Reduce GIF file size, free

Drop a GIF and see how small it can get. The optimizer keeps only what changes from frame to frame, trims the palette, and can lower the frame rate or the dimensions. The estimate updates as you change settings, so you know the size before you export. Everything runs on your device.

Drop your GIF here

or click to choose a file

GIF, animated or still

Works in Chrome, Edge and Safari 17 or newer. Nothing is uploaded.

How it works

1

Drop your GIF

Animated or still. It opens instantly because nothing is uploaded.
2

Pick how far to go

Optimize is on by default and usually halves the file. Add fewer colors, a lower frame rate or a smaller width, or set a target size and let the tool pick.
3

Export and download

A standard GIF that plays everywhere, with the saving shown next to the download.

Questions people ask

How much smaller will my GIF get?

It depends on how much moves. A screen recording or a sticker with a still background often shrinks four times or more with the defaults, because most pixels are identical from frame to frame and are not stored again. Real footage where everything moves shrinks about twice, and needs fewer colors or a smaller width to go further.

Does optimizing lose quality?

With Optimize alone, no. Frames are stored as differences, which decodes to the same picture. Fewer colors, lower frame rates and smaller dimensions do change the picture, and the preview shows exactly what you get. The Lossy setting ignores small color changes between frames and is the one to try on video-like GIFs.

Can I hit a specific size?

Yes. Switch to Target size and enter a number. The tool tries fewer colors first, then a lower frame rate, then a smaller width, and stops at the first combination under your limit. If nothing gets there, it says so and gives you the smallest it found.

Should I use a video instead of a GIF?

For a web page or a chat that plays video inline, yes. A muted looping MP4 of the same clip is usually five to ten times smaller than the best GIF and looks better. Use a GIF where only GIFs autoplay, like a README, a forum post or an email signature.

Do you upload my GIF?

No. The tool runs entirely in your browser. Your file stays on your device.

Which browsers are supported?

Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari on desktop and Android. The GIF optimizer does not need video codecs, so it works in more browsers than the video tools.

How GIF optimization works

GIF is a format from 1989 with no compression between frames, so most of the size of an animated GIF is pixels that did not change. The optimizer works on that, then on the few things that make each frame expensive.

What a GIF actually stores

Every frame is an indexed image, at most 256 colors from a palette, compressed with LZW. LZW is good at runs of identical values and poor at noise. There is no motion compensation and no reference frame, so a frame that looks the same as the last one costs almost as much as the first one unless the encoder avoids writing it.

Storing only what changes

A GIF frame can be smaller than the canvas and placed at an offset, and it can leave the previous frame in place underneath. The optimizer compares each frame with the last one, finds the rectangle that changed, marks unchanged pixels inside it as transparent, and writes only that. A talking head on a still background or a cursor moving over a screenshot keeps a few percent of its original pixels per frame.

Fewer colors, better compression

The palette itself is small, 768 bytes at most. The saving from fewer colors comes from LZW seeing more repeated indices. Flat graphics, screenshots and text usually look the same at 64 colors. Photos and gradients show banding, which dithering hides with a fine grain at the cost of some compression. The preview shows both effects before you export.

Frame rate and dimensions

Size grows linearly with the number of frames and with the number of pixels per frame, so half the width means a quarter of the pixels. Many GIFs are exported at 25 or 30 frames per second when 10 to 15 read just as well for a loop of a few seconds. The optimizer resamples the timeline so the total duration stays the same. Note that browsers show frame delays below 20 milliseconds as 100 milliseconds, so a very fast GIF is not actually fast.

What Lossy means here

The Lossy setting raises the tolerance used when deciding whether a pixel changed between frames. Sensor noise, dithering grain and small gradients then count as unchanged and are reused from the previous frame. It has the largest effect on video-like GIFs, where without it nearly every pixel differs a little. Nothing is blurred, and the first frame of every scene is still stored in full.

Reaching a size limit

Chat apps, forums and email clients each cap uploads. Target size runs the settings in a fixed order, fewer colors, then a lower frame rate, then a smaller width, and takes the first result under your limit, measured on a real encode of a slice of the animation, not a guess.

Browse all templates