Yes, AVIF files can carry EXIF and XMP metadata, including GPS coordinates. Whether conversion removes it depends entirely on the tool. We built a test AVIF with a location, an author name and a color profile, then ran it through ImageMagick, Python's Pillow and Chrome. ImageMagick copied the GPS location into JPG, PNG and WebP, while the browser removed it every time.
Yes. AVIF uses the same container format as HEIC, which stores everything as numbered items and boxes. The photo is one item, and EXIF and XMP metadata are separate items stored alongside it. That's all they need to carry the same location data a phone JPEG does.
| Part of the file | What it holds | Where you'll see it |
|---|---|---|
| av01 item | The image itself (AV1-compressed) | Every AVIF |
| Exif item | Camera, date, author, software, GPS | Converted photos, some phones and editors |
| mime item (XMP) | Creator, copyright, keywords, edit history | Adobe apps, asset tools |
| colr box | Color profile, or a short color-space code | Almost every AVIF |
To test this, we made a 1600 × 1200 AVIF with Python's Pillow library containing a camera make and model, an author name, a capture date, GPS coordinates, an XMP creator field and an sRGB color profile. The file came to 189 KB, of which the EXIF block was under 300 bytes. Then we ran it through the tools people actually use.
| Route | EXIF (camera, author, date) | GPS | XMP | Color profile |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Our original test file | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| ImageMagick 6, AVIF to AVIF | No | No | No | No |
| ImageMagick 6, AVIF to JPG | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| ImageMagick 6, AVIF to PNG | Yes | Yes, twice | No | No |
| ImageMagick 6, AVIF to WebP | Yes | Yes | No | No |
| Python Pillow, default save (any format) | No | No | No | AVIF and PNG only |
| Pillow, passing the metadata through | Yes | Yes | Not tested | Yes |
| Browser canvas to WebP (our image compressor) | No | No | No | sRGB only |
| Browser canvas to JPG | No | No | No | sRGB only |
The results don't follow any obvious logic, which is the useful lesson here. ImageMagick 6 carried the GPS location into every other format, and in the PNG it wrote the coordinates twice: once as a binary EXIF block and again as plain-text notes anyone can read in a text editor. Yet re-saving the same AVIF as AVIF threw away everything, including the color profile. Our ImageMagick build read only the EXIF part of the file, so the XMP and color profile never made it out on any route. Newer ImageMagick 7 builds may behave differently, so check rather than assume.
Pillow, the library behind a lot of Python scripts and web apps, dropped EXIF and XMP on a default save in every format we tried. It only keeps them when the code passes them through on purpose.
Not reliably. A converter can copy the EXIF block straight in, and Pillow does exactly that when it's asked to. Whether a given app or website does depends on how it was written. If you're converting photos to AVIF to post or send, check the output, don't assume.
Browser-based converters are a special case. Chrome can display AVIF but can't create it from a web page's canvas: when we asked for an AVIF, it silently handed back a PNG. So a site that claims to make AVIF in your browser is either using its own encoder or uploading your file to a server.
Open it in the EXIF viewer. It reads AVIF files in the browser and shows the camera, date and GPS fields when they're there; in our test it found the exact coordinates we embedded. It doesn't show XMP, which is where editing apps keep creator and copyright details, so a clean result means no EXIF location, not necessarily no metadata at all.
On a computer, Windows File Explorer's Properties, Details tab and the Mac Finder's Get Info panel may or may not read AVIF depending on your system version, so a browser tool is the more consistent check.
The easiest way is to re-encode it in the browser. Drop the AVIF into the image compressor and save it as WebP or JPG: in our test, both outputs had no EXIF, no GPS and no XMP, only a standard sRGB color profile. The file never leaves your device. The catch is that you end up with WebP or JPG rather than AVIF, because browsers can't encode AVIF.
If you need to stay in AVIF, use a desktop tool that can write AVIF and strip metadata, then check the result. ImageMagick's AVIF-to-AVIF route stripped everything in our test, but that's a side effect of how our build handles AVIF, not a documented feature. Our metadata remover only accepts JPG and PNG, so convert first if you want to use it.
For the same tests on other formats, see does WebP keep metadata and does converting HEIC to JPG keep metadata, plus does JPEG XL keep metadata.
Yes. AVIF can hold EXIF and XMP metadata as separate items next to the image, including GPS coordinates. Whether a particular AVIF has any depends on the camera, app or converter that made it.
It depends on the tool. ImageMagick 6 kept the camera details and GPS location when converting our test AVIF to JPG, PNG and WebP. Pillow's default save and browser canvas conversion removed them.
Yes, if it's there. A browser-based EXIF viewer that supports AVIF will show the latitude and longitude. In our test the EXIF viewer read the exact coordinates we embedded.
Re-encode it in the browser. Converting an AVIF to WebP or JPG with a canvas-based image compressor removed all EXIF, GPS and XMP in our test, leaving only a standard color profile. The output won't be AVIF, though.
Not through the standard canvas method. Chrome 145 can display AVIF, but when asked to export a canvas as AVIF it returned a PNG instead. Sites that output AVIF use their own encoder or a server.