and smaller still than HEVC<\/td><td>~30% smaller<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Two honesty caveats. First, these are <strong>ranges, not constants<\/strong> \u2014 real-world savings depend heavily on the content, resolution, and encoder settings. The AV1-over-HEVC advantage is commonly cited around <strong>30%<\/strong>, and grows toward <strong>40%+<\/strong> at higher resolutions where there is more redundancy to exploit; it can be smaller on simple low-resolution footage. Treat any single percentage as a favourable-case figure, not a guarantee. Second, \u201csmaller file at equal quality\u201d and \u201cbetter quality at equal size\u201d are the same fact viewed two ways \u2014 AV1\u2019s edge is most visible at <strong>low bitrates<\/strong>, where H.264 shows blocky artifacts first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">That efficiency is exactly why <strong>YouTube and Netflix<\/strong> encode much of their most-streamed HD and 4K content in AV1: at their scale, ~30% less data is an enormous CDN and bandwidth saving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"compatibility\">Compatibility ranking: H.264 &gt; HEVC \u2248 AV1<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Flip to playback support and the order reverses. <strong>H.264 plays essentially everywhere<\/strong> \u2014 every modern browser, OS, phone, and smart TV, with hardware decoders in chips going back well over a decade. There is no meaningful 2026 device that can\u2019t play H.264.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">AV1 and HEVC are both newer and more conditional. Encouragingly, <strong>AV1 browser support is now broad on the desktop<\/strong>: per <a href=\"https:\/\/caniuse.com\/av1\">caniuse<\/a>, AV1 has full support in <strong>Chrome (70+), Firefox (67+), and Edge (121+)<\/strong>, putting global browser support around <strong>~93%<\/strong>. The remaining gap is the one that bites: <strong>Safari supports AV1 only on devices with a hardware decoder<\/strong> \u2014 per MDN, that means <strong>Apple M3 Macs and later, iPhone 15 Pro, and iPhone 16 and later<\/strong>. Older iPhones and Intel Macs can\u2019t decode AV1 in Safari.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><thead><tr><th>Environment<\/th><th>AV1<\/th><th>HEVC \/ H.265<\/th><th>H.264<\/th><\/tr><\/thead><tbody><tr><td>Chrome<\/td><td>Full (70+)<\/td><td>Partial (107+), hardware-gated<\/td><td>Full<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Firefox<\/td><td>Full (67+)<\/td><td>Disabled by default (partial v137+)<\/td><td>Full<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Edge<\/td><td>Full (121+)<\/td><td>Partial, hardware-dependent<\/td><td>Full<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Safari (macOS \/ iOS)<\/td><td>Only with a <strong>hardware decoder<\/strong> (M3+ \/ iPhone 15 Pro \/ 16+)<\/td><td>Supported (macOS 10.13+ \/ iOS 11+)<\/td><td>Full<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Older phones \/ Intel Macs \/ older GPUs<\/td><td>Often <strong>no hardware decode<\/strong><\/td><td>Hardware-dependent<\/td><td>Full<\/td><\/tr><tr><td>Web embed for unknown audience<\/td><td>Improving, but <strong>not universal<\/strong><\/td><td>Risky<\/td><td><strong>Safe default<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The practical takeaway: AV1\u2019s <em>software<\/em> decode reach is high (~93%), but <strong>smooth, battery-friendly playback depends on a hardware decoder<\/strong>, and AV1 hardware decode only became common on phones and GPUs released in the last few years. For a public web embed that must reach Linux desktops, older phones, and budget hardware, <strong>H.264 is still the safe default<\/strong> \u2014 exactly as it is in the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.xconvert.com\/blog\/h264-vs-h265-which-to-use\/\">H.264 vs H.265 decision<\/a>. If you want an open web codec with a wide reach today, AV1-in-WebM is the modern choice; see <a href=\"https:\/\/www.xconvert.com\/blog\/mp4-vs-webm-web-video\/\">MP4 vs WebM<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"catch\">The catch with AV1: encode speed and royalties<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">AV1\u2019s two defining practical traits cut in opposite directions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Encode speed (the cost).<\/strong> AV1 is the <strong>slowest of the three to encode<\/strong> by a wide margin. Because the encoder examines far more spatial and temporal patterns to reach its smaller output, software AV1 encoding is commonly cited as <strong>around 3\u00d7 slower than HEVC<\/strong> at comparable settings, and dramatically slower than H.264. (Newer encoders like Intel\u2019s open-source SVT-AV1 have narrowed the gap substantially, and hardware AV1 encoders are appearing on recent GPUs, but the codec is still the most compute-hungry of the three.) This is why AV1 makes most sense for <strong>encode-once, stream-many<\/strong> content \u2014 on-demand video where you pay the encoding cost once and reap the bandwidth savings forever \u2014 and why H.264 still rules <strong>real-time<\/strong> use like video calls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Royalties (the win).<\/strong> Here AV1 has a structural advantage HEVC can\u2019t match. HEVC is covered by multiple patent pools with licensing widely regarded as complex and costly \u2014 the very reason browser vendors were slow to adopt it. AV1, by contrast, is <strong>royalty-free<\/strong> under AOMedia\u2019s Open Media Patent License 1.0. That open status is precisely why the same companies that ship browsers (Google, Mozilla, Microsoft) embraced AV1, giving it broader browser support than HEVC despite being five years newer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"framework\">Which codec to pick when<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Boil it down to two questions: <strong>do you control playback, and is encode time cheap?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Choose H.264 when:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>The video must play <em>anywhere<\/em> \u2014 public web embeds, email, unknown devices, older hardware, Linux.<\/li><li>You need the fastest encode, or you\u2019re doing real-time \/ live work.<\/li><li>Compatibility outweighs file size.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Choose H.265 (HEVC) when:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>You\u2019re inside the Apple ecosystem (iPhone, iPad, Mac) or sharing between known modern devices.<\/li><li>You\u2019re archiving your own media library and want roughly half the storage.<\/li><li>You want strong efficiency <em>and<\/em> mature hardware support, and accept the licensing baggage.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Choose AV1 when:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>You want the <strong>smallest file at a given quality<\/strong> and your audience is on modern browsers\/devices.<\/li><li>The content is <strong>encode-once, stream-many<\/strong> (on-demand video, a media library you\u2019ll keep), so a slow encode is a one-time cost.<\/li><li>A <strong>royalty-free, open<\/strong> codec matters to you (web publishing, open platforms).<\/li><li>You can tolerate that older phones, Intel Macs, and budget GPUs may fall back to software decode or can\u2019t play it.<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Rule of thumb:<\/strong> <em>ship H.264, store HEVC, stream AV1.<\/em> Distribute in the universally-playable codec; archive in the efficient mature one; serve AV1 to modern audiences where the extra ~30% saving over HEVC justifies the encode. For the full H.264-vs-HEVC half of this decision, see <a href=\"https:\/\/www.xconvert.com\/blog\/h264-vs-h265-which-to-use\/\">H.264 vs H.265: which to use<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"tool\">Convert to AV1 (or H.264\/HEVC) on xconvert<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.xconvert.com\/convert-mp4-to-av1\">xconvert MP4-to-AV1 converter<\/a> lets you apply this framework directly \u2014 pick the output codec and how you want to control size:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Open <a href=\"https:\/\/www.xconvert.com\/convert-mp4-to-av1\">xconvert.com\/convert-mp4-to-av1<\/a> and click <strong>+ Add Files<\/strong> to upload your video (from your computer, Google Drive, or Dropbox).<\/li><li>Open <strong>Advanced Options<\/strong> (the gear icon). The defaults are tuned for good results, so change them only if you have a specific need.<\/li><li>Set the <strong>Video Codec<\/strong> \u2014 <strong>AV1<\/strong> for the smallest open-codec output, or switch to <strong>H.264<\/strong> for maximum compatibility \/ <strong>H.265 (HEVC)<\/strong> for the Apple-friendly middle ground. The <strong>Audio Codec<\/strong> defaults to <strong>Opus<\/strong> for AV1.<\/li><li>Choose how to control size: a <strong>Quality Preset<\/strong> (default <em>Very High (Recommended)<\/em>), <strong>Constant Quality<\/strong>, <strong>Constant Bitrate<\/strong>, <strong>Variable Bitrate<\/strong>, or an exact <strong>Specific file size<\/strong> in MB.<\/li><li>Click to convert, then download. AV1 encodes slower than H.264 or HEVC, so allow extra time for the conversion.<\/li><\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Your file uploads over an encrypted connection, is processed on our servers, and is automatically deleted a few hours later. Nothing stays around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">For related workflows: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.xconvert.com\/blog\/h264-vs-h265-which-to-use\/\">H.264 vs H.265<\/a> (the compatibility-vs-size half of this decision) and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.xconvert.com\/blog\/mp4-vs-webm-web-video\/\">MP4 vs WebM<\/a> (the right container to pair with an open codec on the web).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\" id=\"faq\">FAQ<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Is AV1 better than HEVC?<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On <strong>compression efficiency, yes<\/strong> \u2014 AV1 reaches the same quality with roughly <strong>30% less data than HEVC<\/strong> (more at higher resolutions), and it\u2019s royalty-free where HEVC is patent-licensed. The trade-offs are that AV1 encodes far slower (commonly ~3\u00d7 slower than HEVC in software) and its hardware-decode support, while growing fast, is still newer than HEVC\u2019s. For an Apple-centric or encode-fast workflow HEVC can be the more practical pick; for smallest-file web delivery to modern devices, AV1 wins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Which codec produces the smallest file?<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>AV1<\/strong>, at equal visual quality \u2014 about <strong>50% smaller than H.264<\/strong> and <strong>~30% smaller than HEVC<\/strong> as a design target, with the exact saving depending on content and encoder settings. HEVC is the middle (~50% smaller than H.264), and H.264 produces the largest files of the three.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Is AV1 royalty-free?<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Yes.<\/strong> AV1 is published by the Alliance for Open Media under the <strong>Open Media Patent License 1.0<\/strong>, making it royalty-free \u2014 a deliberate contrast with H.264 and HEVC, which are covered by patent pools. That open status is the main reason Google, Mozilla, and Microsoft added AV1 support to their browsers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Does AV1 play in all browsers?<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Almost.<\/strong> Per caniuse, AV1 has full support in Chrome (70+), Firefox (67+), and Edge (121+) \u2014 about <strong>93% of users globally<\/strong>. The exception is <strong>Safari, which decodes AV1 only on devices with a hardware decoder<\/strong> (Apple M3 Macs and later, iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 16 and later). Older iPhones and Intel Macs can\u2019t play AV1 in Safari, so for a truly universal embed, H.264 is still safest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Why is AV1 encoding so slow?<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Because the encoder does far more analysis per frame to reach its smaller output. Software AV1 encoding is commonly <strong>around 3\u00d7 slower than HEVC<\/strong> and much slower than H.264. This is why AV1 suits <strong>encode-once, stream-many<\/strong> content (on-demand, archives) rather than real-time use \u2014 you pay the encode cost once and bank the bandwidth savings. Newer encoders (SVT-AV1) and hardware AV1 encoders are closing the gap. xconvert encodes on the server, so it doesn\u2019t tax your own device.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">What is the best video codec overall?<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">There isn\u2019t one \u201cbest\u201d \u2014 it\u2019s a trade-off. <strong>H.264<\/strong> is best for universal compatibility and fast\/real-time encoding; <strong>HEVC (H.265)<\/strong> is best for efficient storage on Apple and modern devices with mature hardware support; <strong>AV1<\/strong> is best for the smallest royalty-free files served to modern web audiences. Match the codec to your playback environment and how much encode time you can spend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h5 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Should I convert my H.264 videos to AV1?<\/h5>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Only if you\u2019ll benefit from the smaller size and your audience can play it. Converting to AV1 cuts size substantially at equal quality, but the encode is slow and re-encoding always loses a little quality. It\u2019s most worthwhile for content you\u2019ll <strong>keep or stream repeatedly<\/strong> to modern devices. If broad compatibility matters more, stay on H.264; if you want efficiency with wider device support today, HEVC is the middle path.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Sources<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Last verified 2026-06-25.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li><a href=\"https:\/\/aomedia.org\/about\/story\/\">Alliance for Open Media \u2014 AOMedia story<\/a> \u2014 AV1 founded 2015, published 2018, royalty-free under the Open Media Patent License 1.0; member list.<\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/developer.mozilla.org\/en-US\/docs\/Web\/Media\/Guides\/Formats\/Video_codecs\">MDN \u2014 Web video codec guide<\/a> \u2014 AV1 \u201cas much as 50% higher rates than AVC,\u201d higher than HEVC\/VP9; HEVC ~half of AVC; Safari AV1 hardware-decode requirement (M3 Macs, iPhone 15 Pro, iPhone 16+); licensing notes.<\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/caniuse.com\/av1\">caniuse \u2014 AV1 video format<\/a> \u2014 full support in Chrome 70+, Firefox 67+, Edge 121+ (~93% global); Safari partial\/hardware-gated.<\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/caniuse.com\/hevc\">caniuse \u2014 HEVC \/ H.265 video format<\/a> \u2014 HEVC browser support: Safari full, Chrome\/Edge\/Firefox partial and hardware\/OS-dependent.<\/li><li><a href=\"https:\/\/bitmovin.com\/blog\/av1-encoding-guide\/\">Bitmovin \u2014 Guide to adopting AV1 encoding<\/a> \u2014 AV1 \u201c~50% less data than H.264\/AVC and ~30% less than H.265\/HEVC and VP9\u201d; higher encode complexity; YouTube\/Netflix adoption; iPhone 15 Pro \/ M3 hardware decode.<\/li><\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>AV1 vs HEVC vs H.264 compared: efficiency, browser support, and encode speed, plus a clear which-codec-to-pick-when framework.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":1095,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1096","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-how-to-guides","category-tools"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>AV1 vs HEVC vs H.264: The Next-Gen Codec Showdown<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"AV1 vs HEVC vs H.264 compared: efficiency, browser support, and encode speed, plus a clear which-codec-to-pick-when framework.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.xconvert.com\/blog\/av1-vs-hevc-vs-h264\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" 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