DZIEWA Media Converter creates sidecar .avif and .webp files next to your originals (no replacement of JPG/PNG in the Media Library). On the front end it can rewrite <img> tags to <picture> so browsers pick AVIF/WebP when available. The plugin is entirely free to use — no license fees, no pro version, and no paid add-ons.
The plugin generates additional AVIF and/or WebP files beside every JPEG/PNG you upload. Originals are never touched or replaced — they remain in the Media Library and on disk as a safe fallback. The optional content filter detects <img> tags in your post content and wraps them in <picture> so modern browsers download the smaller AVIF/WebP version, while older browsers transparently fall back to JPG/PNG.
<picture> rewrite in the_content and post thumbnails — browsers automatically pick the lightest format they support..avif / .webp sidecars by age (30/60/90/120 days) and folder scope, with a per-folder picker.imagewebp). AVIF is optional.