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WebP and AVIF images: Crawl Audit check 79

Crawl Audit check 79 looks for images in modern formats. Why WebP and AVIF beat JPEG and PNG, browser support today, and which platforms convert for you.

Zain Kazmi2 min read
On this page
  1. What Crawl Audit checks
  2. What Google says
  3. On your platform
  4. Sources
Check
79 of 200
Module
Performance & Core Web Vitals
Group
Asset Compression & Optimization
Impact
Medium

Short answer: WebP and AVIF are image formats that make smaller files than JPEG and PNG at similar quality, so pages load faster. Every major browser supports both now. Check 79 warns when your images could be served in these formats. Many platforms already convert images for you.

What Crawl Audit checks

  • Full report: PageSpeed's image audit, when it's available, says whether images could use a modern format.
  • Free check, or no PageSpeed result: Crawl Audit looks for .webp or .avif image addresses, or a <picture> with <source> elements.
  • Pass: no images, modern formats in use, or PageSpeed finds nothing to convert. Warning: otherwise.

One limit: an image service such as Next.js's /_next/image chooses the format when the browser asks, so the address in the HTML may not end in .webp. If you know your platform converts images, a warning here in the free check can be a false alarm.

What Google says

  • Lighthouse: "AVIF and WebP are image formats that have superior compression and quality characteristics compared to their older JPEG and PNG counterparts."
  • Chrome's image delivery guidance: "AVIF is supported in the latest version of all major browsers" and "WebP is supported by all major browsers".
  • MDN: lossy WebP images are on average 25 to 35% smaller than JPEGs of similar quality.

On your platform

  • Shopify: "When a customer's web browser supports modern image formats such as WebP and AVIF (AV1 Image File Format), your images are delivered in those formats".
  • Wix: uploaded images are "automatically converted to AVIF format".
  • Squarespace: "all images on your Squarespace site automatically display using the WebP format."
  • WordPress: you can upload WebP since 5.8 and AVIF since 6.5, if your host supports them. Converting existing JPEGs needs a plugin or your host's image service.
  • Next.js: next/image serves WebP by default, and AVIF if you turn it on.

Sources

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