AVIF is a still image encoded with the AV1 codec, used for HDR web images and modern photo delivery. Compared with a phone's HEIC, what an AVIF reveals is less about a camera and more about colour and dynamic range: it declares its colour space and transfer function in the container itself, and HDR files carry the reference display they were graded on. When an AVIF was made from a camera photo, the original EXIF and GPS ride along too.
Scan a AVIF fileAVIF signals how to interpret its colour directly in the container using CICP code points rather than an embedded ICC profile. That means even a file with no ICC profile states its colour primaries, its transfer function and its matrix. A wide gamut such as BT.2020 or Display P3 combined with a PQ or HLG transfer marks the file as HDR-graded material rather than an ordinary sRGB web image.
On HDR AVIFs, a scan surfaces the mastering metadata: the content light level (the peak and frame-average brightness the image was mastered for) and the mastering display colour volume, the exact colour and luminance range of the reference monitor it was graded on. That last one describes the production setup rather than the picture, so it fingerprints the grading pipeline behind the file.
AVIF is built on the same ISO base media container as HEIC, so it can carry an auxiliary alpha (transparency) channel, be stored as a tile grid, and record its own rotation. It still holds EXIF, XMP and ICC when the source image had them, which is how the camera model, capture time and GPS coordinates from an original phone photo survive a conversion to AVIF.
The bit depth per channel, the container brand profiles the file declares, and any C2PA Content Credentials (the signing tool and whether AI generation is claimed) are all read as well. Because AVIF is a common output for AI image tools, that provenance information is worth checking.
This is a selection. The full field manual documents the fields read from each format.
It can. AVIF carries EXIF, XMP and ICC metadata whenever the source image had them, so a phone photo converted to AVIF keeps its camera model, capture timestamp and GPS coordinates. AVIFs exported from a graphics or AI tool often have little camera EXIF but still declare colour and HDR data.
It uses CICP code points in the container to name its colour primaries, transfer function and matrix. A wide gamut like BT.2020 with a PQ or HLG transfer is the signature of HDR-graded content, and HDR files add the content light level and the mastering display they were produced on.
It records the colour volume and luminance range of the reference monitor the image was graded on. It describes the equipment and grading pipeline behind the file rather than the visible picture, so it effectively fingerprints the production setup that made it.
They share a container, so both can hold EXIF, alpha channels, tile grids and rotation. In practice a HEIC is usually a phone photo rich in GPS, a depth map and an HDR gain map, while an AVIF is more often HDR web or tool-exported content whose distinctive metadata is its colour signalling and mastering data.
Yes. File X-Ray removes the EXIF, XMP and IPTC items from an AVIF and hands back a clean copy that is still an AVIF, the same length as the original, with the encoded picture untouched. Nothing is re-encoded: the metadata is overwritten where it sits and the boxes that exist only to carry it are turned into padding the spec tells every reader to skip. The ICC colour profile is kept on purpose, because dropping it would change how the image renders.
File X-Ray reads AVIF files entirely in your browser - the file never leaves your device. For this format you can also download a clean copy with the metadata removed. Scan a file now.