Google Images and Discover Don't Support JPEG XL Yet

Google Search Advocate John Mueller confirmed on October 15, 2026 that JPEG XL images are not supported in Google Images or Discover previews — even as Chrome and Firefox rolled out native support for the format.

The announcement caught the attention of web developers and SEO professionals who had been anticipating broader adoption of the next-generation image format. With two of the world's most popular browsers now displaying JPEG XL natively, many assumed search engine support would follow closely. Google's silence on a timeline has left site owners navigating a gap between browser capability and search visibility.

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What Mueller Said and Why It Matters

Mueller's Bluesky post came just days after Chrome 155 began its wide rollout on October 6, 2026. Google had initially released Chrome 155 to a small percentage of users starting September 23 before expanding access. Firefox followed with Firefox 158 on October 13, bringing JPEG XL support to a second major browser within the same month.

In his post, Mueller linked directly to Google's image SEO documentation and stated plainly that JPEG XL is "currently not supported" for Google Images and Discover previews. For publishers and developers who had already begun deploying .jxl files, the clarification was significant.

Google Chrome developer advocate Barry Pollard joined the thread and noted that including fallback options is good practice given how new the format is to both Chrome and Firefox. He then asked whether Search could handle those fallbacks when served through a picture element.

Mueller's response offered a practical solution:

"The picture element includes an img element, so that would work for any search engine (or other page parsing setup). I have not heard of any problems with people doing this kind of progressive enhancement."

That guidance gives developers a clear technical path forward while Google's search infrastructure catches up. In practical terms, it means you can begin deploying JPEG XL today without sacrificing search visibility — provided you structure your markup correctly.

What This Means for Your Image Markup

If you are already serving .jxl files or planning to, the picture element is the recommended approach. A basic implementation places the JPEG XL source first, with a supported fallback format — such as WebP or AVIF — in the img src attribute. Google's crawler will read the img element and index the fallback, while capable browsers will serve the JPEG XL version. This approach respects both search engine requirements and the performance benefits the format offers.

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What Google's Documentation Currently Supports

Google's image SEO best practices page lists seven supported file formats for images referenced in the src attribute of an img tag:

• BMP
• GIF
• JPEG
• PNG
• WebP
• SVG
• AVIF

JPEG XL does not appear on that list.

The same page was last updated on March 2, 2026. As of October 20, 2026, no entries referencing JPEG XL appeared in the Search Central documentation changelog. Mueller's post and existing documentation offer no timeline for when or whether JPEG XL will be added.

For Discover specifically, Google recommends using schema.org markup or the og:image meta tag to supply larger preview images. The format used in those tags must also be one of the seven supported types — meaning a .jxl file linked in an og:image tag would not be guaranteed to display correctly as a Discover thumbnail. This is an easy oversight to make, particularly for teams who have automated image generation pipelines or CMS plugins that output next-generation formats without fallback logic.

Auditing Your Current Setup

Before making any changes, it is worth auditing how your site currently handles image formats across both on-page markup and Open Graph tags. A site may render correctly in the browser while quietly failing to surface preview images in Discover — a gap that can be difficult to detect without deliberate checking. Understanding the technical SEO fundamentals that affect crawling and indexing provides useful context for diagnosing these kinds of infrastructure-level issues.

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Where Browser Support Stands and What Comes Next

Safari was first among major browsers to support JPEG XL, introducing the format in version 17 back in 2023. Chrome and Firefox have now joined Safari, though browser-support tracker webstatus.dev currently lists JPEG XL availability as "limited" with no Edge release noted.

Chrome's team describes JPEG XL as offering "30–50% better compression than JPEG" along with lossless compression and HDR support. They recommend that developers test both AVIF and JPEG XL and suggest JPEG XL delivers greater value for lossless compression or high-fidelity image use cases, particularly with photographs.

The AVIF Precedent and What It Suggests

The AVIF format offers a useful precedent. Chrome introduced AVIF support in August 2020 with Chrome 85. Google did not announce AVIF support in Search until August 30, 2024 — roughly four years later. At that point, every major browser including Edge, which added support in January 2024, already displayed AVIF. If JPEG XL follows a similar path, search support could still be years away.

The gap between browser capability and search engine support is not unusual — it reflects the infrastructure investment required to process, render, and index a new format at scale across billions of pages. Web performance considerations extend well beyond format support, and understanding why web performance matters for search rankings helps frame why these decisions take as long as they do on Google's end.

The Practical Path Forward for Developers

Developers who want their images indexed and displayed in Google Images and Discover previews should continue serving JPEG XL through a picture element with a supported format — JPEG, WebP, or AVIF — in the img src attribute. The same rule applies to og:image and schema.org image tags used for Discover.

Monitoring Google's image SEO page and the Search Central blog is the most reliable way to track when JPEG XL support arrives in Search. Google used the Search Central blog to announce AVIF support in 2024 and is likely to follow the same channel for any future JPEG XL announcement. Staying across updates to Google tools that affect search performance and visibility can help you act quickly when that announcement arrives.

How readers can use this information:

• Audit existing JPEG XL deployments to confirm that a supported fallback format appears in the img src attribute and that og:image tags do not reference .jxl files.
• Set a monitoring alert for updates to Google's image SEO documentation page and the Search Central blog to catch any JPEG XL announcement early.
• Use the AVIF timeline as a planning benchmark when setting expectations with clients or stakeholders about when JPEG XL may become viable for search-optimized image strategies.