Opening AVI files

Did your computer fail to open an AVI file? We explain what AVI files are and recommend software that we know can open or convert your AVI files.

What is an AVI file?

AVI is an acronym for Audio Video Interleave. The .avi file format is a container file format that was introduced by Microsoft in 1992. Container files are a "shell" file that can contain a variety of files within the container file. Container files with the .avi file extension often contain audio and video data.

The data contained in the AVI files may be encoded in codecs, allowing the files to use less compression than other video file formats, such as the MPEG and MOV file formats. However, AVI files have a 2 GB size limit, restricting their use to some degree. Even though the AVI file format is almost 20 years old, it is still one of the most widely-used video file formats in existence today.