Images

The GIF format

The format of short animations and memes. It uses a palette of at most 256 colours, so it’s fine for simple graphics but degrades photos. Transparency is all-or-nothing: a pixel is either solid or invisible.

Drop your files hereor (GIF and over 40 other formats). You can also paste an image.No upload: everything happens on your device

Fact sheet

GIF

GIF (Graphics Interchange Format)

Best for: Short animations, icons and graphics with few colours.
Limits: Only 256 colours and no partial transparency; long animations get very heavy.
Compression: lossless, max 256 colours
Transparency: Yes
Animation: Yes
Extensions: .gif
MIME type: image/gif
Since: 1987

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Tools for GIF files

Questions about the GIF format

How do I open a GIF file?

Usually a double click is enough: operating systems and the most common programs recognise it. If the program or website you use won’t accept it, you can convert it here to a more common format, for example MP4.

What extension do GIF files have?

.gif. The MIME type is image/gif.

Does converting a GIF lose quality?

It depends on the target format: to lossless formats (PNG, FLAC, WAV) nothing is lost; to compressed formats (JPG, MP3, MP4) you can choose the quality to balance size and result.