An animated GIF is a stack of still pictures shown one after another. Sometimes you want one of them on its own: the best moment of a reaction GIF, a frame to use as a thumbnail, or every step of an animation to edit and put back together. This GIF splitter turns a GIF to frames, each saved as a separate picture.
Open the GIF and you see how many frames it has, how long it runs and how big it is. Keep every frame, every few frames, or only the ones you pick, and save them as PNG, JPG or WebP. It is a GIF frame extractor that runs in your browser: nothing is uploaded, and it is free with no watermark.
How to split a GIF into frames
You can extract frames from a GIF in five steps, all on this page.
- Press Select image and choose a GIF, or drop it on the page.
- Check the Frames, Length and Size lines in the panel, and play the GIF on the stage if you like.
- Under Keep, choose Every frame, Every few frames or Pick frames.
- Under Save as, pick PNG, JPG or WebP.
- Press Save frames. When the done screen says the frames are ready, press Save all as ZIP.
The aside next to Keep counts the frames that will be saved, such as 12 of 12 or 4 of 12, so you always know how many files you will get. A GIF with a single frame has nothing to split, and the panel says This GIF has one frame. There is nothing to split.
Every frame, every few frames or the ones you pick
| Keep | What is saved | Good for |
|---|---|---|
| Every frame | All the frames, in order | Editing an animation, or checking each step |
| Every few frames | One frame in every 2 to 10, starting with the first | A long GIF where neighbouring frames look alike |
| Pick frames | Only the frames you switch on | The one moment you want as a picture |
With Every few frames, the Every stepper sets the step, from Every 2nd frame to Every 10th frame. Every 3rd frame on a GIF of 12 keeps frames 1, 4, 7 and 10. It is the quick way to save GIF frames from a long animation without hundreds of near copies.
Pick frames shows every frame as a small button with its number. Click one to switch it off or on, and it also shows on the stage, so you can look at it full size before you decide. Select all and Select none set them all at once, which is handy when you want only two or three: press Select none, then click the ones you want. If you switch every frame off, the panel says Pick at least one frame.
Full frames, length and size
Many GIFs save space by storing only what changes from one frame to the next, sometimes a small patch in one corner. Saved on its own, a patch like that would make no sense. When you split a GIF into frames here, each frame is saved as the GIF shows it at that moment, so every file is a full picture at the GIF's own size.
- Frames is how many pictures the GIF holds.
- Length is how long one run of the GIF takes, added up from the time the GIF gives each frame.
- Size is the width and height of the GIF in pixels. Every saved frame has that size.
The stage shows the frame you are on. The toolbar under it has play and pause, buttons for the previous and the next frame, and a line such as Frame 5 of 12. While it plays, each frame stays for its own time, as in the GIF. The preview does not start by itself, so a GIF never moves until you press play.
Stepping through the frames is the easiest way to find the one you want. Pause on it, note its number in the toolbar, and then pick only that frame. A single frame saved as PNG makes a clean still for a slide, a document or a thumbnail, and you can crop or resize it afterwards like any other picture.
GIF to images: PNG, JPG or WebP frames and their names
- PNG, the default, keeps every pixel and any transparent areas. GIF to PNG frames is the safe choice when you will edit them or put them back into an animation.
- JPG makes smaller files for photo-like GIFs. It is saved at high quality, and transparent areas become white.
- WebP is usually the smallest of the three, and it keeps transparency.
Each file keeps the GIF's name with the frame's own four-digit number added, so dance.gif gives dance_0001.png, dance_0002.png and so on. With Every few frames or Pick frames the numbers still match the GIF: Every 3rd frame gives dance_0001, dance_0004, dance_0007. That makes it easy to tell where each picture came from.
Several frames are saved together as one ZIP, in a folder named after the GIF, and the size shown in the panel is an estimate for all of them. Every frame saved as PNG gives a numbered PNG sequence in one ZIP, so the order is never lost when you edit the frames and put them back together.
One run of GIF to frames saves up to 1,000 frames. A very long GIF that has more asks you to keep every few frames instead, and the panel names the number: This GIF has 1,500 frames, for example, followed by Keep every few frames to stay under 1,000.
Animated WebP, APNG and privacy
GIF files always work. Animated WebP and animated PNG (APNG) files can be split too, but only in browsers that can read a picture frame by frame. In a browser that cannot, the panel says This browser can only split GIF files, and you can still split any GIF there.
- The GIF is split inside your browser. It is never uploaded, and our server does no picture work.
- It is free, with no account and no watermark. Image tools are not counted in the free daily limit, which applies to document conversions only.
- It works in current Chrome, Edge and Firefox. Very large GIFs may be too big for your browser.
To build a new animation from your edited frames, use Images to GIF. To change one frame's format later, Convert image does it. For stills from a video rather than a GIF, Video to images saves frames from a clip, and video to GIF makes a new GIF from one. A slide deck becomes a GIF when you convert PowerPoint to GIF. How files are handled is on the privacy page.
Split your GIF into frames now
To turn a GIF to frames, open it here, keep every frame, every few or only the ones you pick, choose PNG, JPG or WebP, and press Save frames. Every frame is a full picture, named with its own number.
It is free, private and runs in your browser. Select a GIF above to start.
