Convert PNG to GIF
Output is typically about 61% smaller.
- Files stay on your device
- Free, no sign-up
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Will my PNG's transparency survive as a GIF?
Partly. GIF has a single transparent colour index rather than an alpha channel, so fully transparent pixels stay transparent but semi-transparent ones cannot. A soft drop shadow or an anti-aliased curve, which PNG stores as a smooth fade, becomes a hard jagged edge. If the artwork has soft edges against transparency, GIF will visibly degrade them.
Will converting PNG to GIF make the file smaller?
Usually, yes. A 12-megapixel photo is around 14 MB as PNG and around 5.5 MB as GIF — about 61% smaller. Because GIF is lossless the result depends entirely on the image content — flat colour and text compress far better than photographic detail.
Does converting PNG to GIF lose quality?
No. GIF is lossless, so every pixel decoded from your PNG file is stored exactly. Both formats are lossless, so the conversion is pixel-for-pixel identical.
Is transparency preserved when converting PNG to GIF?
Yes. Both PNG and GIF support an alpha channel, so transparent and semi-transparent pixels carry across unchanged — a logo with a cut-out background stays cut out, and soft drop shadows keep their gradient rather than picking up a white halo. Because GIF is lossless, the alpha channel is stored exactly as it was.
Why does GIF look posterised?
GIF allows a maximum of 256 colours per frame. A photograph contains far more, so the encoder has to pick a palette and approximate everything else, producing visible banding in skies and skin tones. For still images use PNG or WebP; for animation use WebP or MP4, both of which are dramatically smaller and full-colour.
How many colours will the GIF have?
Up to 256, chosen from your image. The encoder builds a palette that fits the picture rather than using a fixed one, which is the best GIF can do — but a photograph contains far more than 256 colours, so skies and skin tones will show visible banding. Fully transparent pixels are preserved as GIF's single transparent index; partial transparency cannot be, because the format has no alpha channel, only on or off.
How it works, and more about png to gif
How it works
- Add your PNG file. Drag a PNG file onto the drop zone, or click to browse. You can select several at once.
- Choose your settings. GIF is lossless, so there is nothing to configure — the output matches the input pixel for pixel.
- Download the GIF. Conversion runs on your device as soon as each file is added — no upload, no queue. Download each result when it is ready.
Why people convert PNG to GIF
Almost always a destination that accepts nothing else — an older forum, a chat client, an email template, or a piece of internal software written a long time ago.
Worth being blunt: GIF is worse than PNG at nearly everything involved here. It caps out at 256 colours, its transparency is on-or-off with no soft edges, and the file is often larger. Convert because something downstream demands it, not because you expect an improvement.
Worth knowing: This produces a single-frame GIF. It does not create an animation — that needs a multi-frame encoder, which is a different tool entirely.
PNG and GIF side by side
| PNG | GIF | |
|---|---|---|
| Full name | Portable Network Graphics | Graphics Interchange Format |
| Compression | Lossless | Lossless |
| Transparency | Yes — alpha channel | Yes — alpha channel |
| Animation | No | Yes, in the format |
| Browser support | Universal — every browser since 1996 | Universal — every browser since 1987 |
| Typical 12 MP photo | ~14 MB | ~5.5 MB |
| Usually used for | Screenshots, logos, icons, diagrams and anything needing transparency | Short looping animations, reaction clips and email-safe motion |
On a typical 12-megapixel phone photo, the GIF output comes out about 61% smaller than the PNG original. These are order-of-magnitude figures for one kind of image — your own results will vary a great deal, because flat colour, text and line art behave nothing like photographic detail.
What this tool actually produces
Not estimates. Each row below was produced by running the file through this page in a real browser and measuring the result, at the default quality of 82.
| Test image | PNG in | GIF out | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Smooth gradient 1600 × 1200, broad tonal transitions — where banding and blocking show | 1.8 MB | 367 KB | -80% |
| UI screenshot 1440 × 900, dense text on flat panels — the hardest case for JPEG | 97 KB | 38 KB | -61% |
| Line-art diagram 1200 × 800, hard edges and large flat areas | 19 KB | 10 KB | -50% |
| Logo with transparency 512 × 512, flat colour on a transparent background | 77 KB | 9 KB | -88% |
Every test image got smaller, though by very different margins — flat colour and text behave nothing like photographic detail, so treat the closest row to your own content as the useful one. Measured in Chrome 150.0.7871.46; other browsers encode slightly differently.
What to watch out for
- Maximum 256 colours per frame — photos look visibly posterised
- Binary transparency only, producing jagged edges
- Enormous files compared with WebP or MP4 for the same animation
About the two formats
PNG stores every pixel exactly as it was, with no generation loss no matter how many times you re-save it. That fidelity is why it dominates screenshots, logos and UI assets, and also why it is the wrong choice for photographs — lossless compression simply cannot get a 12-megapixel photo down to a reasonable size.
GIF survives entirely on momentum. It is capped at 256 colours per frame, has only on/off transparency, and produces files several times larger than a modern video or WebP animation of the same clip. It remains useful only because it autoplays and loops in places that block video, such as some email clients and chat apps.
Other conversions
Everything runs on your device — nothing is uploaded, so there is no size limit, no queue and no copy left on a server afterwards. There is more on how browser-based conversion works if you want the detail. Otherwise, browse every image tool, or convert GIF back to PNG.