# JPEG XL

Hacker Approved page: https://hackerapproved.com/p/jpeg-xl/

137 people recommended JPEG XL in Hacker News comments, 23 had mixed feelings and 59 criticized it, November 2025 to October 2026. It was recommended in 11 of 12 months, in 33 threads. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** Recommended as a versatile image format that can replace JPEG, PNG and GIF, convert old JPEGs losslessly, compress better and decode progressively; critics cite security risk and format fatigue.

Summary written by Claude from 55 comments. Claude agents reviewed it against the quotes on 2 Nov 2026.

## Why people recommend it

- One format for every use (7 comments in the sample): "The format is designed to be as general as possible, potentially replacing many common (JPEG, GIF, PNG) and professional image formats." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49991827)) "JPEG XL is probably the first format which actually achieves this, covering all kinds of pictures you can think of" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49999731)) "JPEG XL has the right balance of features to become a true replacement of almost every relevant image format" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49991671))
- Lossless transcoding of existing JPEGs (7 comments in the sample): "it is possible to do a transcode of all of your existing ('classic') JPEG files with zero (visual) losses in quality" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50121370)) "you can losslessly convert back and forth between the two for smaller filesize in JPEG XL with no quality loss" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49692311)) "JXL gives you progressive rendering, easy upgradability on JPEGs, and better lossless and high bitrate images." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50122766))
- Better compression than AVIF (5 comments in the sample): "JPEG XL easily beats AVIF on the not-so-long tail of use cases and having compatible viewers everywhere is quite useful." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49693599)) "At around 98KB, the JXL looks significantly better, and at around 240KB already looks really close to the final image" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49691096)) "it often handles clean edges and smooth surfaces (the likes of which you might see in digital art) better" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50128587))
- Progressive decoding (4 comments in the sample): "JPEG XL supports progressive decoding, so you can see the picture in lower quality long before the download has finished" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46109804)) "It is, however, a very useful image format feature, giving you most information from the spinner/sticker/emoji/sprite" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46605989)) "the JPEG XL ability to truncate the bitstream anywhere, or send the progressive updates for salient regions first" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49694038))

## What people warn about

- Large security attack surface (4 comments in the sample): "Google chose not to include JPEG XL in Chrome because vulnerabilities in the library could compromise the software" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50228687)) "JPEG XL carries a large security surface area which neither company was comfortable including in its current shape" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46119635)) "We don't want to support another pile of security bug ridden C++ library" absolutely aren't "dubious grounds" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49693093))
- Yet another format to support (4 comments in the sample): "I think they probably could have added those though, and then we wouldn't have yet another format to support for eternity." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49696223)) "with only 20% improvement I can't say I'm super excited by this, compared to the pain of dealing with yet another new image format" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46035099)) "On the other side we introduce yet another format that has to be supported, that creates compatibility issues" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49995578))
- Gains too small to justify (1 comment in the sample): "Going from lossless WEBP to lossless JXL is marginal though, and is not worth the big decode performance loss." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46036057))
- Overly complex design (1 comment in the sample): "Being an “everything” image format sounds awful and something that’s over engineered and no person understands it." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49994817))

## What people recommend instead

- [AVIF](https://hackerapproved.com/p/avif/): 46 recommend, 21 mixed, 42 criticize

## The badge

A product earns the Hacker Approved badge when at least 10 people recommend it, recommenders outnumber critics at least 2 to 1 (mixed feelings count toward neither side), it was recommended in at least 4 of the 12 months and in at least 5 different threads, and no single thread supplies more than half of the people who recommend it. Health and money products are never badged.

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "JPEG XL", https://hackerapproved.com/p/jpeg-xl/ (137 recommend, 23 mixed, 59 criticize; Hacker News comments, November 2025 to October 2026).

Counts updated 2 Nov 2026, with data through October 31, 2026.