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GIF

Graphics Interchange Format

GIF is limited to a 256-colour palette per frame and one bit of transparency, but it animates and it plays everywhere without a video element. Its compression is far behind anything modern, so animated GIFs are enormous for what they show.

Extension: .gif
MIME type: image/gif

01 Convert GIF to something else

GIF to PNG Fixes GIF’s 256-colour palette and its jagged edges.
GIF to JPG First frame, flattened onto a background you choose.
GIF to WebP Keeps transparency and produces a much smaller file.

02 Convert something else to GIF

MP4 to GIF Trim, scale and set the frame rate before it encodes.
MOV to GIF Works with screen recordings; iPhone HEVC needs a re-export.
WebM to GIF VP8, VP9 and AV1 all decode natively here.

03 Related formats

JPG
JPEG
PNG
WebP
AVIF
BMP
ICO
SVG
HEIC

Opening a .gif file

If you landed here because something handed you a .gif file and nothing on your machine will open it, converting it to a format you already have a reader for is usually faster than installing new software. Every conversion above runs in this browser — the file is not uploaded, so it works on a locked-down work machine and on a file you are not allowed to send anywhere.