GIF Compressor

How to compress a GIF

1. Press Choose image and pick a GIF.
2. If it has to fit a limit, pick a size under Aim for.
3. Press Download GIF. The line under the button shows the new size next to the old.

Compressing a GIF to a set size

Aim for runs from under 256 KB to under 10 MB. The GIF is made with your settings first. If it comes out too big, it is made again with stronger compression, then fewer colors, then fewer frames and a smaller size, until it fits. The line under the button says whether it got under.

GIF compressor settings

Compression runs from 0 to 10 and starts at 3. Most of a GIF frame repeats the frame before it, and the compressor leaves out the pixels that barely change. Set too high, moving edges leave faint trails.

Colors is the most colors a frame may use, from 256 down to 16. Cartoons and screen recordings cope well with 64 or 32; photos start to show bands.

Size shrinks the picture, and it has the biggest effect: at 50% the GIF has a quarter of the pixels.

Frames keeps every 2nd, 3rd or 4th frame. The time of the dropped frames goes to the ones that stay, so the GIF runs at the same speed but less smoothly.

When the file doesn't get smaller

Every frame is written again, so a GIF that was already compressed hard can come out bigger at low settings. Raise Compression or lower Size, and try again.

GIF compressor limits

A GIF larger than 1000 px on its long side is scaled down to 1000 px. A GIF with more than 300 frames is thinned to 300 or fewer.