VP9 vs AV1
Which should you use?
Quick verdict
Use AV1 if you want maximum compression efficiency and can accept slow encoding plus newer hardware - it is about 20-30% more efficient than VP9. Use VP9 if you need broad, proven web and device support today with much faster encoding.
VP9 and AV1 are both open, royalty-free video codecs. VP9 was developed by Google and is widely used on YouTube and in WebM files. AV1 is its successor from the Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia), designed to push compression further while staying license-free.
The trade-off is efficiency versus practicality. AV1 packs more quality into fewer bits than VP9, but it encodes much more slowly and its hardware decode support is newer. VP9 is mature, fast to work with, and decodes on nearly every modern browser and device.
At a glance
| Property | VP9 | AV1 |
|---|---|---|
| Developer | AOMedia | |
| Efficiency | H.265-class | ~20-30% better |
| Encoding speed | Faster | Much slower |
| Hardware decode | Broad, mature | Newer, growing |
| Licensing | Royalty-free | Royalty-free |
| Container | WebM / MP4 | WebM / MP4 |
Choose VP9 when
- Choose VP9 when you need broad, proven browser and device playback today.
- Choose VP9 when fast encoding matters more than the last few percent of file size.
- Choose VP9 when targeting older hardware without AV1 decode.
Choose AV1 when
- Choose AV1 when minimizing file size or bandwidth is the top priority.
- Choose AV1 when you can afford long encode times or offline encoding.
- Choose AV1 when targeting modern browsers and recent hardware with AV1 decode.