Compress Images
GIF in, smaller file out

Compress a GIF Online

Most GIFs on the web are still images in an old format. Changing the container is what makes them small — and the work happens on your device, not on a server.

Free to use. No account required. Images are processed in your browser.

Drag and drop your images here

or click to browse files

JPG PNG WebP GIF SVG

Up to 40 MB per image. Nothing is uploaded.

What Actually Makes a GIF Large

GIF is a 1987 format with a 256-colour limit. For a photograph or a screenshot it is a poor fit, which is why the same picture saved as WebP is often a fraction of the size.

A GIF stores at most 256 colours per frame. A photograph has millions, so every pixel has to be approximated to the nearest one in that palette before the file is even written. The result is a file that is both larger than a modern equivalent and visibly worse, because the palette is doing the compressing and it is not good at it.

That is why "compressing" a still GIF is really about the format. There is no quality slider to turn down: the picture was already mangled when it was saved as GIF. Converting it to WebP, PNG or JPG is what recovers the space.

  • Choose WebP first

    It usually produces the smallest file, it keeps transparency, and every current browser displays it. For most GIFs on a web page this is the right answer.

  • PNG when it must be lossless

    A line drawing, a chart or anything with crisp edges stays sharp as PNG, and it keeps transparency. It will be larger than WebP but still far smaller than the GIF.

  • JPG for photographs

    If the GIF is a photograph and nothing needs to stay transparent, JPG is the smallest of the three. Transparent areas are filled with white, and the tool says so before you download.

Animated GIFs Cannot Be Compressed Here

This is the honest limit of what a browser can do, and it is worth understanding before you try.

A browser can decode an animated GIF but it cannot write one. Writing GIF means implementing LZW compression and a palette per frame, and no browser exposes that to a web page. So the only thing this tool could do with an animation is keep the first frame — which would silently destroy the file while reporting a successful compression.

Instead, an animated GIF is refused, and the reason is stated. There is no pretending that a still frame is the animation.

What to do instead, depending on what you actually need:

  • Keep the GIF as it is. If it is already on a page and it works, an animation that plays is worth more than a smaller file that does not.
  • Use a tool that re-encodes animations. Proper animation tools rebuild the frames, drop duplicate pixels between frames and rebuild the palette — that is where an animated GIF's size actually comes from, and it needs a real GIF encoder.
  • Consider replacing it with a video. For anything longer than a few seconds, an MP4 or WebM is dramatically smaller than an animated GIF and every browser plays it.

If the file is a single frame — a logo, a screenshot, a small graphic saved years ago as GIF — then it is a still image in an old container, and the compressor above will handle it.

GIF Compression FAQ

Can I compress an animated GIF here?
No. A browser can decode a GIF but cannot write one, so an animation cannot be re-encoded without losing it. The file is refused with that explanation rather than being flattened to a single frame. A still GIF — a logo, a screenshot, a small graphic — is a different case and is compressed normally.
Why is my GIF bigger than the same picture as a JPEG?
Because GIF is limited to 256 colours. A photograph has millions, so it is approximated to the nearest available colour and then stored without any of the modern compression a JPEG uses. Converting the GIF to JPG or WebP usually produces a much smaller file that also looks better.
Will transparency survive the conversion?
It survives WebP and PNG. JPG has no alpha channel, so transparent areas become white — the tool tells you when that is about to happen. GIF transparency is one bit per pixel, so semi-transparent areas were already either fully opaque or fully clear before you started.
Does converting a GIF change how it looks?
For a still image, converting to PNG is lossless: the pixels are identical. Converting to WebP or JPG re-encodes, so there is some loss, controlled by the quality setting. Either way the picture is the same picture — only the container and the precision change.
Are my files uploaded to a server?
No. Everything happens in your browser using the Canvas API. The file never leaves your device, which is also why there is no size limit imposed by an upload endpoint — only the limit of what your own machine can hold in memory.
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