Ijharul Islam
AV1 and HEVC (H.265) both compress video far better than H.264. Caniuse describes AV1 as offering similar compression quality to HEVC under a free licence. The real difference is support: in October 2026 caniuse shows AV1 fully supported in Chrome 70+, Firefox 67+ and Edge 121+, while HEVC is fully supported only in Safari and partial elsewhere. Use AV1 for the web, HEVC for Apple devices and cameras.
More on this topic: Video formats, codecs and numbers, every guide in one place.
This guide compares licensing, browser and device support, encoding speed and what upload platforms accept, with FFmpeg commands for both.
The short answer
Pick AV1 for video you serve on websites and apps: it is royalty-free (Alliance for Open Media) and caniuse lists full support in Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Opera and Samsung Internet, with partial support in Safari 17+. Pick HEVC for recording, Apple-to-Apple sharing and TVs: iPhones record it, Safari and iOS play it, and hardware decoders are common. Neither is the safe upload codec; for uploads H.264 still is.
Key takeaways
- Compression is in the same class; caniuse calls AV1's quality similar to HEVC's. No official source gives a single percentage.
- AV1 is royalty-free; caniuse says HEVC is complex and expensive to license, which is why browser support lags.
- Caniuse global usage: AV1 about 79% full plus 17% partial; HEVC about 20% full plus 75% partial.
- Android makes AV1 encode and decode mandatory from Android 14; Apple added a dedicated AV1 decoder with the A17 Pro (iPhone 15 Pro).
- YouTube lists HEVC among supported upload formats; AV1 is not named on that list.
What is the difference between AV1 and HEVC?
The difference between AV1 and HEVC is licensing and where each plays, more than picture quality. HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding, H.265) is the standard meant to follow H.264, as caniuse puts it, and is used heavily by cameras, phones and TVs. AV1 comes from the Alliance for Open Media, which its own site says was founded in 2015 to build open standards under a royalty-free patent policy; AV1 was its first project and was published in 2018.
| AV1 | HEVC (H.265) | |
|---|---|---|
| Developed by | Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia) | Standards bodies, as the successor to H.264 |
| Published | 2018 | Before AV1 |
| Licensing | Royalty-free (Open Media Patent License 1.0) | Patent pools; caniuse calls it complex and expensive to license |
| Compression | Similar to HEVC, per caniuse | About the same class as AV1 |
| Full browser support (caniuse) | Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Opera, Samsung Internet | Safari, iOS Safari, Samsung Internet |
| Partial browser support (caniuse) | Safari 17+ and iOS Safari 17+ | Chrome 107+, Edge, Firefox 137+ |
| Phones recording it | Rare | iPhone 7 and later, many Android phones |
| Encoding speed (software) | Slow at high-quality settings; SVT-AV1 presets run up to 13 for speed | Slower than H.264; x265 presets trade speed for size |
| Common containers | MP4, WebM, MKV | MP4, MOV, MKV |
Checked on 26 October 2026 against caniuse, AOMedia's site, Android's supported media formats page and Apple's support pages.
Is AV1 better than HEVC?
AV1 is better for the web and HEVC is better inside the Apple and camera world; on compression alone they are close. Caniuse's HEVC page describes AV1 as offering similar compression quality under a free licence, and AOMedia's own AV1 page claims significant file-size reductions without a percentage or a named comparison. Independent encoder tests disagree depending on settings, so treat any single "X% smaller" number with care.
Our test (October 2026): on three of our own short clips at matched VMAF, AV1 (SVT-AV1 preset 8) averaged 72% of H.264's size and HEVC (x265 medium) 84%; AV1 was smaller than HEVC on all three. They took about 3.1 and 2.7 times as long as H.264 to encode. Details: H.264 vs H.265 vs AV1, our test.
What decides it in practice:
- Who will play it. A website audience on Chrome and Android favours AV1; an audience on iPhones and Apple TVs favours HEVC.
- Licensing. If you ship software or a streaming service, AV1's royalty-free terms are a real advantage.
- Encoding time. High-quality AV1 presets are slow; faster SVT-AV1 presets trade some quality for speed.
- Hardware. Older phones and laptops decode HEVC in hardware but may decode AV1 in software, which drains battery.
Which browsers play AV1 and HEVC?
Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Opera and Samsung Internet fully play AV1, and Safari plays HEVC; everything else is partial. These are caniuse's listings, read on 26 October 2026:
| Browser | AV1 | HEVC (H.265) |
|---|---|---|
| Chrome | Supported from 70 | Partial from 107 |
| Edge | Supported from 121 | Partial |
| Firefox | Supported from 67 | Partial from 137 (disabled by default 121-136) |
| Safari (macOS) | Partial from 17.0 | Supported from 13 |
| Safari (iOS) | Partial from 17.0 | Supported from 11 |
| Samsung Internet | Supported from 12.0 | Supported from 21 |
| Global usage | About 79% full + 17% partial | About 20% full + 75% partial |
Partial support usually means the browser hands decoding to the device's hardware or operating system, so it works on some machines and not others. For a website, the robust pattern is AV1 or HEVC first with an H.264 MP4 fallback in a second <source>. WebM files are the usual home for AV1 and VP9 on the web; MKV vs MP4 covers the other containers.
Do phones support AV1 and HEVC?
Phones support HEVC almost universally and AV1 on newer models. Apple's support page says iPhone 7 and later capture HEVC, and HEVC playback is built into iOS 11 and later and macOS High Sierra and later; its camera setting High Efficiency records HEVC and Most Compatible records H.264. Apple's newsroom says the A17 Pro chip in iPhone 15 Pro includes a dedicated AV1 decoder for streaming.
On Android, Google's supported media formats page lists an HEVC decoder from Android 5.0, and says AV1 encoder and decoder are mandatory from Android 14 (an AV1 decoder appears from Android 10).
| Platform | HEVC | AV1 |
|---|---|---|
| iPhone | Records on iPhone 7 and later; plays on iOS 11+ | Dedicated hardware decoder from A17 Pro (iPhone 15 Pro) |
| Mac | Plays on macOS High Sierra 10.13 and later | Depends on chip; check your Mac |
| Android | Decoder from Android 5.0 | Decoder from Android 10; encoder and decoder mandatory from Android 14 |
Should you upload AV1 or HEVC to YouTube and social media?
Upload neither unless you have to: H.264 in an MP4 is still the recommended upload. YouTube's recommended settings specify H.264 High Profile, and its supported formats list includes HEVC (H.265), ProRes, DNxHR, CineForm and WebM but doesn't name AV1. Platforms re-encode every upload, often into AV1 or VP9 for viewers, so your upload codec doesn't decide what people stream.
If your phone recorded HEVC, upload it as is to YouTube rather than converting twice. Bitrates to aim for are in the video bitrate guide, and sizes per minute in video file size per minute.
How do you encode AV1 or HEVC with FFmpeg?
You encode AV1 with libsvtav1 or libaom-av1 and HEVC with libx265. Settings below come from FFmpeg's codec documentation:
| Encoder | Quality setting | Speed setting |
|---|---|---|
| libsvtav1 (AV1) | -crf 0-63 (higher = smaller, lower quality) | -preset 0-13 (higher = faster, lower quality) |
| libaom-av1 (AV1) | -crf 0-63 | -cpu-used 0-8 (default 1, slow and high quality) |
| libx265 (HEVC) | -crf (or crf= inside -x265-params) | -preset (x265 presets such as medium, slow) |
- AV1, fast and practical:
ffmpeg -i in.mp4 -c:v libsvtav1 -crf 35 -preset 8 -c:a libopus -b:a 128k out.webm - HEVC that plays on Apple devices:
ffmpeg -i in.mp4 -c:v libx265 -crf 26 -preset medium -tag:v hvc1 -c:a aac -b:a 160k out.mp4
The CRF values are starting points, not official recommendations: encode a short sample at two or three values and compare. -tag:v hvc1 marks HEVC in MP4 the way Apple's players expect.
When should you use AV1, HEVC or H.264?
Use each codec for the job it does best:
| Job | Best choice | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Video on your own website or app | AV1, with an H.264 fallback | Royalty-free, full support in Chromium browsers and Firefox |
| Recording on a phone or camera | HEVC | Built into iPhones and most cameras; hardware encoding |
| Sharing between Apple devices | HEVC | Plays everywhere in Apple's ecosystem |
| Uploading to YouTube or social media | H.264 | The recommended upload; platforms re-encode anyway |
| Archiving large libraries | HEVC or AV1 | Both save space; check your players first |
| Email, chat and clients | H.264 | Plays on every device |
For the older pairing, see H.264 vs H.265. When a file is simply too big to send, the free video compressor re-records it as a smaller MP4 (or WebM where MP4 isn't available); it's free, runs in your browser and never uploads your file.
Frequently asked questions
Is AV1 better than H.265?
On compression they are similar, per caniuse. AV1 is royalty-free and better supported in non-Apple browsers; HEVC has wider hardware support in phones, cameras and TVs.
Is AV1 royalty-free?
Yes. The Alliance for Open Media develops it under a royalty-free patent policy and the Open Media Patent License 1.0.
Does Safari support AV1?
Partially, from Safari 17.0 on macOS and iOS, according to caniuse. Apple's A17 Pro and later chips include a hardware AV1 decoder.
Does Chrome play HEVC?
Partially, from Chrome 107. It depends on the device having HEVC hardware decoding and operating system support.
Can I upload AV1 to YouTube?
YouTube's supported formats page doesn't name AV1. Upload H.264 (recommended) or HEVC, which is listed.
Why is AV1 encoding so slow?
High-quality AV1 presets do far more analysis than H.264. Use SVT-AV1 with a higher preset number (for example 8 to 10) for practical speeds.
Try it with your own video
Whatever codec your footage is in, QuickVeed can caption, translate and dub the finished MP4 or MOV. Upload a video, check its transcript, and download captions or a captioned copy. QuickVeed plans start at $18/month, and new accounts get a 14-day trial with 250 credits, no card needed. Sign up or see pricing.
Sources
Competitor details in this post were checked against these public pages in October 2026. Products and prices change, so confirm with each vendor before you decide.
- Can I use: AV1 video format
- Can I use: HEVC/H.265 video format
- Alliance for Open Media: our story (founded 2015, AV1 published 2018, royalty-free)
- Alliance for Open Media: AV1 specification
- Android Developers: supported media formats
- Apple Newsroom: iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max (A17 Pro AV1 decoder)
- Apple Support: using HEIF or HEVC media on Apple devices
- YouTube Help: recommended upload encoding settings
- YouTube Help: supported YouTube file formats
- FFmpeg codecs documentation (prores_ks, libaom-av1, libsvtav1, libx265)
