AVIF Browser Support in 2026 — Is It Safe to Use?

AVIF browser support is the most common reason cited for not adopting AVIF. "What about Safari?" was a legitimate concern in 2021–2022. In 2026, the landscape has changed significantly — AVIF support now covers the overwhelming majority of users, and the remaining gap is easily handled with a two-line fallback.

Here's the current state of AVIF browser support, what it means for your site, and exactly how to implement a fallback for browsers that still don't support it.

Which Browsers Support AVIF in 2026

Browser	AVIF support since	Notes
Chrome (desktop + Android)	Version 85 (Aug 2020)	Full support including alpha transparency.
Firefox (desktop + Android)	Version 93 (Oct 2021)	Full support. Firefox 113+ added animated AVIF support.
Edge	Version 121 (Jan 2024)	Full support (Chromium-based Edge).
Safari (macOS)	Safari 16 / macOS 13 Ventura (Sep 2022)	Full support. Older Safari on macOS Monterey: partial/no support.
Safari (iOS)	iOS 16 (Sep 2022)	Supported on iPhone 8 and newer running iOS 16+.
Samsung Internet	Version 22 (2023)	Full support.
Internet Explorer	Never	IE is officially dead. No AVIF support.

As of early 2026, global AVIF support across all browsers is approximately 90–93% based on usage statistics from caniuse.com. This includes the vast majority of desktop and mobile users.

Who Is in the Unsupported 7–10%?

The browsers and devices that don't support AVIF as of 2026:

• Older iOS devices — iPhones and iPads running iOS 15 or earlier. These devices can't upgrade beyond iOS 15 (iPhone 6s and 7, iPad 5th gen and older).
• Older macOS — Safari on macOS Monterey and earlier (before Ventura). Users who haven't upgraded their Mac OS.
• Legacy Samsung Internet — older Android browsers on lower-end devices that haven't updated.
• Opera Mini — the proxy-based browser used in low-bandwidth markets has limited image format support.

For most consumer-facing websites in North America and Europe, these users represent under 10% of traffic. For apps targeting older demographics or markets with older device prevalence, the percentage may be higher — check your actual analytics before deciding on a fallback strategy.

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The Correct Fallback Implementation

The HTML picture element serves AVIF to supported browsers and falls back automatically:

<picture>
  <source srcset="image.avif" type="image/avif">
  <source srcset="image.webp" type="image/webp">
  <img src="image.jpg" alt="Description" width="800" height="600">
</picture>

Browsers that support AVIF load the first source. Those that support WebP but not AVIF get the WebP. Everything else gets the JPG. The img tag is the universal fallback and must include the src attribute with a universally supported format.

For CSS background images, use the @supports feature query:

/* Base fallback */
.hero { background-image: url('hero.jpg'); }

/* WebP upgrade */
@supports (background-image: url('.webp')) {
  .hero { background-image: url('hero.webp'); }
}

/* AVIF upgrade */
@supports (background-image: url('.avif')) {
  .hero { background-image: url('hero.avif'); }
}

Should You Switch to AVIF in 2026?

For most websites: yes. The support coverage is strong enough that AVIF with a JPG fallback is the correct default in 2026.

When to hold off or use a different strategy:

• Apps targeting iOS 15 and earlier — if your analytics show significant traffic from older iPhones, weight the fallback more carefully. Serve WebP as the primary and AVIF as the enhancement.
• HTML email images — email clients have very poor AVIF support. Use JPG or PNG for email.
• Images used in software — files opened in design tools, editing software, or shared as downloads should remain PNG or JPG.

For web pages, web apps, and server-delivered images: AVIF + JPG fallback via picture element is now the standard recommendation.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Safari on iPhone support AVIF?

Yes, on iOS 16 and later (iPhone 8 and newer). iPhones running iOS 15 or earlier do not support AVIF in Safari. Use a picture element with a JPG fallback to serve a compatible format to older devices automatically.

Does Google index AVIF images for Google Images?

Yes. Google's crawler understands AVIF and indexes AVIF images normally in Google Images and as structured data image properties. There is no SEO penalty for using AVIF.

Can I use AVIF for Open Graph images?

With caution. The AVIF OG image is specified in the og:image meta tag. Facebook, Twitter/X, and LinkedIn need to be able to fetch and render that image. As of 2026, most major platforms support AVIF fetching, but if you see broken preview cards, serve a JPG at the same URL as a fallback.

What happens if a browser doesn't support AVIF and I serve only AVIF?

The browser shows a broken image icon, the same as any unsupported image format. Always implement the picture element fallback — there is no downside to having the fallback and significant downside if you skip it for users on unsupported browsers.