Both guarantee O(log n) search, insertion and deletion in the worst case. AVL trees enforce a stricter balance condition, which gives a smaller worst-case height; left-leaning red-black trees instead enforce black balance and left-leaning red links.

Red-black trees are O(log n) only on average; AVL trees guarantee it in the worst case.

Red-black trees never need rotations; colour flips are enough.

An AVL tree with n keys always has height at most log₂ n.