VP9

Google's royalty-free video codec with 35% better compression than H.264.

What is VP9

VP9 is an open, royalty-free video codec developed by Google as the successor to VP8. Released in 2013, VP9 achieves approximately 35% better compression than H.264 at equivalent quality — positioning it between H.264 and AV1 in efficiency. VP9 is the primary codec used by YouTube for non-AV1 content and the standard video codec inside the WebM container. VP9 has broad browser support (Chrome, Firefox, Edge) and strong hardware decode support across modern devices, but Safari does not support it, limiting its use on Apple platforms. VP9's encoding speed is moderate — roughly comparable to H.265.

When to Choose VP9

Choose VP9 when:

• You need a royalty-free codec with broad support today — VP9 is supported by Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and most non-Apple devices.
• Your delivery targets the Google/WebM ecosystem — VP9 is the default for YouTube and WebM containers.
• You want 35% better compression than H.264 without AV1's slow encoding speed — VP9 offers a middle ground.

Consider alternatives when:

• You need Safari/iOS playback — VP9 is not supported on Apple platforms. Use H.264 or AV1(Safari 17+).
• You want maximum compression efficiency — AV1 is ~30% more efficient than VP9 and also royalty-free.
• You need HLS delivery — VP9 in HLS is not standard. Use H.264 or H.265 for HLS.

Transcoding Demo

Source video

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Sample Video

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Select a video you want to transcode

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Maximum file size: 5GB

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4K Sample (Qencode)

Source Type

URL

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Convert to VP9

Transcoding demo creates a small clip with a watermark. To test transcoding full files, Start your Free Plan for 500 credits.

Select a source video and click “Convert” to see VP9 output in action.

Key Characteristics

Browser & Device Support

How Qencode Handles VP9

Qencode encodes VP9 using optimized libvpx-vp9 with configurable quality-to-speed profiles. Specify libvpx-vp9 as the video codec for WebM or DASH output.

Pair VP9 with Smart Cropping for social-optimized delivery, or use Per-Title Encoding to optimize VP9's bitrate ladder per title.

{
  "query": {
    "source": "https://your-storage.com/video.mp4",
    "format": [
      {
        "output": "webm",
        "video_codec": "libvpx-vp9",
        "resolution": 2160,
        "quality": 20,
        "audio_codec": "libopus"
      }
    ]
  }
}

Copy this payload and use it with your API key to generate VP9 output from any video source.

VP9 vs. AV1

What It Costs

Source Video Minutes

SD$0.01

Total Cost$0.01

1

1M

Format

WEBM

Codec

VP9

Framerate

25

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