GIF compressor

Tell GifCraft the size you need and it works backwards: it re-encodes with frame differencing, fewer colours, a smaller width and, only if necessary, fewer frames — and stops as soon as the GIF fits.

GIF compressor in three steps

  1. Drop the GIF you want to shrink.

  2. Choose a target size or a platform preset.

  3. Press Make GIF and compare old and new size.

How GIF compression actually works

GIF uses lossless LZW compression, which rewards long runs of identical pixels. So the levers are: fewer colours (more repeated values), fewer pixels (smaller width), fewer frames, and frame differencing — pixels that did not change since the last frame are written as transparent, and long transparent runs cost almost nothing. Dithering does the opposite: it adds noise, so turn it off for small files.

Which lever to pull first

Colour reduction from 256 to 128 is rarely visible. Width is the biggest lever: halving the width cuts pixels to a quarter. Dropping every other frame halves the frame count but makes motion choppier, so GifCraft uses it last.

Explainer: what really makes a GIF big

This encodes a real 36-frame, 2.5-second clip in your browser every time you move a control. Watch which lever moves the needle: width changes the pixel count by its square, colours change how repetitive the data is, and frame differencing lets unchanged pixels become near-free transparency.

Keep every

0.0 KB · 0 frames · 240×135

Try it: turn off frame differencing and the file jumps, because the static background is stored again in every frame. Halve the width and the size drops by roughly three-quarters. This is exactly the order GifCraft’s size target works through.

Questions

Do you upload my GIF?

No. The GIF is decoded, edited and re-encoded inside your browser. Nothing is sent to a server, so there is no account, no queue and no watermark.

Is GIF compression lossy?

The GIF file format itself is lossless, but getting a smaller file means reducing colours, dimensions or frames, which does change the picture. GifCraft picks the least visible change first.

How small can I make a Discord emoji?

Discord allows animated emoji up to 256 KB and displays them at up to 128×128. Pick the “Discord emoji” preset and GifCraft squares, resizes and fits the file for you.