Question
How do the video codecs supported by Vonage Video API differ?
Applies To
- Video API
- Codecs
Answer
Vonage Video APIs support the following real-time video codecs: VP8, H.264, and VP9. These codecs are used for encoding and decoding video streams over WebRTC. By default, VP8 is used unless a preferred codec is configured at the project or SDK level.
Codec selection depends on device compatibility, session size, bandwidth conditions, and performance requirements. VP8 provides the broadest compatibility and supports Scalable Video for large sessions, H.264 offers hardware acceleration benefits on supported devices (particularly iOS), and VP9 provides improved compression efficiency at the cost of higher CPU usage.
Supported Codecs Overview
Feature |
VP8 |
H.264 |
VP9 |
|---|---|---|---|
Codec Type |
Software |
Hardware and/or Software (device-dependent) |
Software |
Default in Vonage |
Yes |
No |
No |
Compression Efficiency |
Good |
Varies by device/implementation |
High |
Quality at Low Bitrate |
Good |
Lower than VP8 |
Better than VP8 |
CPU Usage |
Moderate |
Low (variable — depends on device hardware acceleration support) |
Higher than VP8 |
Hardware Acceleration |
No (software only) |
Yes (device-dependent; strongest on iOS) |
Yes (partial — limited to devices with hardware decoding support) |
Scalable Video Support |
Yes |
No |
Yes |
Performance in Large Sessions |
Suitable |
Not recommended |
Suitable |
Device Compatibility |
Broad (all supported clients) |
Varies; not universal on Android; not supported on Linux SDK |
Limited but increasing; requires OpenTok native SDK 2.27+ |
Typical Use Case |
Default, large sessions, broad compatibility |
Small sessions (2–3 participants), iOS-focused use cases |
High-quality or bandwidth-optimized sessions with 2 participants |
Additional Information
For more information and details about our supported video codecs, review the developer documentation on codecs below:
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