AVIF vs WebP vs JPEG: Real Benchmarks (2026)

I compressed 100 photos through 3 formats. Here's the actual data. A 2MB JPEG photo. Convert it to WebP — now it's 480KB. Convert it to AVIF — now it's 310KB. Same visual quality. Three different file sizes. I've spent the last 2 weeks building an image compression tool, so I've seen thousands of these comparisons. Here's what the numbers actually say, and what it means for your website. The Setup I took 50 real-world photos and 50 screenshots/design assets — not synthetic test images, but actual files people would upload: Photos : vacation shots (JPEG, 2-8MB), product photos, portrait selfies Graphics : PNG screenshots (1-4MB), logos, UI mockups, illustrations Source sizes : 500KB to 12MB, average ~3.2MB Each image was compressed through JPEG (quality 85%), WebP (quality 80%), and AVIF (quality 65%) — settings that produce visually identical results on a 2x retina display. The Numbers Format Avg Compressed Size Reduction vs Original Reduction vs JPEG Browser Support Original 3.2 MB — — 100% JPEG (q85) 820 KB 74.4% — 100% WebP (q80) 480 KB 85.0% 41.5% smaller than JPEG 96.8% AVIF (q65) 310 KB 90.3% 62.2% smaller than JPEG 93.1% The headline : WebP halves your JPEG size. AVIF halves WebP again. Photo Results (JPEG source, 50 images) For photographs — the most common use case — here's what happened: Format Avg Size Best Case Worst Case JPEG q85 820 KB 180 KB 3.1 MB WebP q80 480 KB 95 KB 1.8 MB AVIF q65 310 KB 60 KB 1.2 MB What this means : On an average product page with 6 photos: JPEG: 6 × 820KB = 4.9 MB WebP: 6 × 480KB = 2.9 MB (saves 2 MB) AVIF: 6 × 310KB = 1.9 MB (saves 3 MB) On a 4G connection (10 Mbps), that's the difference between 4 seconds and 1.5 seconds to load all images. On a product page, that's the difference between a bounce and a sale. Screenshot/Graphics Results (PNG source, 50 images) PNGs are a different story. Lossy WebP and AVIF can crush PNGs — but only if you're OK losing pixel-perfect accuracy. Format Avg Size Notes Original PNG 1.4 MB Lossles