PNG to AVIF Converter (Free, Fast & Private)
Turn PNG files into AVIF output directly in your browser where AVIF export is supported.
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- Files never leave your browser
- No server upload
- Processed locally on your device
Why transparent PNGs fail in AVIF conversion
The most reported issue with PNG to AVIF conversion is transparency loss. The root cause is almost always the same: the source PNG doesn't actually contain an alpha channel.
PNG files come in two flavors. A 24-bit PNG stores red, green, and blue values for each pixel — no transparency information. A 32-bit PNG adds a fourth channel (alpha) that controls per-pixel transparency. Many design tools, screenshot utilities, and web exports produce 24-bit PNGs by default, even when the image appears to have a transparent background in the editor's UI.
The converter faithfully reproduces what's in the file. If there's no alpha channel in the source, there's no transparency in the output. The AVIF will fill the background with solid black or white depending on the viewer.
The fix: Open the PNG in an editor, verify the image mode is RGB+Alpha (not just RGB), re-export, then convert again. In Photoshop, that's Image → Mode → RGB Color with the alpha channel visible in the Channels panel. In GIMP, check Image → Mode → RGB and ensure the alpha channel exists (Layer → Transparency → Add Alpha Channel if it's grayed out).
Color shifts after conversion — what's actually happening
PNG files commonly embed ICC color profiles — sRGB, Display P3, Adobe RGB, or even custom profiles from camera RAW exports. AVIF supports ICC profiles and CICP color description, but the handling varies between tools and browsers.
If your converted AVIF looks slightly desaturated or the reds look muted compared to the original PNG, the likely culprit is a non-sRGB color profile in the source file. Safari, for example, handles Display P3 in AVIF correctly. Chrome on Windows sometimes interprets the same file differently.
Practical recommendation: If you're converting PNGs for web use, convert them to sRGB first. This eliminates browser-dependent color interpretation. For design work where color accuracy matters (brand assets, photography), keep the original profile but verify the output in your target browser before deploying.
A secondary cause: indexed-color PNGs. These files use a fixed palette of up to 256 colors. When the converter expands this palette to AVIF's full-color representation, slight color rounding can occur. Convert indexed PNGs to 24-bit RGB before AVIF conversion to avoid this.
When AVIF is smaller than PNG — and when it's not
AVIF uses AV1-based compression, which excels at compressing photographic content and complex gradients. But PNG uses lossless compression (DEFLATE), which is optimal for images with large uniform areas and sharp edges — exactly the kind of images where AVIF's compression overhead works against it.
Here's what to expect based on PNG content type:
Screenshots and UI mockups: 40-65% size reduction. The mix of text, flat colors, and gradients gives AVIF's encoder enough complexity to work with. A 500 KB screenshot typically becomes 150-250 KB as AVIF.
Photographs exported as PNG: 65-85% reduction. This is where AVIF shines. If someone saved a DSLR photo as PNG (common when transparency isn't needed but the workflow defaulted to PNG), converting to AVIF is a significant win.
Simple icons and logos: 0-30% reduction, and sometimes a size increase. A 2-color logo on a transparent background is nearly optimal in PNG. AVIF's codec adds metadata and structural overhead that can make the file slightly larger. For logos and simple vector-style graphics, compressing the PNG directly often produces better results.
Pixel art and dithered graphics: Variable results, often 20-50% reduction. AVIF handles smooth gradients better than sharp pixel boundaries, so heavily pixelated content may show softening at lower quality settings.
Batch conversion: handling mixed content sets
Most users converting PNG to AVIF aren't working with a single file. Website migration, design handoff, and asset optimization workflows typically involve sets of 20-200 files with mixed content types — some screenshots, some photos, some icons.
The mistake is applying one quality setting to everything. Screenshots look acceptable at quality 50-60. Photographs need 70-80. Icons should stay at quality 80+ or you'll see artifacts on thin strokes and small text.
A practical approach: Sort your PNGs into rough categories before converting. If that's too time-consuming, use quality 70 as a baseline — it's the crossover point where most content types produce acceptable results without visible degradation.
Pixes handles batch uploads with the same settings applied across all files. For mixed content sets, consider converting in groups by content type if the visual quality requirements differ significantly.
Browser support for AVIF — what actually works in 2025
AVIF browser support has matured significantly. As of mid-2025:
Full support: Chrome (all platforms), Edge, Firefox, Safari 16.4+, Opera, Samsung Internet, and Chrome for Android.
No support: Internet Explorer (end of life), older macOS Safari (pre-16.4), and some embedded webview contexts in older Android apps.
The practical implication: if your audience uses modern browsers — which is roughly 95%+ of global web traffic — AVIF is safe to deploy. For the remaining fraction, use the
This progressive approach serves AVIF to capable browsers, WebP to slightly older ones, and PNG as the universal fallback. You'll need multiple format versions of each image, but the bandwidth savings justify the effort for high-traffic sites.
If you also need WebP versions, check our AVIF conversion tools which support multiple output formats from a single source.
Reverting AVIF back to PNG when things go wrong
Sometimes you convert to AVIF and realize you need the PNG back — maybe a client requires PNG deliverables, a CMS doesn't accept AVIF, or you need to edit the image in a tool that doesn't support AVIF input.
Converting AVIF back to PNG is lossless in terms of the AVIF data, but you don't recover the original PNG quality. The AVIF file already lost information during the initial compression. Re-expanding to PNG gives you a pixel-perfect representation of the AVIF — not the original source.
This is why keeping your original PNG files matters. Store the source separately and use the AVIF conversions for deployment. If you need to convert AVIF back to PNG, Pixes supports that direction too — just understand the quality ceiling is the AVIF file, not the original.
How to use this tool
- Open the file in any image editor or right-click → Properties (Windows) / Get Info (Mac). PNG files can be 8-bit, 16-bit, indexed color, or grayscale. AVIF supports all of these, but indexed-color PNGs (common in older graphics) may produce unexpected dithering. If your PNG is indexed color, convert it to RGB before uploading.
- Not all PNGs have transparency. If yours is a 24-bit PNG (no alpha channel), the AVIF output will also lack transparency. You need a 32-bit PNG (with alpha) to get transparent AVIF output. You can check this in Photoshop (Image → Mode), GIMP (Image → Mode), or by simply opening the PNG in a browser on a colored background.
- Use Pixes PNG to AVIF converter. Drag and drop your file or click to browse. The tool accepts PNG files up to 50 MB. Batch upload is supported — drag multiple files at once if you're converting a set of screenshots, icons, or product images.
- After downloading the AVIF file, open it in your browser (Chrome 85+, Firefox 93+, or Safari 16.4+). Check three things: (1) transparency is preserved if the original had it, (2) colors match the original, (3) the file size is actually smaller. If any of these fail, see the troubleshooting sections below.