Pro

Pipe9 Media Optimizer Pro — AVIF & Animated Conversion

AVIF conversion (40-50% smaller than WebP), animated GIF → WebP/AVIF, and CRF quality control. Requires the free plugin.

Start with the Free Plugin

⚠️ Requires Pipe9 Media Optimizer (free) installed and activated first

Pro extends the free plugin — it doesn't replace it.

What Pro adds

🖼️ Static AVIF

Converts JPEG, PNG, and static GIF to AVIF. Typically **40-50% smaller than WebP** at the same visual quality.

🎞️ Animated GIF → WebP

Converts animated GIFs to animated WebP. **60-80% smaller** with no visible quality loss. Uses gif2webp binary or Imagick.

📹 Animated GIF → AVIF

Maximum compression for animations. **80-90% smaller** than the original GIF. Uses ffmpeg with libsvtav1.

🎛️ CRF quality control

Fine-grained CRF scale (0-63) for AVIF. Lower CRF = better quality. Default 35 balances size and quality perfectly.

🔍 Binary auto-detection

Automatically finds gif2webp and ffmpeg on your server. Checks common paths and which. Custom path override supported.

🎯 Theme update auto-convert

When enabled per format, automatically scans and converts images in any theme that is installed or updated. Runs immediately — no cron needed.

📦 Bulk convert with theme support

Bulk convert existing library images to AVIF, animated WebP, or animated AVIF. Check "Include theme directories" to also convert theme images. Progress bars for each format.

Free vs Pro

Feature	Free	Pro
WebP conversion (static images)	✓	✓
Bulk WebP conversion	✓	✓
AVIF conversion (static)	—	✓
Animated GIF → WebP	—	✓
Animated GIF → AVIF	—	✓
Quality control	WebP 1-100	WebP + AVIF CRF 0-63
Serving strategies	All 5 included	All 5 included
GD / Imagick	✓	✓
gif2webp binary	—	✓
ffmpeg + libsvtav1	—	✓
Bulk conversion	WebP only	All formats
Theme directory conversion	Theme directories excluded	Theme directories included
Auto-convert on theme update	WebP only	All formats (WebP + AVIF)

Requirements

Requirement	Detail
Free plugin	Pipe9 Media Optimizer 1.4.2+ installed and active
PHP	7.4+ (8.1+ for GD AVIF conversion)
AVIF	GD with AVIF support (PHP 8.1+) or Imagick with libavif
Animated WebP	gif2webp binary (recommended) or Imagick with WebP delegate
Animated AVIF	ffmpeg compiled with libsvtav1 encoder
exec()	Required for gif2webp and ffmpeg binary execution

FAQ

Yes. Pro extends the free plugin's framework. If the free plugin isn't active, Pro self-deactivates and shows a notice.

AVIF requires PHP 8.1+ with GD compiled with AVIF support, or Imagick with the libavif delegate. Most modern hosts support this. The settings page shows a requirements check before activation.

gif2webp is part of Google's webp utilities. ffmpeg with libsvtav1 can be installed via your package manager. Pro auto-detects both and lets you set a custom path if needed.