How to Save an Image as AVIF Without an Online Converter

How do you save a web image as AVIF?

Three routes, and none of them is your browser’s own Save image as…. A browser extension that converts on your device adds AVIF to the right-click menu. A desktop image editor exports it if the version is recent enough. An online converter takes the file and hands one back, at the cost of an upload. The route you pick mostly depends on whether the image is on a web page or already on your disk.

None of them is a browser setting you have not found yet. Save image as… writes the bytes the server sent and performs no conversion at all, which is why there is no format list in it.

Why is there no “Save as AVIF” anywhere in your browser?

Because no browser can encode AVIF. Chrome, Edge and Firefox all decode and display AVIF perfectly well, so the format looks natively supported from the outside. Encoding is a different capability, and none of the three has it. That asymmetry is the whole reason this article exists, and it is not documented anywhere a normal person would look.

The evidence is in each vendor’s own source. Chromium’s canvas encoder checks a list of exactly three types before it will encode anything: image/jpeg, image/png and image/webp (MIMETypeRegistry::IsSupportedImageMIMETypeForEncoding()). AVIF is not on it.[1] Firefox does not even get that far: the encoder directory in Gecko builds ico, png, jpeg, bmp and webp (image/encoders/moz.build), and there is no AVIF encoder in the tree to call.[2] Mozilla’s own bug asking for one, bug 1821907, was filed in March 2023 and is still open.[3]

There is a detail here that turns a missing feature into a silent one. The HTML specification’s toBlob() algorithm does not raise an error when it is handed a type it cannot encode. It substitutes image/png and returns successfully.[4] So a tool that asks a browser for AVIF and does not check the answer gets a PNG back, with no error to report and nothing to log. A converter can claim AVIF support, appear to work, and hand you a renamed PNG. If you have ever saved an “AVIF” that was suspiciously large, that is the mechanism.

How do you save a web image as AVIF from the right-click menu?

Three steps, and the file is written on your device:

1. Install Save Image As Type for Chrome, Firefox or Edge
2. Right-click the image on the page
3. Choose Save Image As Type, then Save as AVIF

The extension carries its own AVIF encoder, compiled from libavif to WebAssembly, because the browser cannot supply one. Nothing is uploaded and no server is involved. Several extensions add format options to the right-click menu and we compare four of them, including ours.

Carrying an encoder is not free, and the cost is visible in two places. The extension package went from under 1 MB to about 2 MB, almost all of that the encoder binary. And an AVIF save takes noticeably longer than a JPG one, which the next two sections are about.

How much smaller is AVIF than JPG?

Between four and five times smaller, at quality settings that look the same. Measured on 21 August 2026 against a 6 megapixel photograph at the extension’s default AVIF quality of 50, on an Apple M3 Pro:

A smaller, simpler image widens the gap rather than narrowing it. A 480x320 image saved from a live page came out at 973 bytes as AVIF. The same pixels re-encoded as JPG at quality 85 were 5,042 bytes, and as lossless PNG 4,516 bytes.

The quality numbers are not comparable across formats and this trips people up. JPG quality 85 and AVIF quality 50 are different scales, not different amounts of care. AVIF’s 50 is what libavif treats as good quality; setting AVIF to 85 does not give you a better version of the same picture, it gives you a near-lossless file that can end up larger than the JPG on a detailed image.

Why does saving as AVIF take a second when JPG is instant?

Because AVIF compression does far more work per pixel, and the encoder is running in your browser rather than on a server farm. At the extension’s default, a 6 megapixel photograph takes about 0.7 seconds and a noisy, detailed one about 3.3 seconds. JPG encoding the same photograph takes 21 milliseconds. AVIF is roughly 35 times slower to encode, and no setting removes that.

The delay is per image, which makes it a different experience depending on what you are doing. One image is a pause you barely register. A whole page of images saved at once is minutes, which is why the batch save has a cancel button.

What does AVIF cost you after the file is saved?

Compatibility, in the places least likely to warn you. Every current browser displays AVIF, so an AVIF on a web page is safe. Off the web it is patchier, and the failure is usually a blank preview or a flat refusal to open, with nothing saying why.

• Operating system previews vary by version. Recent macOS and Windows show AVIF thumbnails; older ones show a generic file icon.
• Older image editors do not open AVIF at all, and many that do added it in a version people have not upgraded to.
• Upload forms frequently reject the extension outright, because the allowed list was written before AVIF existed.
• Messaging apps may re-encode it to something else, which discards the size advantage you converted for.

This is the honest limit of the format rather than of any particular tool. Converting to AVIF is a bet that whatever opens the file next understands it, and that bet is a good one on the web and a worse one everywhere else.

When should you not use AVIF?

Two cases, and both are common enough to name.

When the file has to be opened by someone else, on something you do not control. A colleague’s laptop, a print shop, a submission form, a government portal. Save it as JPG instead and accept the larger file. The size saving is worth nothing if the recipient cannot open it.

When the image is a screenshot of text, a logo, or line art. AVIF’s default mode is lossy, and lossy compression is at its worst on hard edges and flat colour. PNG stays sharp and is often smaller than a lossy format on that kind of image anyway.

AVIF earns its place on photographs, on anything going back onto a website, and on images you are storing in bulk where the total size actually matters.

What about online AVIF converters?

They work, on any machine, with nothing to install, and that is a real advantage when you cannot install software. What it costs is that the image leaves your device. The file is uploaded to a server you do not control, converted there, and held for some period you agree to without reading.

The free tiers are also metered: CloudConvert’s free plan allows 10 conversion credits a day.[5] For one screenshot that is irrelevant. For a folder of photographs it is a wall you hit halfway through.

The privacy question is not the same for every image. A meme is a meme. A photograph of a document, a medical scan, a picture with a face in it, or anything from a private album is a decision about who gets a copy. Worth a moment’s thought before you upload it.

Which route should you use?

For an image on a page you are already looking at, the right-click is the shortest route and nothing is uploaded. For a folder of files already on your disk, a desktop editor handles them in bulk far better than any browser extension can, provided your version is recent enough to export AVIF at all. Reach for an online converter when you are on a locked-down machine and the picture is one you would not mind a stranger keeping a copy of.