What Is AV1 and Should You Use It for Video Streaming?

AV1 is a royalty-free video codec from the Alliance for Open Media that compresses better than H.264 and HEVC. You should use it when most of your viewers can decode it and each encode serves many views, though AIOZ Stream doesn't offer AV1 yet.

Netflix reports one-third less bandwidth and 45% fewer buffering interruptions with AV1. The catch is that encoding costs more, and Safari only plays it on devices with an AV1 hardware decoder.

TL;DR:

• AV1 (AOMedia Video 1) was released in 2018 by the Alliance for Open Media, whose steering committee includes Amazon, Apple, Google, Microsoft, Netflix and NVIDIA.
• Netflix says AV1 carries about 30% of its streaming, scores 4.3 VMAF points above AVC and 0.9 above HEVC, and uses one-third less bandwidth than both.
• Can I use data from Oct 29, 2026 counts 79% of global users with full AV1 support and 17% with partial support, mostly Safari, which needs a hardware decoder such as the A17 Pro or M3.
• Encoding is the cost: AV1 needs more CPU or GPU than H.264, so it fits encode-once VOD better than cost-sensitive live encoding.
• AIOZ Stream encodes H.264 (up to 4K) and H.265 (up to 8K) only, per its Video API docs.

Updated Nov 4, 2026: added dated browser and hardware support, encoder options, film grain synthesis and a support diagram, and sourced the figures to Netflix's own post.

What is AV1?

AV1 is an open video coding format built by the Alliance for Open Media (AOMedia). Netflix says it co-founded AOMedia in 2015 with other industry leaders, and AV1 was released in 2018 as the group's first major project. Today the AOMedia steering committee lists Amazon, Apple, Cisco, Google, Intel, Meta, Microsoft, Mozilla, Netflix, NVIDIA, Samsung and Tencent.

The goal was better compression than H.264 and H.265 without per-device royalties, the licensing problem that slowed HEVC, so members license their essential patents to AV1 on a royalty-free basis. That backing is the big difference from VP9, a mostly Google-led format, which our guide to H.264, H.265 and VP9 transcoding covers.

AV1 also gives you tools older codecs lack, and film grain synthesis is the best known. The encoder strips grain out before compression and sends a small model of it, and the player adds matching grain back. If a codec term is unfamiliar, the video streaming glossary has a short definition.

What Netflix measured

Netflix published its AV1 numbers in "AV1, Now Powering 30% of Netflix Streaming" in December 2025, using data from Nov 13, 2025. On average, AV1 sessions scored 4.3 VMAF points higher than AVC and 0.9 higher than HEVC. They also used one-third less bandwidth than both, which led to 45% fewer buffering interruptions.

AV1 was Netflix's second most-used codec at about 30% of streaming, and the company expected it to become number one soon. The rollout started on Android in 2020 with a software decoder, reached TVs in late 2021, browsers in 2022 and Apple devices in 2023. VMAF is the quality score Netflix uses here, and our explainer on how VMAF measures perceived quality shows what a 4-point gap means.

Film grain synthesis shows how much those tools can save you. In one Netflix example, an AV1 stream with grain synthesis at 2,804 kbps looked better than a regular AV1 stream at 8,274 kbps, a 66% lower bitrate.

Which browsers support AV1?

Most of them do, with one big exception you need to plan for. We read the raw Can I use AV1 data on Nov 4, 2026, last updated in the repository on Oct 29, 2026. It counts 79.04% of global users on browsers with full AV1 support and 16.93% with partial support.

• Chrome: full support since version 70.
• Firefox: full support since version 67. Versions 65 and 66 supported it only on some operating systems.
• Edge: full support since version 121. Versions 18 to 115 could play it only with Microsoft's AV1 Video Extension installed on Windows.
• Safari on macOS and iOS: partial support since 17.0, "only on devices with hardware decoder, e.g. iPhone 15 Pro, M3 MacBook Pro".
• Samsung Internet: full support since version 12.0, and Chrome for Android has it in the current version.

So you can't treat AV1 as universal on Apple devices, because an older iPhone or an Intel Mac running the latest Safari still won't play it. You need an H.264 or HEVC fallback in your ladder.

Hardware decode on phones, Macs and TVs

Hardware decode is what keeps AV1 playback from draining batteries, and it has spread quickly:

• Apple: the A17 Pro chip in the iPhone 15 Pro "includes a dedicated AV1 decoder", according to Apple's 2023 announcement. Netflix says the M3 chips added it on Macs the same year.
• Android: Google's supported media formats page lists an AV1 decoder from Android 10. The encoder and decoder become mandatory from Android 14. Netflix notes that the open-source dav1d library is Android's default software decoder.
• TVs and streaming devices: 88% of the large-screen devices submitted for Netflix certification from 2021 to 2025 supported AV1, most at 4K and 60 fps. Netflix says almost every device it received since 2023 is AV1-capable.

Where hardware is missing, dav1d plays AV1 in software, and Netflix says it powers about 40% of its browser playback. Software decoding works, but it uses more CPU and battery than hardware.

The cost is on the encoding side

Playing AV1 has become cheap, but making it is still costly. Red5's AV1 vs H.264 comparison puts it plainly: AV1 encoding "can require more CPU or GPU capacity, particularly at slower quality-focused presets". So you'll want to weigh the full cost of encoding, delivery, playback and storage together.

If you encode in software, SVT-AV1 is one of AOMedia's own options; it was started by Intel with Netflix and adopted by AOMedia in August 2020, and it targets everything from premium VOD to live encoding. Hardware encoders help too, and NVIDIA says every GeForce RTX 40 Series GPU supports real-time AV1 encoding. OBS Studio 29.1 added AV1 streaming to YouTube over Enhanced RTMP in 2023.

That's why AV1 pays off fastest for VOD and big audiences, where you encode a title once on capable servers, and every view after that saves bandwidth. For a small catalog with few views per title, the extra encoding time may never pay back. Our guide to building a video bitrate ladder shows where an AV1 rung fits next to H.264.

Should you use AV1 for video streaming?

You should use AV1 when three things line up. Most of your audience is on Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Android or recent TVs, and your titles get enough views to repay the encode. Your player should also be able to fall back to H.264 or HEVC for everyone else.

Hold off when your audience is mostly on older iPhones and Intel Macs, or when you encode live on tight hardware. For live, H.264 is still the safe default for you, and our OBS encoder settings for AIOZ Stream use H.264 for exactly that reason.

How AIOZ Stream handles it

We don't encode AV1 today, and the Video API docs say: "Only H.264 and H.265 are currently supported. (H.264 maximum resolution is 4K and H.265 is 8K)". Audio is AAC only, and the video_config.codec field accepts h264 or h265.

If you want better compression than H.264 on AIOZ Stream now, H.265 is the option. Our guide to encoding 4K and 8K via the API shows the request. The docs' adaptive streaming guide mentions HEVC and AV1 ladders in general terms, but the Video API lists no AV1 option. For the full encoding options, start with the AIOZ Stream Video API docs.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is AV1?
AV1 is a royalty-free video codec released in 2018 by the Alliance for Open Media, and it compresses video more efficiently than H.264 or H.265.

Is AV1 better than H.265?
By Netflix's numbers, yes: AV1 sessions scored 0.9 VMAF points higher than HEVC and used one-third less bandwidth, but you pay for it with a higher encoding cost.

Does Safari support AV1?
Only partly. Since Safari 17, AV1 plays on Apple devices with a hardware decoder, such as the iPhone 15 Pro and M3 Macs, and not on older hardware.

Which devices support AV1 hardware decode?
Apple devices with the A17 Pro or M3 chip and later, and most TVs and streaming devices certified by Netflix since 2023. Android 10 and later can decode AV1 too, in software if the chip lacks a decoder.

Is AV1 harder to encode than H.264?
Yes, it needs more CPU or GPU, especially at slower, quality-focused presets, which is why live encoding still leans toward H.264.

Does AIOZ Stream support AV1?
No, the Video API lists H.264 (up to 4K) and H.265 (up to 8K) as the only video codecs.

Related Reading

• Video Container Formats Explained: WebM and MP4, the containers AV1 usually ships in for web delivery
• Video Transcoding Basics: H.264 vs H.265 vs VP9: the codecs AV1 is measured against
• How to Encode 4K/8K Video via API: H.264 vs H.265: the codec options and resolution caps AIOZ Stream supports today
• How to Build a Video Bitrate Ladder: how codec choice fits into the rest of the ladder
• VMAF Explained: the quality metric behind Netflix's AV1 numbers
• How Video Segmentation and M3U8 Manifests Work: the delivery layer any codec's output gets packaged into
• AIOZ Stream Developer Guide: the full API surface the codec field belongs to

References

• Netflix TechBlog: AV1, Now Powering 30% of Netflix Streaming: VMAF, bandwidth, buffering, device certification and dav1d figures
• Can I use: AV1 raw data: browser versions and global usage shares (updated Oct 29, 2026, read Nov 4, 2026)
• Apple Newsroom: iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max: the A17 Pro's dedicated AV1 decoder
• Android Developers: Supported media formats: AV1 decoder from Android 10, mandatory from Android 14
• AOMedia members: the steering committee list
• SVT-AV1 encoder: project history and scope
• NVIDIA: AV1 streaming with OBS Studio 29.1: RTX 40 Series AV1 encoding and Enhanced RTMP to YouTube
• Red5: AV1 vs H.264: the encoding cost trade-off