x266

x266 is a software encoder for H.266 / VVC announced by MulticoreWare, the company behind x265. It has not been released. No source code, binaries or command-line documentation have been published, so there is nothing to install or run.

What MulticoreWare has said

• MulticoreWare announced x266 in September 2020 as an open-source VVC encoder that would follow the x265 model: a paid consortium funds development and the code is released as open source.
• Its product page describes x266 as built on top of x265 and still invites companies to join the consortium. A January 2023 webinar FAQ left the release date and license undecided.
• MulticoreWare’s site links no repository or download as of October 2026. Nothing is known about its features, speed or compression, and any benchmark or command you see for “x266” is not from MulticoreWare.

Note

The x266.mov domain, where this wiki was originally hosted, is unrelated to the encoder.

What to use instead

For VVC today, use VVenC (Fraunhofer HHI, with FFmpeg integration), uvg266 (Tampere University’s Kvazaar-derived encoder), or the VTM reference encoder, which is far too slow for normal use.