David Degner

<p>Built by a <a href="https://www.daviddegner.com" rel="nofollow ugc">Boston photographer</a> for site owners who care about visual quality and full control. This plugin prioritizes <strong>image quality</strong> over everything else — no subscriptions, no external services.</p>
<h3>Features</h3>
<ul>
<li><strong>Local Processing</strong> — All conversion happens on your server. No subscriptions or external API calls. Works great on a shared CPU with 2GB RAM.</li>
<li><strong>Quality First</strong> — Uses LANCZOS resizing, preserves ICC color profiles, and keeps EXIF/XMP/IPTC metadata intact.</li>
<li><strong>Fully Tunable</strong> — Control quality (0–100), speed (0–10), chroma subsampling (4:2:0, 4:2:2, 4:4:4), and bit depth (8/10/12-bit).</li>
<li><strong>Smart Fallback</strong> — Serves AVIF to supported browsers, JPEG to everyone else via picture elements.</li>
<li><strong>Automatic Conversion</strong> — Convert on upload or via daily scheduled background scans.</li>
<li><strong>LQIP Placeholders</strong> — Generate ThumbHash-based low-quality image placeholders for smooth loading.</li>
</ul>
<h3>How It Works</h3>
<p><strong>Front end:</strong> The plugin wraps your img tags in picture elements with an AVIF source. Browsers that support AVIF load the smaller, higher-quality file — others gracefully fall back to JPEG.</p>
<p><strong>Conversion:</strong> Uses ImageMagick CLI (fastest), Imagick PHP extension (high quality), or GD Library (fallback) to convert JPEGs to AVIF on upload or via background jobs.</p>
<p><strong>LQIP:</strong> Generates compact (~30 byte) ThumbHash placeholders that display instantly while images load.</p>
<h3>Server Setup</h3>
<p>The plugin supports three conversion engines, in order of preference:</p>
<h4>ImageMagick CLI (Fastest, Recommended)</h4>
<p>Uses the ImageMagick command-line binary directly:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>System binary:</strong> ImageMagick 7.x built with HEIF/AVIF support (via libheif)</li>
<li><strong>No PHP extension required</strong></li>
<li><strong>Benefits:</strong> Fastest performance, LANCZOS resizing, full metadata preservation (EXIF, XMP, IPTC, ICC)</li>
<li><strong>Typical paths:</strong> <code>/usr/bin/magick</code>, <code>/usr/local/bin/magick</code>, or Homebrew on macOS</li>
</ul>
<p>To verify AVIF support:</p>
<pre><code>magick -list format | grep -i avif
</code></pre>
<h4>Imagick PHP Extension (High Quality)</h4>
<p>Uses the PHP Imagick extension:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>PHP extension:</strong> imagick</li>
<li><strong>System libraries:</strong> ImageMagick built with HEIF/AVIF support (via libheif)</li>
<li><strong>Benefits:</strong> LANCZOS resizing, full metadata preservation (EXIF, XMP, IPTC, ICC), color profile handling</li>
</ul>
<p>To install on Ubuntu/Debian:</p>
<pre><code>apt install php-imagick imagemagick libheif-dev
</code></pre>
<h4>GD Library (Fallback)</h4>
<p>Uses PHP’s built-in GD library:</p>
<ul>
<li><strong>PHP extension:</strong> gd built with AVIF support (provides imageavif on PHP 8.1+)</li>
<li><strong>Note:</strong> Some distro builds omit AVIF support; limited metadata preservation</li>
</ul>
<h4>MIME Type Configuration</h4>
<p>Ensure your web server is configured to serve .avif files as image/avif.</p>
<h4>Documentation</h4>
<ul>
<li><a href="https://imagemagick.org/script/download.php" rel="nofollow ugc">ImageMagick installation</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.php.net/imagick" rel="nofollow ugc">PHP Imagick installation</a></li>
<li><a href="https://www.php.net/manual/en/image.installation.php" rel="nofollow ugc">PHP GD installation</a></li>
<li><a href="https://imagemagick.org/script/formats.php" rel="nofollow ugc">ImageMagick format support</a></li>
</ul>
<h4>Need help with setup?</h4>
<p>If you’re not sure what to install or upgrade, copy your <strong>Server Diagnostics</strong> from the plugin status/tools screen (or run <code>wp avif status --format=json</code>) and paste it into an LLM.</p>
<p>Example prompt:</p>
<pre><code>I need AVIF support for WordPress. Based on this diagnostics output, give me step-by-step commands to install or upgrade ImageMagick, libheif, and PHP Imagick on my server.
</code></pre>
<p>After applying changes, verify with:</p>
<pre><code>wp avif status
magick -list format | grep -i avif<h3>WP-CLI Commands</h3>
</code></pre>
<p>Manage AVIF conversions from the command line.</p>
<h4>Status</h4>
<p>Show system status and AVIF support diagnostics:</p>
<pre><code>wp avif status
wp avif status --format=json
</code></pre>
<h4>Convert</h4>
<p>Convert JPEG images to AVIF format:</p>
<pre><code>wp avif convert --all
wp avif convert 123
wp avif convert --all --dry-run
</code></pre>
<p>Options:</p>
<ul>
<li><code><attachment-id></code> — Specific attachment ID to convert</li>
<li><code>--all</code> — Convert all attachments missing AVIF versions</li>
<li><code>--dry-run</code> — Show what would be converted without actually converting</li>
</ul>
<h4>Statistics</h4>
<p>Show AVIF conversion statistics:</p>
<pre><code>wp avif stats
wp avif stats --format=json
</code></pre>
<h4>Logs</h4>
<p>View or clear conversion logs:</p>
<pre><code>wp avif logs
wp avif logs --limit=50
wp avif logs --clear
</code></pre>
<p>Options:</p>
<ul>
<li><code>--clear</code> — Clear all logs</li>
<li><code>--limit=<number></code> — Number of logs to show (default: 20)</li>
</ul>
<h4>Delete</h4>
<p>Delete AVIF files for an attachment or all attachments:</p>
<pre><code>wp avif delete 123
wp avif delete --all --yes
</code></pre>
<p>Options:</p>
<ul>
<li><code><attachment-id></code> — Attachment ID to delete AVIF files for</li>
<li><code>--all</code> — Delete all AVIF files in the media library</li>
<li><code>--yes</code> — Skip confirmation prompt when using –all</li>
</ul>
<h4>LQIP Commands</h4>
<p>Manage LQIP (ThumbHash) placeholders:</p>
<pre><code>wp lqip stats
wp lqip generate --all --force
wp lqip generate 123
wp lqip delete --all --yes
</code></pre>
<p>For more information, visit <a href="https://wp-cli.org/" rel="nofollow ugc">wp-cli.org</a>.</p>
<h3>Contributing</h3>
<p>Contributions welcome! Please submit issues and pull requests on <a href="https://github.com/ddegner/avif-local-support" rel="nofollow ugc">GitHub</a>.</p>
<h3>License</h3>
<p>GPL v2 or later — <a href="https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html" rel="nofollow ugc">View License</a></p>


AVIF Local Support

High-quality AVIF image conversion for WordPress — local, quality-first.

WordPress.org

<p>This plugin adds WebP and AVIF support for media uploads within the WordPress application. By default, AVIF images will be generated if supported on the hosting server, otherwise WebP will be used as the output format. When both formats are available, the output format can be selected under <code>Settings > Media</code>. Modern images will be generated only for new uploads, pre-existing images will only converted to a modern format if images are regenerated. Images can be regenerated with a plugin like <a href="https://wordpress.org/plugins/regenerate-thumbnails/" rel="ugc">Regenerate Thumbnails</a> or via WP-CLI with the <code>wp media regenerate</code> <a href="https://developer.wordpress.org/cli/commands/media/regenerate/" rel="nofollow ugc">command</a>.</p>
<p>By default, only modern image format sub-sizes will be generated for JPEG or PNG uploads – only the original uploaded file will still exist as a JPEG/PNG image, generated image sizes will be WebP or AVIF files. To change this behavior, there is a checkbox in <code>Settings > Media</code> “Output fallback images” that – when checked – will result in the plugin generating both the original format as well as WebP or AVIF images for every sub-size (noting again that this will only affect newly uploaded images, i.e. after making said change).</p>
<p><em>This plugin was formerly known as WebP Uploads.</em></p>


Modern Image Formats


I love that it doesn't force you to generate all image sizes of the original format and avif, but just does the avif (or webp if you choose that). It would be really nice if it could rework old images, and maybe even modify the database to match. But still, excellent and should be installed first thing on all new WP sites in my opinion.


Easiest way to get AVIF images


Thanks for developing this plugin!It's my #1 plugin for image optimization!


So far so good!

Converts images to more modern formats such as WebP or AVIF during upload.

AVIF Local Support vs Modern Image Formats