JPEG XL Is Back in Chrome 145 — But It's Off by Default. Here's What That Actually Means for Your Website's Images.

Chrome 145 brought JPEG XL decoding back to the browser in February 2026, but it's still hidden behind a flag most users will never find, let alone enable. If you build or manage a website and you're wondering whether it's time to start serving JPEG XL, the honest answer is: not yet, but the runway just got a lot shorter.

Why This Is a Bigger Deal Than It Sounds

Google pulled JPEG XL support out of Chromium in 2022, effectively killing the format's chances of mainstream web adoption despite genuinely strong technical credentials — better compression than JPEG at equivalent quality, lossless recompression of existing JPEGs without quality loss, and support for both photographic and flat-graphic content in one format. Its return isn't a minor patch note. It's Google reversing a decision that shaped years of format strategy across the industry, and it's using a new Rust-based decoder built for memory safety rather than reviving the old C++ implementation — a sign this is meant to stick, not a quiet experiment.

Where Each Browser Actually Stands Right Now

Browser	JPEG XL support today
Safari	Enabled by default
Chrome 145	Available, behind chrome://flags
Edge	Expected to follow Chrome's default-on timeline
Firefox	Nightly builds only, not stable

That table is the whole story for anyone deciding whether to act on this today. Safari users can already see JPEG XL images natively. Everyone else needs a fallback, because serving JPEG XL as a primary format right now would break images for the overwhelming majority of Chrome, Edge, and Firefox users who haven't gone digging through browser flags.

What to Actually Do This Year

1. Don't switch your primary format to JPEG XL yet. Without default browser support across Chrome and Edge, you'd be breaking images for most visitors — this is a preview window, not a green light.
2. Keep using AVIF or WebP as your production format, both of which already have solid default support across every major browser and cover the compression gains most sites actually need right now.
3. Watch for Chrome's default-enablement announcement in the second half of 2026. That's the real trigger point — once JPEG XL works without a flag in Chrome and Edge, the calculus for adding it as an option changes fast.
4. If you're testing now, serve it with a proper fallback, using the <picture> element to offer AVIF or WebP to browsers that don't yet decode JPEG XL, rather than assuming universal support that doesn't exist yet.

Why This Still Matters for a Compression Tool

Format wars like this one determine what "good default" means for anyone converting or compressing images at scale. JPEG XL's pitch — better compression, no quality loss on JPEG recompression, one format for photos and graphics alike — is compelling enough that its return to Chrome is worth tracking even during the flag-only phase, because the moment it flips to default-on, millions of sites will have a genuine reason to reconsider their format strategy overnight.

Until then, Optimage's convert tool already handles AVIF and WebP conversion in the browser, free, and we'll add JPEG XL as a supported output the moment default browser support actually lands.

Related reading:

• AVIF vs. WebP vs. JPEG 2026 Benchmark — how the current default formats compare on size and quality
• Lightroom Export Alternative, Free 2026 — format and export settings for photographers
• Cloudflare vs. BunnyCDN vs. KeyCDN Image Delivery 2026 — how CDNs handle format negotiation for visitors on different browsers