AVIF beats JPEG XL for almost every web image, benchmark finds

JPEG XL vs. AVIF for web use-cases

Jake Archibald benchmarked JPEG XL against AVIF across photos, screenshots, illustrations, transparency, HDR, and lossless. AVIF wins on file size, encode speed, memory, and decode time for most web use-cases, though JPEG XL's jixel encoder closes the gap and can shrink existing JPEGs by 9–20% without further loss. His default recommendation: AVIF 4:4:4 at the highest effort you can tolerate, and test with your own images rather than trusting AI summaries.