What Are VP9 and H.264?
H.264 (also called AVC or MPEG-4 Part 10) is the most widely deployed video codec in history. Released in 2003 by the ITU/MPEG consortium, it powers everything from Blu-ray discs to YouTube uploads to smartphone cameras. It is the default codec inside MP4 containers.
VP9 is Google's open-source video codec, released in 2013 as the successor to VP8. It was designed to match H.265/HEVC quality while remaining completely royalty-free. YouTube re-encodes all uploaded videos to VP9 for delivery, and VP9 is the primary codec inside WebM containers.
Quality Comparison
At equivalent visual quality (measured by SSIM or VMAF metrics), VP9 achieves 30–50% smaller file sizes than H.264. The improvement is most noticeable at lower bitrates, where VP9 maintains sharper detail and fewer artifacts.
The CRF (Constant Rate Factor) equivalence between the two codecs:
| H.264 CRF | VP9 CRF (equivalent) | Quality Level |
|---|---|---|
| 18 | 20–25 | Visually lossless |
| 23 | 30–33 | Default / excellent |
| 28 | 35–40 | Good / smaller files |
Encoding Speed
VP9 is significantly slower to encode than H.264 — typically 10–20x slower at default settings. This is the major tradeoff for its superior compression.
The cpu-used parameter controls the speed/quality tradeoff for VP9:
| cpu-used | Speed | Quality Impact |
|---|---|---|
| 0 | Extremely slow | Best compression |
| 1–2 | Very slow | Minimal loss |
| 3 | Moderate (our setting) | ~5% less efficient |
| 4–5 | Fast | Noticeable loss |
| 6–8 | Very fast | Significant loss |
Our converter uses cpu-used 3 with row-mt 1 (row-based multithreading) for an acceptable balance of speed and quality in an online conversion service.
File Size Comparison
Real-world example with a 1-minute 1080p clip at equivalent visual quality:
| Codec | Settings | File Size | Savings |
|---|---|---|---|
| H.264 | CRF 23, medium preset | ~10 MB | Baseline |
| VP9 | CRF 30, cpu-used 3 | ~6 MB | ~40% smaller |
Browser & Hardware Support
Both codecs have excellent support in 2026:
- H.264: universally hardware-decoded on every device manufactured in the last 15 years. Every browser, every phone, every TV, every gaming console.
- VP9: decoded natively in Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Safari 16.6+. Hardware acceleration on most modern GPUs (Intel Gen 7+, NVIDIA Maxwell+, Apple M1+).
Licensing & Cost
- VP9: completely royalty-free under the WebM Project license. No licensing fees ever.
- H.264: requires MPEG-LA licensing. The costs are typically covered by device and software manufacturers, so end users do not pay directly.
Which Should You Choose?
| Use Case | Recommendation | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Web delivery (bandwidth matters) | VP9/WebM | 30–50% smaller files |
| Universal device playback | H.264/MP4 | Works on everything |
| YouTube upload | Either | YouTube re-encodes to VP9 anyway |
| Social media upload | H.264/MP4 | Required by most platforms |
| Royalty-free requirement | VP9/WebM | No licensing fees |
| Real-time encoding | H.264 | 10–20x faster encoding |