Chrome to support much smaller, faster images as JPEG XL makes a security-first comeback

By using a new Rust-based implementation, Google satisfies security needs while offering users 60% smaller files and high-speed image decoding.

The Chromium logo

In a significant pivot, Google has officially integrated native JPEG XL support back into the Chromium browser engine as of today. The new implementation is built upon a new, memory-safe Rust-based decoder called jxl-rs, which satisfies long-standing security requirements that previously hindered its adoption.

While the feature is available, you won’t be able to enable it without enabling the #enable-jxl-image-format flag in chrome://flags. This marks the first time that it has been natively available in Chrome since version 110 in 2022. Other browsers don’t have great support for JPEG XL either; in Firefox you need to enable it and in Safari it only has partial support.

As a bit of background, JPEG XL is a next-generation format designed to replace the ageing JPEG format, which has been really popular but doesn’t compress files very well by modern standards. JPEG XL can make files 60% smaller than JPEGs and it’s very quick for your computer to decode.

In 2022, Google decided to remove its experimental support for JPEG XL citing various reasons. It said there was low interest in the format, meaning not enough websites were using it. Google said this meant that there wasn’t enough reason to continue working on support for the format in its browser. Additionally, Google has been pushing another format called AVIF, which it helped create, and wanted people to use that instead.

Several factors have forced Google to reintroduce support for JPEG XL. Firstly, there is the fact that Apple and Mozilla have both shipped support for the format in recent years, leaving Chrome as the lone holdout among major browsers. Also, in late 2025, the PDF Association named JPEG XL as the preferred solution for embedding High Dynamic Range (HDR) content in the PDF specifications, so if Google wants to carry on rendering PDFs in its PDF viewer correctly, the browser needs to support the new format. Finally, developers rank the format as the top pain point in surveys, demonstrating high demand for its advanced features like progressive decoding and animation.

By switching to a Rust implementation, which is a memory-safe language, Google no longer has an excuse that maintenance would be too cumbersome. When it is built, it will need fewer repairs later on.

Let us know in the comments if you are looking forward to this feature.