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Glossary · codec

What is VP9?

VP9 is a royalty-free video codec developed by Google, used widely on YouTube and in WebM files. It compresses about 30-50% more efficiently than H.264 and is roughly equivalent to H.265 (HEVC) but without the licensing fees. Most modern browsers and devices support VP9 in hardware.

Also called:vp-9 · webm vp9

YouTube was the launch customer for VP9 in 2013. By the late 2010s, VP9 was YouTube's preferred codec for 1080p and above — it cut bandwidth by ~30% versus H.264 with no royalty cost. The footprint is now being slowly displaced by AV1, which compresses even better.

For YouTube downloaders, VP9 lives inside the WebM container with Opus audio. Every modern browser plays WebM/VP9 natively. Some older devices (cheap smart TVs, pre-2019 phones) prefer H.264/MP4 — that's why YouTube serves multiple codec variants of every video.

Common questions

Should I download VP9 or H.264 from YouTube?
VP9 produces a smaller file at equal quality. Pick H.264 (mp4) if your destination is an older device or a software pipeline that only handles MP4.

Related terms

Codec

A codec is the algorithm that encodes (compresses) and decodes raw audio or video into a smaller stream.

AV1

AV1 is a royalty-free, open-source video codec from the Alliance for Open Media.

WebM

WebM is an open container format developed by Google for the web.

H.264 (AVC)

H.

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