Image format

GIF converter

A .gif file is a palette-based image limited to 256 colors per frame, best known today as the web's legacy looping-animation format. Although its compression is technically lossless, squeezing a photo into a .gif palette visibly degrades it, so the format survives mainly for memes, stickers, and simple graphics.

Private for supported formats — processed in your browser

Convert supported files

Runs on your device

Drop GIF files here

Batch files can each use a different output. Nothing uploads for local conversions.

Working inputs include camera RAW, browser-local audio/video, PDF, CBZ/CBR comics, office documents, ebooks, markup, 3D models, structured text, images, and archives.

Where GIF comes from

CompuServe released GIF in 1987 (GIF87a) for its online service, and the 1989 revision (GIF89a) added frame delays, looping, and one-color transparency. Unisys's mid-1990s enforcement of its LZW compression patent triggered the creation of PNG, but the patent expired in 2003-2004 and GIF's animation culture kept it alive.

How GIF works

LZW-compressed indexed pixels drawn from a palette of at most 256 colors per frame
Transparency is binary: a single palette index is either fully opaque or fully invisible
Animation is a sequence of frames with per-frame delays, disposal methods, and an optional loop-count extension
Interlacing stores rows in four passes so a partial download previews coarsely

When to use GIF

Short looping reaction clips and memes on chat platforms
Tiny UI animations on systems too old for APNG or WebP
Simple flat-color graphics that fit comfortably in a small palette

Strengths and limitations

Strengths

Animation plays literally everywhere, with support dating back decades
Compression never alters the palette pixels it stores
Simple structure makes it easy to generate programmatically

Limitations

256 colors per frame forces dithering that ruins photographic content
Files are enormous compared with modern animated WebP, AVIF, or video
Transparency has no partial values, producing hard jagged edges

Compatibility

Nothing else matches GIF's reach: every browser, OS, messaging app, and email client made in the last 30 years plays it, animation included. Its weakness is efficiency rather than support, and most large platforms now silently re-encode uploaded GIFs to MP4 or WebP to save bandwidth.