The Rise of AV1: What It Means for Video Creators
Published January 15, 2026
A new video codec is quietly transforming how we watch and create video online. AV1 (AOMedia Video 1) promises better quality at smaller file sizes than H.264 or even H.265, all while being completely royalty-free. For video creators, understanding AV1's implications helps future-proof workflows and delivery strategies.
What Makes AV1 Different?
AV1 isn't just incrementally better—it represents a fundamental shift in video compression technology. Developed by the Alliance for Open Media (a consortium including Google, Netflix, Amazon, Microsoft, and others), AV1 delivers approximately 30% better compression than H.265 at equivalent quality levels.
More importantly, AV1 is royalty-free. While H.264 and H.265 require patent licensing fees (often hidden in platform costs), AV1 can be freely implemented by anyone. This open approach accelerates adoption and keeps costs down for platforms and creators alike.
Current Adoption Status
AV1 adoption is accelerating faster than many predicted. YouTube began encoding AV1 versions of popular videos in 2018 and has since expanded coverage significantly. Netflix uses AV1 for Android mobile streaming. Streaming services recognize that AV1's efficiency directly reduces bandwidth costs—a massive incentive for platforms serving billions of streams.
Hardware support is expanding rapidly. Modern devices from Apple (iPhone 15 and later), Samsung, and others include dedicated AV1 decoding hardware. Intel's recent processors support AV1 encoding and decoding in hardware, making the codec practical for real-time applications beyond just playback.
The Encoding Challenge
AV1's superior compression comes at a cost: encoding time. Early AV1 encoders were notoriously slow—sometimes 100x slower than H.264 encoding. This made AV1 impractical except for platforms that could afford massive encoding farms.
Recent developments have dramatically improved this situation. Hardware encoders in modern CPUs and GPUs make AV1 encoding feasible for creators. Software encoders like SVT-AV1 (Scalable Video Technology for AV1) offer reasonable encoding speeds with quality approaching reference encoders. While still slower than H.264, the gap has narrowed significantly.
When Should Creators Use AV1?
For most creators today, AV1 remains a delivery codec rather than a production codec. Upload your videos in H.264 or H.265, and let platforms like YouTube handle AV1 transcoding. However, situations where direct AV1 encoding makes sense are emerging:
Archival and preservation: AV1's efficiency means smaller archives without quality loss. When storing terabytes of footage long-term, the space savings add up.
Bandwidth-constrained delivery: If you're hosting video yourself or working in regions with limited bandwidth, AV1's smaller files improve accessibility.
Future-proofing content: As AV1 becomes the standard, content encoded today will be ready for tomorrow's ecosystem.
Platform Support
Understanding which platforms support AV1 helps plan your encoding strategy. YouTube displays AV1 to compatible devices automatically. Vimeo has announced AV1 support. Streaming platforms including Netflix, Disney+, and others use AV1 for mobile delivery where bandwidth efficiency matters most.
Social media lags behind—Instagram, TikTok, and Facebook don't yet widely support AV1 upload or delivery. For these platforms, H.264 remains the safe choice.
Quality Considerations
AV1 excels with challenging content. Detailed textures, film grain, and high-motion scenes—content that causes artifacts in H.264—encode much more cleanly in AV1. Gradients and smooth color transitions also benefit, showing less banding at equivalent bitrates.
However, extremely simple content (solid colors, minimal motion) doesn't benefit as much. The advantage appears most dramatically in real-world video with complexity and detail.
Practical Workflow Integration
If you want to experiment with AV1 today, several tools make it accessible. FFmpeg supports AV1 encoding through multiple encoders (libaom, SVT-AV1, rav1e). Handbrake includes AV1 presets. DaVinci Resolve added AV1 support recently for YouTube delivery.
For creators building encoding pipelines, SVT-AV1 offers the best balance of speed and quality currently available. While not as fast as H.264 hardware encoders, it produces excellent results at acceptable speeds on modern hardware.
Challenges and Limitations
AV1 isn't perfect. Encoding speed, while improving, remains slower than H.264. Older devices can't play AV1, requiring fallback formats. Some professional workflows don't yet support AV1, creating compatibility challenges.
The codec is also complex to tune properly. While H.264 settings are well-understood after years of use, optimal AV1 parameters are still being explored. This complexity can make it harder for creators to achieve consistent results.
Looking Forward
AV1 represents the future of online video. As hardware support becomes universal and encoding speeds continue improving, H.264 and H.265 will gradually fade like their predecessors. The transition won't happen overnight, but the direction is clear.
For creators, the message is simple: you don't need to encode in AV1 today, but you should understand it's coming. When platforms you work with adopt AV1, your content will benefit from better quality delivery without any changes to your workflow.
Actionable Recommendations
Continue uploading to YouTube, Netflix, and other platforms in H.264 or H.265. These platforms handle AV1 transcoding automatically, giving your viewers the benefits without requiring you to change workflows.
If you're building a personal archive or need maximum compression efficiency, consider using AV1. The encoding time investment pays off in permanently smaller file sizes.
Stay informed about hardware support in your production ecosystem. As your cameras, computers, and editing software add native AV1 support, integration becomes seamless.
Most importantly, don't feel pressure to adopt immediately. AV1 is a tool, not a requirement. Use it when it solves a specific problem—bandwidth, storage, or future-proofing—rather than chasing the latest technology for its own sake.