Convert AVIF to PNG
If you are here, something refused to open an AVIF — Photoshop, a printer's upload form, a colleague's laptop. PNG is the format nothing refuses. The trade is size: expect the PNG to be several times larger, because that is what lossless costs.
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Add to Chrome — freeDrop your AVIF file here, or click to browse
Up to 50 MB. Deleted automatically after 30 minutes.
What it does
- Opens in software that rejects AVIF
- Lossless output — no further quality is lost
- Alpha transparency carried across
- No watermark and no sign-up
How to use AVIF to PNG
- 1
Add the AVIF
Images saved from a website, exports from a modern design tool, or a file someone sent that your software will not open. If your own browser displays it fine but your editor does not, you are in the normal case.
- 2
Convert
Decoding happens on our server. Browsers can read AVIF, but doing it here means one decoder producing one predictable result rather than depending on what your particular browser build supports.
- 3
Expect a much larger file
A 200 KB AVIF can become a 3 MB PNG. That is not a fault in the conversion — PNG stores every pixel exactly and AVIF does not, so the information is the same and the storage is far less efficient.
How it works
The AVIF is decoded on our server and written out as PNG with standard Deflate compression. Both the alpha channel and the full color range survive, because PNG can represent everything an AVIF holds.
The conversion runs server-side deliberately. Your browser can almost certainly decode AVIF, but "almost certainly" is the problem — support varies by build and platform, and doing it in one place means the output is the same for everyone.
Why this conversion exists
Not because PNG is better. It is not: for the same image it is dramatically larger, and it has no advantage that matters on a web page.
It exists because AVIF's support is narrow in exactly the place people need it to be wide. The format was adopted fastest by browsers, which had already shipped an AV1 decoder for video and could reuse it almost for free. Everything else — image editors, office software, print workflows, phone galleries older than a few years — needed to add a new decoder for one format, and much of it has not.
The result is a file that looks perfectly normal in a browser and is inert everywhere else. Converting to PNG is the blunt fix.
The size question
Worth understanding before you are surprised by it.
AVIF is lossy. It analyzes the image, decides which detail the eye will not miss, and stores a compact approximation. A 180 KB AVIF is not 180 KB of exact pixels — it is a set of instructions for reconstructing something that looks like the original.
PNG is lossless. It stores the actual pixel values that reconstruction produces, compressed but exact. On a photograph, where adjacent pixels differ everywhere, lossless compression has almost nothing to exploit, and the file is enormous by comparison.
So the PNG is not carrying more information than the AVIF — it is carrying the same information, stored honestly rather than cleverly. If size matters more than being lossless, JPG is the better target.
When PNG is the right choice
Transparency. JPG has none, so anything with an alpha channel has to be PNG or WebP.
Screenshots, text, flat graphics. Another lossy pass would put visible rings around the edges.
Anything being edited. Starting from a lossless copy means edits do not compound compression artifacts.
Print and archival submission. These usually specify lossless formats, and PNG is one of the two that everything accepts.
When it is not
A photograph you only need to view or send. JPG is a fraction of the size and opens in the same places.
Anything staying on the web. Leave it as AVIF. Every browser reads it, and converting to PNG makes the page slower for no benefit.
Examples
A photograph saved from a website
Nineteen times larger with no visible difference. The AVIF discarded detail when it was made, and the PNG now stores the surviving pixels losslessly and expensively. This is what compatibility costs.
An icon with transparency
Only about three times larger, because flat color compresses well in PNG. Transparency survives the conversion exactly, which is the reason to choose PNG here rather than JPG.
Frequently asked questions
Why will my software not open an AVIF?
Because AVIF is new and its adoption has been lopsided. Browsers added it quickly, since they already shipped an AV1 video decoder and could reuse it. Desktop applications had to add a whole new dependency for one image format, and many have not bothered — which is why a file displays perfectly in a browser and then refuses to open in an editor.
Does converting lose quality?
No. PNG is lossless, so the conversion reproduces exactly the pixels the AVIF decoded to. What it cannot do is recover detail the AVIF discarded when it was created — that is gone permanently, and no format you convert to will bring it back. The PNG is a faithful copy of a lossy image.
Why is the PNG so much larger?
Because that is the whole difference between the two formats. AVIF is lossy: it decides which detail can be discarded without you noticing and then stores a compact approximation. PNG is lossless: it stores every pixel exactly, which takes far more space. The image looks the same; the file is bigger by an order of magnitude on photographs.
Should I convert to PNG or JPG?
PNG when the image has transparency, or contains text, screenshots or flat graphics that would suffer from another round of lossy compression. JPG when it is a photograph and the file size matters more than being lossless — the result will be far smaller than PNG and just as widely supported. Both open essentially everywhere, so the choice is about content.
Further reading
- Choose an Image Format by Where It Is GoingThere is no best image format, which is why comparison tables never settle the question. There is only a next program that has to open the file, and that program has opinions. Work backwards from it and the choice usually makes itself.
- PNG's Maximum Compression Setting Is Free and Nobody Uses ItPNG has a compression level from 0 to 9 that almost nobody changes, partly because the name suggests a quality trade-off that does not exist. Every level produces a bit-identical image; the only thing that varies is how long the encoder spends looking for savings. Here is what the highest setting is worth.