How to Convert AVIF to JPG (or PNG) When the File Won't Open

The short answer

To convert an AVIF image to JPG, open the PNG to JPG converter and drop your .avif file on it. Despite its name, the tool accepts any image your browser can display, including AVIF and WebP, and downloads a .jpg with the same name and pixel size. If you need to keep a transparent background, use JPG to PNG instead, which saves a PNG.

What AVIF is and why you ended up with one

AVIF is an image format based on the AV1 video codec. Websites use it because it usually produces smaller files than JPG at similar visual quality. Its file extension is .avif and its MIME type is image/avif.

You normally get an AVIF file without choosing one:

• You right-clicked an image on a website and chose Save image as, and the site served AVIF to your browser.
• A photo editor or camera app exported AVIF by default.
• Someone sent you a file downloaded from an online shop, news site or image library.

The trouble starts when you try to use it elsewhere. Many upload forms (job portals, government forms, older content management systems) only accept JPG or PNG, and some desktop apps, older phones and printing kiosks still cannot open AVIF at all. Converting to JPG fixes all of these because JPG is supported almost everywhere.

How to convert AVIF to JPG step by step

Open the PNG to JPG converter in a current browser.

Drop your .avif file on the upload area, or click it and pick the file. Files up to 30 MB are accepted.

Wait a moment while it converts. The tool loads the image, draws it on a canvas at its full width and height, and saves it as JPG.

Click Download JPG. The file keeps your original name with a .jpg extension, so product-photo.avif becomes product-photo.jpg.

Everything happens inside your browser tab. The image is not uploaded to a server, which matters if the picture shows a document, an ID card or anything personal.

Converting AVIF to PNG instead

If the AVIF has a transparent background (a logo, an icon or a cut-out product shot), JPG is the wrong target because it cannot store transparency. Use JPG to PNG instead. It also accepts any image your browser can open and saves a PNG that keeps the transparent areas.

What changes when you convert

Property	After AVIF to JPG	After AVIF to PNG
Pixel size	Same width and height	Same width and height
Transparency	Filled with white	Kept
Compression	Lossy, saved at 92% quality	Lossless
File size	Usually larger than the AVIF	Often much larger than the AVIF
Animation	Only one frame is saved	Only one frame is saved
Camera details (EXIF)	Not copied	Not copied

A few of these are worth explaining.

File size goes up. AVIF is efficient, so the same picture saved as JPG normally takes more bytes, and PNG takes more again. If a form has a size limit such as 100 KB or 200 KB, run the JPG through Compress Image to KB afterwards.

Quality stays close to the original. The converter writes the JPG at a quality setting of 0.92 (92%). That is high enough that you will not see a difference at normal viewing size, but it is still lossy, so avoid converting the same picture back and forth many times.

Metadata is dropped. The image is redrawn on a canvas, so details such as camera model, date taken or GPS location are not carried into the new file. That is usually an advantage when sharing, but keep the original if you need those details.

Animated AVIF becomes a still image. AVIF can hold an animation. The converter draws a single frame, so you get one still JPG, not a moving image.

Troubleshooting

"Could not read this image file"

This message appears when your browser cannot decode the file. According to MDN, AVIF is supported from these versions:

Browser	AVIF support from
Chrome	85
Edge	121
Firefox	93
Opera	71
Safari	16.1

If you are on an older version, update the browser or open the converter in a current Chrome or Firefox. The same error appears if the file is damaged or is not really an image, for example a web page saved with an .avif extension. Check the file size: a "picture" of a few hundred bytes is almost certainly not a real image.

The file picker greys out my AVIF file

Some operating systems do not yet recognise .avif as an image type, so the picker may not show it under "Images". Drag the file straight from your file manager onto the upload area instead.

The colours look slightly different

Some AVIF images are made for HDR or wide-colour screens. JPG files from the converter are standard 8-bit images, so very bright highlights or saturated colours in such files may look a little flatter after conversion. For ordinary web photos you should not notice any change.

The converted file is still rejected by a form

Most rejections after conversion are about size, not format. Check the form's rules for maximum file size and pixel dimensions. Resize or compress the JPG to match, then upload again. If the form wants a photo under a certain number of KB, the guide to getting a photo under a KB limit covers the usual reasons.

AVIF, WebP and HEIC: which converter to use

All three are modern formats that some apps and forms refuse. The approach is the same for AVIF and WebP: the PNG to JPG and JPG to PNG converters accept any image the browser can open. For WebP specifically, see how to convert WebP to PNG or JPG.

iPhone HEIC photos are different, because most browsers cannot display HEIC natively. Use the dedicated HEIC to JPG converter for those, since it includes a HEIC decoder.

Common mistakes

• Renaming the file to .jpg. Changing the extension does not change the data inside. The file is still AVIF and many apps will refuse it or show an error. Convert it properly.
• Converting a transparent logo to JPG. The transparent parts turn white. Use PNG when you need transparency, as explained in PNG to JPG: why the background turns white.
• Converting screenshots of text to JPG. JPG can blur sharp text edges slightly. PNG is a better choice for screenshots and diagrams.
• Deleting the AVIF straight away. Keep the original until you have checked the JPG opens and looks right where you need it.