AV1 Video Compressor

How to Compress AV1 Video Online

1. Upload Your AV1 File: Drag and drop or click "Add Files" to select one or more AV1 videos. Batch is supported and files are processed in your browser session — no sign-up, no watermark, no email required.
2. Pick a Compression Method: Default is "Target file size (%)" at 80% (a 100 MB clip becomes ~80 MB). Switch to "Specific file size" to enter an exact MB target, "Constant Bitrate" for a fixed Kbps/Mbps rate, "Variable Bitrate" to set target/min/max for scene-by-scene complexity, "Constant Quality" for CRF (0–63, default 30 — lower means higher quality and bigger files), or "Constraint Quality" to combine CRF with a max-bitrate ceiling.
3. Resize and Trim (Optional): Toggle Auto Scale, pick a resolution preset (4320p / 8K down to 144p), or enter custom width × height in pixels or percent. Under Trim, switch from "Unchanged" to "Time Range" and set a start and duration in seconds or HH:MM:SS.sss to compress only a segment. Audio Codec and Video Codec dropdowns are also available under Advanced Options.
4. Compress and Download: Click Compress. Files process server-side and deliver back to your browser as a downloadable AV1.

Why Compress AV1?

AV1 (AOMedia Video 1) is a royalty-free codec finalized by the Alliance for Open Media in 2018 and now used by YouTube, Netflix, Meta, and Twitch as their next-generation delivery format. At equivalent perceptual quality, AV1 produces files roughly 30% smaller than HEVC and up to 50% smaller than H.264, according to comparisons from Netflix and codec wiki benchmarks. Even so, exports from editing software or direct camera captures can balloon at 4K and 8K resolutions, which is where re-compressing helps.

• YouTube and streaming uploads — YouTube has used AV1 for 8K and high-resolution streams since 2020. Pre-compressing locally to a sensible CRF avoids YouTube's own transcode taking a quality hit on overly large source files.
• Web delivery with HTML5 video — Serve AV1 inside an MP4 container as the first <source> in a <video> tag, with an H.264 fallback for older browsers. caniuse currently reports ~94% global AV1 support (78% full + 15% partial).
• Storage and archival — Compressing at CRF 20–25 keeps near-source quality while trimming raw exports by 50%+, useful when 4K project rushes fill a NAS faster than budget allows.
• GIF replacement loops — AV1 video loops are dramatically smaller than the equivalent GIF (often 20× or more) with full 8-bit color and smoother motion. Most modern browsers autoplay muted <video> tags inline like a GIF.
• Sharing past upload caps — Discord's free attachment cap is 10 MB (lowered from 25 MB in September 2024) and Nitro is 500 MB. Gmail and Outlook cap at 25 MB and 20 MB respectively. A short AV1 clip at CRF 32 routinely fits where the original would not.
• Lower-bandwidth playback — AV1 at the same bitrate as H.264 generally looks noticeably cleaner, so the same clip can run at a lower bitrate without obvious artifacts on mobile or metered connections.

AV1 vs Other Modern Codecs

AV1 CRF Quality Guide

AV1's CRF scale runs 0–63 (wider than x264/x265's 0–51). As a rough cross-codec reference, AV1 CRF 30 is comparable in perceptual quality to x265 CRF 21, per community benchmarks.

Frequently Asked Questions

What CRF should I pick for AV1?

CRF 30 is the default and a sensible starting point for general web use. For YouTube uploads or 4K HDR sources, CRF 23–28 preserves detail you'd otherwise lose to YouTube's own transcode. For archival masters, CRF 18–22. For social-media reach where size matters more than detail, CRF 33–40. Each step of 6 roughly halves or doubles file size, so it's worth doing a 10-second test render before committing on a long clip.

Why is AV1 encoding so slow?

AV1 spends much more CPU per frame than H.264 because its block partition tree, transform options, and intra/inter modes are far more numerous. Software encoders like SVT-AV1 expose presets 0–13 to trade quality for speed: preset 0–4 are very slow and used for archival, preset 6 is a balanced default, preset 8–12 are near-real-time. XConvert's encoder is tuned for a sensible default; you trade longer encode time for the 30–50% smaller files AV1 delivers versus H.264.

Can I change the output codec while "compressing AV1"?

Yes. Under Advanced Options, the Video Codec dropdown lets you re-encode to H.264, H.265 / HEVC, VP9, VP8, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, Xvid, MJPEG, and others. Picking H.264 is the typical choice when you need a broadly compatible MP4 (the fallback codec virtually every device decodes). See AV1 to MP4 or AV1 to HEVC for the dedicated conversion pages.

Does AV1 play on iPhone or Mac?

Only partially. Apple shipped hardware AV1 decode starting with the iPhone 15 Pro (A17 Pro chip, September 2023), M3-family Macs (October 2023), and the M4 iPad Pro. Older iPhones, Intel Macs, and pre-M3 Apple Silicon Macs run Safari 17 but cannot decode AV1 because Apple has not shipped a software fallback. If you need universal Apple playback today, convert AV1 to MP4 with H.264.

Will compressing damage audio?

No. The audio track is passed through or re-encoded based on the Audio Codec dropdown. AV1 video in an MP4/MKV container defaults to Opus, but AAC, MP3, FLAC, AC3, Vorbis, and PCM variants are all selectable. If you want lossless audio, pick FLAC; for broad device support, pick AAC.

How do "Target file size %" and CRF differ?

Target file size (%) is a one-pass percentage compression — set 50% and you get a file roughly half the source size, with bitrate scaled to fit. CRF is a quality-locked mode — you pick a perceptual quality level and the encoder uses whatever bitrate it needs to hit that level. Use % when you have a strict size budget (upload cap, storage quota); use CRF when you have a quality bar (archival, post-production) and don't care about exact output size.

Why does my "compressed" AV1 sometimes get larger?

If the source was already aggressively encoded (e.g., a phone export at high CRF), re-encoding at a lower CRF or higher bitrate target can inflate it. Compression is not a one-way ratchet — you can only make a file smaller by accepting lower quality or by switching to a more efficient codec at the same quality. Check the source bitrate first; if it's already near AV1's efficient range (say, ~2 Mbps for 1080p), there's little room to shrink further without visible loss.

Can I batch-compress multiple AV1 files?

Yes. Drop several files on the page and each is queued independently. Settings (CRF, resolution, codec) apply per-batch by default. If you need different settings per file, run them in separate batches.

What about HDR or 10-bit AV1?

AV1 was designed with 10-bit and 12-bit profiles for HDR delivery (HDR10, HLG). XConvert's compressor preserves the source bit depth when possible; if you re-encode to H.264 the output is 8-bit (H.264's 10-bit Main10 profile is rare in practice). For HDR-preserving compression, keep the codec as AV1 or switch to HEVC, both of which have mature 10-bit support. Related: compress MKV for HDR MKV containers, or compress MP4 for SDR MP4 sources.