Creator media glossary
What is AV1?
Short answer
A royalty-free codec built for streaming efficiency, offering meaningfully smaller files than H.264 or even VP9 at the same quality.
Key takeaways
- AV1 is a royalty-free video codec from the Alliance for Open Media, finished in 2018.
- It compresses about 30% better than HEVC and 50% better than H.264.
- YouTube and Netflix stream it to devices that can decode it; few platforms accept it as an upload.
- Encoding is slow in software; hardware AV1 arrived with recent GPUs and chips.
AV1 explained
AV1 is newer than VP9 and backed by the same open-media coalition (Google, Netflix, Mozilla and others). It compresses more efficiently than either H.264 or VP9, but encoding it is computationally expensive and hardware decode support is still catching up on older devices.
Creators can export AV1, but upload support depends on the destination and container. Platforms may also use AV1 for delivery after transcoding a different uploaded codec; delivery support alone does not establish AV1 upload support.
Where AV1 came from
In 2015 Amazon, Cisco, Google, Intel, Microsoft, Mozilla and Netflix founded the Alliance for Open Media to build a royalty-free codec that could replace both VP9 and HEVC. AV1 merged Google's VP10 work with ideas from Mozilla's Daala and Cisco's Thor, and the bitstream was finalized in 2018. Members license their patents for free under the AOMedia patent license.
AV1 is now one of the most-used codecs on the internet even though few people upload it: YouTube and Netflix stream AV1 to devices that can decode it, and the AVIF image format is AV1 for still pictures.
How AV1 compresses better
- Superblocks up to 128 × 128 pixels with many ways to split them.
- More prediction tools, including predicting color from brightness (chroma from luma) and blending two predictions.
- Film grain synthesis: grain is removed before encoding and recreated by the decoder from a few parameters, which saves many bits on grainy footage.
- More transform shapes and stronger in-loop filters.
AOMedia and independent tests put AV1 at about 30% smaller than HEVC and 50% smaller than H.264 at the same quality. The cost is encoding time: software AV1 encoders are much slower than x264, though SVT-AV1 has closed much of the gap.
AV1 support by platform
| Platform | Status | Best container |
|---|---|---|
| TikTok | Not documented | MP4 |
| Instagram Reels | Not documented | MP4 |
| Instagram Feed | Not documented | MP4 |
| Instagram Stories | Not documented | MP4 |
| YouTube Shorts | Not documented | MP4 |
| YouTube (long-form) | Not documented | MP4 |
| Not documented | MP4 | |
| X (Twitter) | Not documented | MP4 |
| Facebook Reels | Not documented | MP4 |
| Facebook Feed | Not documented | MP4 |
| Not documented | MP4 | |
| Snapchat | Not documented | MP4 |
| Snapchat Spotlight | Not documented | MP4 |
| Snapchat Story | Not documented | MP4 |
| Spotify Canvas | Not documented | MP4 |
| Threads | Not documented | MP4 |
From each platform's published upload specs; follow a platform for its full codec matrix and sources.
AVIF: AV1 for images
AVIF stores an AV1-compressed still image (or animation) in the HEIF container. It is typically smaller than WebP and JPEG at the same quality, supports transparency, HDR and 10- or 12-bit color, and is supported by current Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari. Like WebP, it is rarely accepted by social upload forms, so convert to JPEG or PNG before posting.
AV1 encoding settings
| Goal | SVT-AV1 preset | CRF |
|---|---|---|
| Quick test encode | 10-12 | 35 |
| Good balance for archives | 6-8 | 28-32 |
| Best quality, slow | 2-4 | 20-26 |
Lower presets are slower and more efficient; lower CRF means higher quality and bigger files. Add -svtav1-params film-grain=8 for grainy footage to let the decoder recreate grain instead of encoding it.
AV1 hardware and browser support
| Platform | AV1 decoding | AV1 encoding |
|---|---|---|
| NVIDIA GPUs | GeForce RTX 30 series and later | RTX 40 series and later |
| Intel | 11th-gen Core (Tiger Lake) and later, Arc GPUs | Arc GPUs and newer Core Ultra chips |
| AMD | Radeon RX 6000 series and later (most models) | Radeon RX 7000 series and later |
| Apple | iPhone 15 Pro (A17 Pro), M3 Macs and later | Not in hardware |
| Browsers | Chrome, Edge, Firefox; Safari on devices with hardware decode | Software (WebCodecs) only |
Without hardware support, AV1 still plays in software (the dav1d decoder is very fast), but 4K playback can stutter and drain battery.
Advantages and drawbacks of AV1
Advantages
- Royalty-free and open source
- The best compression of the widely deployed codecs
- Supports HDR, 10-bit and 4:4:4 color
- Streamed by YouTube and Netflix, so decoders keep spreading
Drawbacks
- Slow to encode in software
- Older phones and computers lack hardware decoding
- Few social platforms document AV1 uploads
- Editing software support is still uneven
Encoders and how to convert AV1
- libaom is the reference encoder; SVT-AV1 (fast, used by FFmpeg and HandBrake) and rav1e are the common alternatives. dav1d is the standard decoder.
- To export AV1 with FFmpeg:
ffmpeg -i in.mp4 -c:v libsvtav1 -crf 30 -preset 6 -c:a libopus out.mkv(or .mp4 or .webm). - To upload an AV1 file to a platform that does not list it, convert it to H.264 MP4 with HandBrake or FFmpeg:
ffmpeg -i in.mp4 -c:v libx264 -crf 20 -c:a aac out.mp4
Frequently asked questions
What is AV1?
AV1 (AOMedia Video 1) is an open, royalty-free video codec from the Alliance for Open Media. It compresses better than VP9 and HEVC, and Mozilla notes up to 50% better than H.264 (AVC), which makes it attractive for 4K and streaming.
Does Instagram support AV1?
Not documented. The Instagram API spec lists HEVC or H.264 video only, so convert AV1 to H.264 MP4 before uploading. Platforms can still deliver AV1 to viewers themselves; that is separate from what they accept as an upload.
Should I export my videos in AV1?
For social uploads, no: H.264 is documented everywhere and AV1 is documented almost nowhere. AV1 makes sense for your own site or archive when file size matters and your audience's devices decode it.
Is AV1 better than HEVC?
It compresses about 30% better and is royalty-free, but HEVC is decoded by far more existing devices and accepted by more upload forms. For delivery to modern devices AV1 wins; for compatibility HEVC or H.264 is safer.
Why does my AV1 video not play?
The device or player has no AV1 decoder, or the decoder is too slow for the resolution. Try VLC or a current browser, install the free AV1 Video Extension on Windows, or convert the file to H.264.
Let Koldflux pick the settings
Koldflux chooses the codec, container and bitrate for each platform when it exports.
Free tools that use this
Sources and how we checked
- Alliance for Open Media: AV1 specifications (checked 2026-10-05)
- MDN: Web video codec guide (checked 2026-10-05)
- Instagram API: IG User Media (reel, story and video specifications) (checked 2026-10-05)
- YouTube Help: Supported YouTube file formats (checked 2026-10-05)
- Can I use: AV1 video format (checked 2026-10-06)
- Microsoft Store: AV1 Video Extension (checked 2026-10-06)
Reviewed October 6, 2026 by the Koldflux team. Definitions follow the specifications and platform documentation linked above; platform tables come from the same registry the Koldflux tools use.