What is a GIF file?
GIF, the Graphics Interchange Format, was created by CompuServe in 1987 and is still the way short looping animations travel around the internet. Each frame is a picture with at most 256 colors, compressed with a simple lossless scheme, and the file can include timing, looping, and one fully transparent color. Because it is an image, not a video, it plays anywhere images do: chat apps, forums, email, slides, and every browser ever made.
Why are GIFs so big?
GIF has no video-style compression. Every frame is stored more or less in full, so a five-second clip at 480 pixels wide can easily reach 5 to 10 MB while the same clip as an MP4 is a few hundred kilobytes. The size grows with width, frame rate, length, and color variety. Good GIF tools fight this by storing only the pixels that change between frames, using a shared palette, and dropping colors or frames, which is exactly what our GIF compressor does.
Making and editing GIFs
Make a GIF from a video clip by choosing a start time, a length, and a size; from a set of photos or drawings by setting a delay per frame. Then shrink it, resize it, reverse it, change its speed, add a caption, split it into frames, or turn it into a much smaller MP4 for platforms that accept video. All of that runs in your browser without uploading the file.
Frequently asked questions
GIF or MP4?
MP4 is 5 to 10 times smaller and higher quality; GIF autoplays and loops everywhere without a player. Use GIF for chat and forums, MP4 for websites and social platforms that convert uploads anyway.
What size should a GIF be for Discord?
Under 10 MB for free accounts. 480 pixels wide, 12 frames per second, and under 8 seconds usually lands well below that.
Can a GIF have sound?
No. GIF is an image format. Use MP4 or WebM for video with audio.