For three years JPEG XL was effectively dead: thrown out of Chrome by Google, missed by developers. In 2026 it's back. What the format can do, why it was blocked for so long, and how to use it today without wrecking your browser compatibility.

What is JPEG XL anyway?

JPEG XL (file extension .jxl) is a modern image format from the JPEG committee, standardized as ISO/IEC 18181. The ambition was big from the start: a single format meant to replace JPEG, PNG, GIF and WebP at once, so lossy, lossless, animated and with an alpha channel, all in one.

On paper JPEG XL is superior to every established web format. Three properties stand out:

  • Better compression than anything else. Comparative tests typically show files 50–60 % smaller than JPEG at the same quality and roughly a 10–15 % edge over AVIF, all at practical encoding times rather than after minutes of computation.
  • Lossless JPEG transcoding. An existing JPEG can be repacked into JPEG XL without quality loss, shrinking by about 20 %. The special part is that the process is reversible: from the .jxl you can restore the bit-identical original JPEG at any time. For a photo archive that's a free 20 % discount with zero risk.
  • True progressive decoding. JPEG XL can display an image sharply enough from a fraction of the bytes and then sharpen it further. No other modern format handles this as cleanly.

Why was JPEG XL dead for three years?

Here it becomes a lesson in the power of browser vendors.

In late 2022 Google announced it would remove JPEG XL support from Chrome; with Chrome 110 in February 2023 it was gone. The justification: too little interest in the ecosystem. The problem with that logic is that without Chrome, by far the most-used browser, no interest could develop on the web at all. A self-fulfilling prophecy.

Apple went the opposite way and shipped JPEG XL by default from Safari 17 (September 2023). Suddenly all iPhone and Mac users could display JXL, but no one else. The format hung in limbo.

The turning point came in late 2025, when several things coincided. The PDF Association added JPEG XL to the PDF specification in November 2025, which meant Chrome would have to support it for its own PDF rendering alone. In developer surveys like Interop 2026, missing JXL support regularly ranked among the biggest pain points. And crucially, a new decoder written in Rust (jxl-rs) was available: memory-safe, and thus without the security concerns of the old C++ implementation. Incidentally, the reimplementation wasn't driven by Google itself but by, among others, Helmut Januschka of Krone Multimedia.

On 21 November 2025, Chrome architect Rick Byers publicly reversed course. By January 2026 the Rust decoder was merged into Chromium, and Chrome 145 shipped it in February 2026, behind a flag, however (chrome://flags/#enable-jxl-image-format).

Browser support in 2026 at a glance

BrowserJPEG XLStatus
Safari✅ by defaultsince Safari 17 (2023)
Chrome⚙️ behind flagsince Chrome 145 (Feb 2026)
Edge⚙️ behind flagChromium-based, follows Chrome
Firefox🧪 Nightly onlystable version: disabled

In practice that means: as of mid-2026, only about 15–20 % of users can display JPEG XL out of the box, almost exclusively Safari. The exciting question is the second half of 2026: Chrome is expected to enable JXL by default then. The moment it does, effective coverage jumps overnight to around 85–90 %, because Edge follows immediately. Firefox is likely to follow in 2027.

Until then: JPEG XL is a "serve-to-capable" format, not a "serve-everywhere" format. You can't ship it as your only format without leaving a portion of your visitors stranded.

JPEG XL vs. AVIF vs. WebP: when to use what?

The three modern formats don't really compete; they have different strengths:

  • WebP is the safe standard. Universal browser support (over 97 %), good compression, fast encoding. If only one format is on the table, this is it.
  • AVIF offers maximum compression for the web. Smaller than WebP, broad support (Chrome 2020, Firefox 2021, Safari 16). Drawback: significantly longer encoding time.
  • JPEG XL is technically the best, but not (yet) everywhere. It shines at archiving and lossless JPEG recompression, not at broad web delivery.

For animations, by the way, JPEG XL is not the first choice, since WebP and AVIF are more mature here. As a GIF replacement you're better off with WebP.

What you can already do with JPEG XL today

Even though blanket web delivery is still waiting, there are two sensible uses right now:

1. Archiving. Repack your existing JPEG photo library into .jxl via lossless recompression. That saves 20–30 % storage at zero quality loss, and you can reconstruct the originals bit-for-bit at any time. For large image archives on your own hardware, that's real money.

2. Progressive enhancement. Serve JPEG XL specifically to Safari and AVIF or WebP to everyone else, via the <picture> element:

<picture>
  <source srcset="image.jxl" type="image/jxl">
  <source srcset="image.avif" type="image/avif">
  <source srcset="image.webp" type="image/webp">
  <img src="image.jpg" alt="Description" width="800" height="600">
</picture>

The browser takes the first format it understands. Safari users get JXL today, everyone else the next-best variant. And as soon as Chrome flips the switch, they benefit automatically without you changing anything.

Practical recommendation for 2026

  • Web delivery: AVIF (or WebP) as primary format, JPG as fallback. The proven chain stays.
  • JXL as a complement: as the top <source> in the fallback chain, so Safari users already benefit.
  • Archive: JPEG XL lossless for your original library.
  • Not yet: JXL as the only format without a fallback. That only works once Chrome and Firefox ship it by default.

Conclusion

JPEG XL is the return of a format that is technically superior to every competitor and yet nearly foundered on the market power of a single vendor. 2026 is the year that turns around. Anyone running an image-heavy project should prepare their pipeline now, so everything is ready for the Chrome default flip in the second half of the year.

Convert images with wandlio

As long as JPEG XL hasn't arrived everywhere, the proven chain remains your tool, and at wandlio it runs entirely locally in your browser:

No account, no upload, no waiting; your files never leave your device.