Both H.265 (HEVC) and AV1 are modern video codecs designed to replace the aging H.264 standard. Both promise smaller files at the same quality — but they've taken very different paths to get there.
If you're encoding video for broad compatibility — streaming to TVs, older phones, or corporate environments — H.265 is still the safer bet. If you're targeting modern browsers and don't mind slower encode times, AV1 delivers noticeably better compression at equal quality.
AV1 wins on compression — roughly 55% smaller than H.264 and 16% smaller than H.265. The trade-off is encode time: AV1 takes significantly longer to process, which is why cloud conversion services (like ours) are well suited for it — you don't need to sit and wait.
Choose H.265 if: you need broad device compatibility, you're targeting smart TVs or older Android devices, or you need fast conversion times.
Choose AV1 if: you're publishing to the web (Chrome, Firefox, Edge all support it natively), file size is the priority, or you're archiving content long-term.