GIF Compressor

Add one or more GIF files to the box above, choose Best quality or a file size limit, and press the button. A moment later you see the new size next to the old one, with the saving in percent, and you can download the smaller GIF. The animation, the speed of every frame and the loop setting stay as they were.

Everything happens in your browser with our own GIF reader and writer, so your GIFs are not uploaded anywhere. You can add up to 20 GIFs at a time, each up to 100 MB, and download them one by one or together as a ZIP file. Your last settings are remembered in this browser for next time.

A GIF is a very old format, from 1987, and it was made for simple graphics, not for video. Each frame is a full picture of up to 256 colours, packed with a lossless method called LZW. LZW is good at long runs of the same colour, like a flat logo or a cartoon, and poor at noise, grain and soft gradients, which is exactly what you get from a phone video or a screen recording of a film.

So a GIF made from a few seconds of video holds dozens or hundreds of full pictures, each one stored almost as if it were on its own. A 3-second clip at 25 frames per second is 75 pictures. At 480 by 270 pixels that is nearly ten million pixels to store. A short MP4 of the same clip is tiny by comparison, because video formats only store what changes and throw away detail the eye does not notice. A GIF can do the first of those tricks, but many GIF makers do not use it.

Three things drive the size of a GIF: how many pixels each frame has, how many frames there are, and how busy the pictures are. Busy means many colours, film grain, dithering dots and movement across the whole frame. Every setting in this tool works on one of these three things.

Most tools that compress GIF online send your file to a server, wait for it to be processed there and send it back. This page works differently: the page loads once, and from then on your own browser reads the GIF, rebuilds every frame and writes the new file. That is why there is no upload wait, no queue and no daily limit, and why it works with private or unpublished animations.

To compress GIF online here you only need a recent browser: Chrome, Edge, Firefox or Safari, on a computer, a tablet or a phone. Nothing is installed. On a phone the work takes a little longer, because big GIFs need memory, but the result is the same file you would get on a computer.

Best quality is the default, and it is the way to compress GIF without losing quality in most cases. It does not lower the colours, the size or the frame rate. Instead it changes how the frames are stored: the tool compares each frame with the one before and keeps only the rectangle where something changed. Inside that rectangle, pixels that stayed the same are marked as see-through, so the frame underneath shows through and those pixels pack into almost nothing.

The colours are handled with care too. When the whole GIF uses 255 colours or fewer across all frames, which is the case for most GIFs made from graphics, screen recordings and stickers, every colour is kept exactly. The result is then visually lossless: the frames look the same as before, pixel for pixel, only stored in a smarter way. If the GIF uses more colours than that, usually because each frame came with its own palette, the tool picks one set of 255 colours that suits the whole animation. That is a small change and usually hard to see, but it is not exact, and we would rather say so.

One more promise: in Best quality mode you never get a bigger file than you started with. If the original was already stored as tightly as our writer can manage, you get the original file back and the result says it is already well compressed.

Picture a GIF of a person waving in front of a wall. From one frame to the next, only the hand and arm move. The wall, the floor and the person's face stay where they are. A plain GIF still stores the whole picture every time, so the wall is stored seventy times.

With frame-difference storage, the first frame is stored in full. For every frame after it, the tool finds the smallest box that holds all the changed pixels, the area around the hand, and stores only that box. Inside the box, pixels that did not change become transparent, so the earlier frame shows through. A long run of transparent pixels costs almost nothing after LZW packing. For a calm animation such as a talking head, a loading spinner or a screen recording, this alone can save a large part of the file.

The method helps less when everything moves: a moving camera, a zoom, falling snow over the whole frame or a video with heavy grain. Then nearly every pixel changes in every frame, the box is the whole frame, and the saving is small. That is when fewer colours, a smaller size or fewer frames make the real difference.

The table shows what each setting does and roughly how much it can save. The numbers are rough ranges for GIFs made from video clips and screen recordings, meant as a guide and not as promises. Two GIFs of the same size can react very differently, because the content matters as much as the settings.

Every GIF frame can use at most 256 colours. The colours setting lowers that number to 128, 64, 32 or 16. With fewer colours, more neighbouring pixels share the same value, and LZW packs long runs of identical pixels very well, so the file gets smaller. Keep leaves the colours as they are, apart from the 255-colour rule explained above.

64 colours is the sweet spot for many GIFs: the saving is clear and the change is often hard to notice, especially on cartoons, memes, screen recordings and anything with flat areas. Photos and film clips with smooth skies or skin show banding sooner, where a soft gradient turns into visible steps. At 32 or 16 colours the banding is clear, which is fine for icons, pixel art and simple logos and less fine for faces.

Dithering hides banding by mixing pixels of two nearby colours in a fine dot pattern, so the eye sees a smoother gradient than the palette really has. It looks better with few colours, but the dots are noise, and noise packs poorly, so dithering makes the file larger. That is why it is off by default here.

There is a second reason it stays off for most animations. The dot pattern is worked out for each frame on its own, so it shifts slightly from frame to frame even where the picture is still. That would destroy the saving from frame-difference storage, so for animations stored that way the tool does not dither, even with the box ticked. Dithering is used for still, single-frame GIFs and for animations where transparency is kept. If you see banding, try 128 colours instead of 64 before you reach for dithering.

Size scales every frame to 75%, 50% or 33% of its width and height. Because a GIF is width times height pixels per frame, 50% means a quarter of the pixels, which is why this is the strongest single setting. Choose the size the GIF will actually be shown at: a 1080-pixel GIF shown in a 400-pixel chat bubble looks no sharper than a 400-pixel one, it only loads more slowly.

Frames lets you keep all frames, every 2nd or every 3rd frame. Removed frames are not simply dropped: their display time is added to the frame before, so the animation lasts exactly as long as before and plays at the same speed. It just shows fewer steps of the movement. Every 2nd frame on a 25-frames-per-second clip gives about 12 frames per second, which still looks fluid for most reactions and memes. Every 3rd frame suits slow scenes and slideshows better than fast action.

Neither setting touches the loop. A GIF that plays forever still plays forever, and one set to play three times still plays three times.

If you want to compress GIF file size by hand rather than with a limit, work from the gentlest step to the strongest and check the result after each one. First run Best quality on its own and see how much it saves. Then try 128 or 64 colours. If it is still too big, set the size to 75% or 50%. Only then remove frames, because fewer frames change the feel of the motion more than the other steps change the look.

The result line shows the old size, the new size and the saving in percent, and the list below it shows the pixel size and the frame count of each output file. Change one setting at a time and you quickly learn what your GIF responds to. Calm graphics react most to frame difference and colours; video clips react most to size and frames.

Pick a limit and the tool takes over the trial and error. It starts from the colours, size and frames you set, writes the GIF and checks the size. If the file is only a little too big, it first lowers the colours, to 128 and then 64. If it is still over, it makes the frames smaller, step by step, by an amount based on how far over the limit the file is. A GIF that is more than about twice the limit and has more than eight frames also keeps every second frame, with the timing kept.

It makes up to twelve tries per GIF. If the limit is reached, you get the first version that fits, which is the one with the most quality left. If it cannot be reached, for example a 1000-frame GIF with a 100 KB limit, you get the smallest version it made, and the file list says limit not reached so you are never surprised later. The custom box takes any number from 5 KB up.

Discord is the most common reason people need to compress GIF for Discord at all. At the time of writing, free accounts can upload files of up to 10 MB, and larger limits come with paid plans and server boosts. Custom server emoji have their own limit of 256 KB, and server stickers 512 KB. Discord has changed these numbers several times, so check its help pages if a file is refused.

For a GIF in a chat message, pick the 10 MB (Discord) limit. For a custom emoji, pick 256 KB (emoji), and also keep in mind that emoji are shown very small, around 32 to 48 pixels on screen, even though Discord stores them at 128 by 128 pixels. A small, simple animation with 64 colours or fewer looks just as good as a large one there.

To compress GIF to 10MB, pick the 10 MB limit. Most GIFs from screen recordings or short clips under 15 seconds fit with very little change, often just frame-difference storage and 128 colours. Long or wide clips may also need a smaller size.

If your GIF is 30, 50 or 80 MB, expect the tool to use more steps: fewer colours, a smaller size and every second frame. A file that starts at three times the limit or more usually ends up around 50 to 70% of its old width. If that is too small for your taste, cut the clip shorter in the app you made it with, or make it again from the video with Video to GIF at a smaller width and fewer frames per second.

Many forums, help desks and older chat apps cap images at 5 MB. To compress GIF to 5MB, pick the 5 MB button. For a typical reaction GIF of 480 pixels and a few seconds, that is a comfortable target that needs little more than fewer colours. For a long screen recording, expect a smaller size as well.

5 MB is also a sensible ceiling for GIFs in email newsletters and web pages, even when no one forces it, because a GIF loads in full before it plays smoothly, and readers on mobile data notice every megabyte.

To compress GIF under 1MB, pick the 1 MB limit. This is a good target for email, for blog posts and for sites that load many images on one page. At 1 MB a short animation of about 320 to 480 pixels wide and 2 to 5 seconds usually fits with 64 to 128 colours.

Longer animations need more steps, and you decide what matters most. If sharpness matters, keep the size and accept every second frame. If smooth motion matters, keep all frames and accept a smaller size. Set that by hand first, then add the limit, and the tool starts from your choice.

512 KB is the limit for Discord server stickers at the time of writing and for profile pictures and banners on a number of forums and community sites. To compress GIF to 512KB, pick the 512 KB button. Most stickers and badges fit easily, because they are small and use few colours.

For something wider, such as a short meme at 480 pixels, the tool usually ends at about 50% size and 64 colours. Stickers and badges look best when the animation has a clear outline and a plain or transparent background; busy photo backgrounds eat most of the budget.

Custom emoji are where small files matter most. To compress GIF to 256KB for a Discord emoji, pick 256 KB (emoji). The tool works on the GIF you add, so for the best result, start from a square GIF of about 128 by 128 pixels; Crop Image and Resize Image can prepare a still picture, and Video to GIF can make a small square animation from a clip.

Emoji are shown tiny, so you lose little by going to 64 or even 32 colours and every second frame. Keep the movement simple and the outline strong. A blinking eye, a nod or a bounce reads well at that size; a whole movie scene does not.

100 KB is a very small budget for an animation, so think of it as a short loop rather than a clip. To compress GIF under 100KB, pick the 100 KB limit. The tool will usually end at a small size, 64 colours or fewer and every second frame, unless the GIF is already small.

This target suits email signatures, older forums, marketplace descriptions and tiny loading spinners. You get the best result when the GIF is short, under about 2 seconds, with a plain background and only a small part of the frame moving, because that is where frame-difference storage saves the most. For anything smaller still, use the Custom box and type the number of KB you need.

You can add up to 20 GIFs at once, each up to 100 MB. They are compressed one after another with the same settings, and each one gets its own result line with the old and new size. With a limit set, the tool runs the tries for every GIF on its own, so a small sticker and a large clip can both end up under 1 MB with different settings.

Download one GIF directly, or all of them as a ZIP file. Each output file gets the old name plus -compressed, so it never overwrites your original. The Stop button ends the run at any time and keeps the GIFs that are already finished.

Keep transparent areas is on by default, so stickers, emoji and logos keep their see-through background. GIF transparency is on or off for each pixel, without soft edges, and the tool keeps it that way.

There is a trade-off worth knowing. Frame-difference storage needs the see-through colour for itself, so for GIFs that really have transparent areas, every frame is stored whole, with one shared palette for all frames. Those GIFs shrink less in Best quality mode. If you do not need the transparency, for example because the GIF will always sit on a white page, turn Keep transparent areas off: the transparent parts become a solid colour close to black, and frame-difference storage works again. Then you can usually see a much bigger saving.

Some GIFs are already stored well. They may have been made by a tool that already keeps only the changed parts of each frame, or they may already use few colours. Such GIFs shrink only a little, or not at all, in Best quality mode, and the result then says already well compressed. To make them smaller you need to lower the colours, the size or the frames. There is no setting that removes bytes without changing anything when there is nothing left to remove.

Very large GIFs have a limit too. The tool opens every frame as a full picture in memory, and when the frames add up to more than 400 megapixels, for example 1000 frames at 640 by 640 pixels, it is too much for a browser tab. The list then marks the file as too big to open. Make a shorter or smaller GIF first with Video to GIF, or cut the clip in the app you used to record it.

It is fair to say that GIF is not the most efficient format for moving pictures. A short MP4 video of the same clip is often five to ten times smaller and shows full colour without banding. Animated WebP is usually much smaller than GIF too and supports soft transparency. If the place you share to accepts them, those formats give you a smaller file at the same quality, and GIF to WebP turns a GIF into an animated WebP in your browser.

GIF still wins on one thing: it plays almost everywhere, including places that do not accept video, such as email signatures, many forums, image fields in web forms and custom emoji. So keep GIF when the place you share to expects a picture, and keep the animation short. When you only need one frame, GIF to PNG and GIF to JPG save single frames as still pictures.

Your GIFs are not uploaded. The page loads the tool once, and from then on your files are read, rebuilt and saved again by your own browser. Nothing is sent to our server or anyone else's, and nothing is kept after you close the page.

That matters for screen recordings of work tools, clips from private videos and animations you have not published yet. You can even disconnect from the internet after the page has loaded and the tool keeps working.

When you add a GIF, our GIF reader unpacks every frame into a full picture, applying the frame positions, transparency and disposal rules the same way browsers do when they play the file. It also reads the delay of each frame and the loop setting. This is why the list can show the frame count and size straight away.

When you press the button, the frames are scaled if you chose a smaller size, and merged if you chose every 2nd or 3rd frame, with the delays added together. Our GIF writer then builds one palette for the whole animation, keeps the exact colours when there are 255 or fewer, compares each frame with the one before, stores only the changed rectangle, packs the pixels with LZW and writes the frames, delays and loop into a new file. The heavy work runs in a background worker, so the page stays responsive.

Always try Best quality first. It costs nothing in looks, and for screen recordings and graphics it is often all you need.

Choose the size the GIF will be shown at. A GIF shown in a chat window or a forum post rarely needs more than 480 pixels wide.

Lower the colours before the size. 128 or 64 colours change less than half the size, and for many GIFs they are hard to notice.

Keep the original. The tool never changes your file, but if you edit and re-save GIFs elsewhere, each round of colour reduction adds up.

If you make the GIF yourself, make it small from the start. A short clip at the right width is better than a big GIF squeezed afterwards; JPG to GIF and Video to GIF both have a size limit of their own.

Open the downloaded file in a browser tab before you post it, to see it as others will.

Share the smaller GIF straight from your downloads folder or gallery. If a site accepts other formats, GIF to WebP makes an animated WebP that is usually smaller still. To take one frame out as a still picture, use GIF to PNG or GIF to JPG.

For still photos and pictures rather than animations, Compress Image makes JPG, PNG and WebP files smaller, Resize Image changes the pixel size and Crop Image cuts out the part you need. All are listed under Image Tools.