How to Batch Convert Images to AVIF on a Mac (3 Offline Ways)

Published by @SoNiceInfo at 9/21/2026

The easiest way to batch convert PNG, JPG, and HEIC images to AVIF on a Mac is a GUI app such as AVIF Converter.: drag and drop your images or a folder, compare before and after, then export, and your images never leave your Mac. If you live in Terminal, the avifenc command-line encoder (libavif) from Homebrew does the same job, and recent versions of macOS can also do it with the built-in sips command, though sips gives you little control over quality. All three run entirely on your Mac, so nothing is uploaded anywhere.

The three methods at a glance

AVIF is a next-generation image format that is about half the size of a JPEG at similar quality, and it supports transparency, animation, HDR, and 10/12-bit depth. This article walks through each method and shows the file sizes we actually got from the same source image.

RecommendedMethod 1: Drag and drop with AVIF Converter.

If you would rather not use Terminal, or you want to judge quality with your own eyes before exporting, a GUI app is the easiest route.AVIF Converter., a batch AVIF converter for Mac, is free to start, and all conversion happens on your Mac, so your images are never sent off the machine.

It also handles resizing, metadata options, batch watermarking, JPEG / PNG fallback output, and animated AVIF. If you need to export to several formats at once, such as WebP and JPEG XL as well as AVIF, the all-in-one Image Tool+ is a better fit.

For terminal usersMethod 2: Install avifenc (libavif) with Homebrew

avifenc is the encoder that comes with libavif, the reference AVIF implementation. It gives you precise control over quality and speed, and it is easy to drop into scripts and build steps. With Homebrew installed, one command sets it up:

brew install libavif

To convert a single image, pass the input and output file names:

avifenc -q 60 -s 6 input.jpg output.avif

• -q — quality from 0 to 100. Higher means better quality and larger files. Around 60 is a good starting point for photos.
• -s — encoder speed from 0 to 10. Lower values are slower but produce smaller files. 6 is a sensible balance of speed and size.

To convert every JPG and PNG in a folder, use a shell loop. Each output keeps the original name with the extension changed to .avif.

for f in *.jpg *.png; do avifenc -q 60 -s 6 "$f" "${f%.*}.avif"; done

Note that avifenc mainly reads JPEG, PNG, and Y4M. For HEIC photos from an iPhone, convert them to PNG with sips first, or use Method 1 or Method 3, which read HEIC directly.

Nothing to installMethod 3: Use the built-in sips command

sips is an image processing command that ships with macOS. Recent versions of macOS can write AVIF, so you can convert without installing anything. To check whether your Mac supports it, run the following command. If the avif line says Writable, you are good to go.

sips --formats | grep -i avif

On our machine (macOS 27) this prints public.avif avif Writable, and the following command converts an image:

sips -s format avif input.jpg --out output.avif

To convert several images at once, point the output at a folder. HEIC files work as input in the same way.

mkdir avif && sips -s format avif *.jpg --out avif/

The trade-off is that sips gives you very little control over AVIF quality or encoding speed. As the numbers below show, its defaults do not shrink files as much as avifenc, so treat it as the quick option for when you just need an AVIF.

Measured: file sizes from the same image

We converted one 1600×1064 JPEG photo (230 KB) to AVIF with each command-line method. This is a single example; savings vary a lot with the image and the settings.

Test environment: macOS 27, avifenc 1.4.2 (aom 3.15.0).

Being able to tune quality makes that much difference. If file size matters, pick avifenc, where you set the quality yourself, or AVIF Converter., where you can adjust it while comparing before and after on screen.

Using AVIF on a website: fall back with the picture element

So that browsers without AVIF support still show an image, the standard pattern on the web is a <picture> element that falls back from AVIF to WebP to JPEG. The browser loads the first format in the list that it supports.

<picture>
  <source type="image/avif" srcset="/images/hero.avif" />
  <source type="image/webp" srcset="/images/hero.webp" />
  <img src="/images/hero.jpg" alt="..." width="1600" height="1064" />
</picture>

Browser support: Chrome (since 2020), Firefox (since 2021), Safari (macOS 13 / iOS 16+), Edge (since 2024). For the WebP fallback, see how to batch convert images to WebP on a Mac, and for choosing between the two formats, see WebP vs AVIF.

Which method fits you

• Photographers — AVIF Converter.. You can decide quality by comparing before and after with your own eyes, and HDR and wide gamut are preserved. Photos carrying EXIF data such as GPS location are converted without ever leaving your Mac.
• Web designers and bloggers — AVIF Converter. for converting batches of article or client images. It can write JPEG / PNG fallbacks at the same time, which maps directly onto a <picture> setup. If you want conversion inside a build or deploy step, avifenc is the better fit.
• Engineers — avifenc if you want to fine-tune settings or script it. If you just need a few images right now without installing anything, sips is enough.

FAQ

Summary

To batch convert images to AVIF on a Mac, start with the GUI app AVIF Converter.: drag and drop, compare before and after, then export. If you work in Terminal, use avifenc; if you don't want to install anything, use sips. With all three, your images never leave your Mac.

Related guides

• How to batch convert PNG and JPG to WebP on a Mac
• How to batch convert images to JPEG XL on a Mac
• How to batch convert HEIC to JPG, PNG, or WebP on a Mac
• WebP vs AVIF: which image format should you use?