WebP vs AVIF: Which Image Format Is Best for WordPress?

Why Next-Gen Formats Matter

JPEG and PNG are decades old. Modern formats compress images 30-80% smaller at the same visual quality, dramatically reducing page weight and improving LCP scores.

WebP

WebP is the format developed by Google and supported by 97%+ of browsers. It compresses 25-35% smaller than JPEG. It supports transparency and animation. It is the safe default choice for WordPress today.

AVIF

AVIF is newer and compresses 40-60% smaller than JPEG – significantly better than WebP. Browser support is at 93%+ and growing fast. The trade-off is slower server-side encoding, which makes it best suited for high-traffic sites where bandwidth savings matter most.

Recommendation

Serve AVIF with WebP as fallback, and JPEG/PNG as last resort. PageSpeedBooster handles this automatically – detecting browser support and serving the best format for each visitor.