H.265 vs AV1
Which should you use?
Quick verdict
Use AV1 if you want royalty-free streaming at scale and the best compression; use H.265 (HEVC) if you need reliable hardware-accelerated 4K playback and faster encoding on devices that support it today.
H.265 (HEVC) and AV1 are both modern codecs that compress video far better than H.264. H.265 is mature, with broad hardware decode support across phones, TVs and Blu-ray, but it carries patent royalties that complicate large-scale use.
AV1 is an open, royalty-free codec from the Alliance for Open Media. It compresses roughly 20-30% smaller than H.265 at the same quality and is used by YouTube and Netflix, but it encodes very slowly and hardware support is still expanding.
At a glance
| Property | H.265 | AV1 |
|---|---|---|
| Licensing | Patent royalties | Open, royalty-free |
| Efficiency | Very good | Best (~20-30% smaller) |
| Hardware decode | Broad, mature | Growing |
| Encode speed | Faster | Very slow |
| Used by | Apple, Blu-ray, broadcast | YouTube, Netflix |
| Best for | Reliable 4K playback | Streaming at scale |
Choose H.265 when
- Choose H.265 when you need guaranteed hardware-accelerated 4K playback on existing devices.
- Choose H.265 when encoding speed and Apple ecosystem support matter.
- Choose H.265 for Blu-ray, broadcast or local workflows that already license it.
Choose AV1 when
- Choose AV1 when you want the smallest files at the same quality.
- Choose AV1 to avoid patent royalties when streaming at scale.
- Choose AV1 for web delivery to modern browsers and platforms like YouTube and Netflix.
Frequently asked questions
Is AV1 better than H.265?
AV1 compresses about 20-30% smaller than H.265 at the same quality and is royalty-free, so it is better for streaming at scale. H.265 still wins on broad hardware support and much faster encoding today.
Is AV1 royalty-free?
Yes. AV1 was developed by the Alliance for Open Media to be open and royalty-free, which is a key reason YouTube and Netflix adopted it. H.265 (HEVC) requires patent royalties from multiple licensing pools.
Why is AV1 encoding so slow?
AV1's higher efficiency comes from more complex encoding tools that need far more computation than H.265. Encoding can be many times slower, though encoders like SVT-AV1 have narrowed the gap significantly.
Does my device support AV1?
Most browsers and many recent phones, TVs and GPUs (2020 and later) can decode AV1, but older hardware cannot. H.265 has wider, more mature hardware decode support across existing devices.