An animated GIF can be surprisingly heavy. A few seconds of a screen recording or a film clip can run to several megabytes, too big for a chat, an email or a page that should load quickly.
This GIF compressor makes the file smaller and keeps it moving. Every frame keeps its time, the GIF keeps its loop, and transparent areas stay transparent. You can reduce GIF size with a few clear settings, or set the size you need and let the page find the way there. It runs in your browser, so the GIF is never uploaded.
How to compress a GIF
The page opens with the setting that suits most GIFs, so a first try needs no choices at all.
- Press Select images and choose your GIF files. You can select up to 100 at once.
- Under Compress by, keep Settings, or pick Target size if you have a limit to meet.
- With Settings, choose the Colours and the Size, and switch on Drop every second frame if you want an even smaller file.
- Watch the result play on the stage, and check the Original and Result bars, which show the exact sizes once measured.
- Press Compress and save. The file name ends in _compressed.gif.
Hold to compare shows the original, and Split view puts the two side by side, so you can check a sky, a face or small text before you save. For several GIFs, the button counts them, for example Compress 3 GIFs, and Save all as ZIP saves them in one go.
Only GIF files open here. To make a JPG, PNG or WebP picture smaller, use Compress image. If an animated GIF lands there by mistake, it offers to bring you back to this page, because Compress image keeps only the first frame.
What each setting costs
A GIF can be made smaller in three ways: fewer colours, fewer pixels or fewer frames. Each one changes something you can see, some more than others. The panel says what each choice costs, and this table puts them together.
| Setting | What happens | What you may notice |
|---|---|---|
| 128 colours | The starting point | On most GIFs, nothing: it looks like the original |
| 96 colours | A smaller file | Faint bands of colour in smooth areas, such as a sky or a gradient |
| 64 colours | Smaller again | Visible bands in smooth areas; screen recordings and cartoons usually still look fine |
| 75% or 50% size | A much smaller file | A smaller picture, and small text that is harder to read |
| Drop every second frame | Half the frames, with the timing kept | Motion that is less smooth |
Fewer colours shows as bands in smooth areas, if at all. Try one change at a time and watch the stage. If you see bands, go back up to 128 colours and make the GIF smaller in pixels instead, which keeps it clean.
Timing, loop and transparency
However you compress a GIF here, each frame stays on screen for as long as it did, and the GIF loops the same number of times. When you drop every second frame, each dropped frame's time goes to the frame before it, so the GIF still plays for exactly as long. Stickers and other GIFs with a transparent background keep it.
Reduce GIF size to fit a limit
When a site or an app caps the file size, switch Compress by to Target size. Drag the slider, or pick 1, 2, 5, 10 or 25 MB, then press Compress. The page tries the least visible change first and stops at the first result under your size:
- 128 colours, then 96, then 64.
- With Allow a smaller size on: 75% of the width and height.
- With Allow dropping every second frame on as well: 75% size with every second frame dropped.
- Then 50% size, and last 50% size with every second frame dropped.
The panel and the Done screen say what was used, for example 64 colours and 75% size, so you know what changed. If even the last step is too big, the page says so and suggests what to switch on. Switch off either option to keep the full size or every frame, and the page tries only the steps you allowed.
Why some GIFs barely shrink
How much smaller a GIF gets depends on how it was made. Some GIFs have plenty to take out, and screen recordings with large plain areas tend to shrink the most. A GIF that was already packed tightly when it was made may hardly change at 128 colours, and pixel art, which uses few colours to begin with, gains little from fewer colours.
Whatever happens, you never get a bigger file. If the settings cannot make your GIF smaller, you get the original back and the page tells you, so it is always safe to try. Then a smaller size or fewer frames is the way to go further.
Very large GIFs, with many big frames, may be too much for your browser to go through one by one. The page says so before you start. Shorten the GIF, or make it from a smaller clip, and try again. To build a new GIF from pictures instead, use Images to GIF.
Compress your GIF now
Start with 128 colours, which keeps the look of the original. If you need to reduce GIF size further, make it smaller in pixels, drop every second frame, or set a Target size and let the page find the way. To compress a GIF for Discord or any other limit, Target size does the work for you.
Select your GIF files above and press Compress. Nothing is uploaded, and you never get a bigger file than you started with.
