AV1: The Next-Generation Royalty-Free Video Codec

Definition

AV1 is an open, royalty-free video compression codec developed by the Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia) — a consortium that includes Google, Apple, Microsoft, Mozilla, Netflix, Amazon, Facebook (Meta), and Intel, among others. Released in 2018, AV1 was designed as the successor to VP9 and a royalty-free alternative to H.265 (HEVC). In compression efficiency tests, AV1 typically achieves 20–30% better compression than VP9 and roughly 20–50% better than H.265 at equivalent visual quality, making it the most efficient widely-adopted video codec available. AV1 accomplishes this through a range of advanced coding tools: larger superblocks (up to 128×128 pixels), multi-reference frame prediction, a more flexible transform system, improved in-loop filters, and film grain synthesis (which encodes film grain as metadata rather than pixel data to save bits). The codec was initially slow to encode, but hardware acceleration support has rapidly expanded — modern GPUs from NVIDIA (RTX 30 series and later), AMD (RX 6000 series and later), Intel (Arc), and Apple Silicon (M3 and later) all include AV1 hardware encoders. AV1 decoding is now available in hardware on a wide range of consumer devices including modern smartphones and Smart TVs. Major platforms have adopted AV1: YouTube streams AV1 to supported devices, Netflix uses AV1 for mobile delivery, Discord serves video in AV1, and Twitch has begun AV1 rollout. AV1 video is most commonly packaged in the WebM container (with Opus audio) for web delivery, or in MP4/ISOBMFF containers for broader compatibility. For content creators and video repurposing workflows, AV1 means higher-quality clips at smaller file sizes — particularly valuable for platforms that place strict size limits on uploads, or for creators managing large libraries of repurposed short-form content.