Turn GIF files into AVI
Turn your GIF into an AVI that plays smoothly and takes a fraction of the space. AVI is an older Windows video file. One thing to know first: anything see-through in the GIF comes out on a solid background, white unless you choose another colour. Your file never leaves your computer.
Need the other direction? Convert AVI to GIF
How to convert GIF to AVI
- 1 Drop your GIF .gif file onto the page, or click to browse for it.
- 2 Pick how smooth and how sharp you want it. The defaults suit a short looping clip.
- 3 Convert. The work happens on your own machine, so how long it takes depends on your computer and the file.
- 4 Download the AVI, or add more files and do the whole set in one go.
Why convert GIF to AVI
- The same animation as an AVI is routinely a tenth of the size, plays smoothly and stops stuttering on a slow connection.
- You are sending this somewhere that will not keep a transparent background anyway, so putting it on a solid colour costs you nothing.
- Simple, well documented structure that almost every tool can read.
- Will hold almost anything, including uncompressed capture footage.
- Files inherited from the DivX and XviD era.
GIF compared with AVI
How the two formats differ on the things that decide whether a conversion is worth making.
| Property | GIF | AVI |
|---|---|---|
| File extension | .gif | .avi |
| Compression | Lossless | Lossy or lossless |
| Transparency | Yes | No |
| Animation | Yes | No |
| Typical file size | Larger | Depends on mode |
| Browser support | Every browser | No browser support |
| Introduced | 1987 | 1992 |
| Developed by | CompuServe | Microsoft |
| Standard | Open | Proprietary |
Quality and what changes
AVI stores the same content under a different set of rules, so what matters here is compatibility rather than picture quality. Convert once from the best source you have rather than through a chain of intermediate files.
- Anything see-through comes out on a solid background, white unless you choose another colour.
- Only the first frame of an animated GIF is kept.
- Browsers will not display an AVI, so it downloads rather than opening in a tab.
- One AVI limitation to keep in mind: no browser plays AVI, so web use always needs a conversion.
Questions about GIF to AVI
Will I lose transparency converting GIF to AVI?
Yes. An AVI cannot hold transparency, so anything see-through comes out on a solid colour, white unless you choose another. If the transparency matters, convert to PNG or WebP instead, and only flatten once you know what the image will sit on.
What happens to an animated GIF?
AVI holds a single image, so only one frame survives, normally the first. If you need the motion, convert to a format that keeps it such as MP4, WebM or WebP rather than to AVI.
Can I open an AVI in a browser?
No. No mainstream browser renders AVI natively, so it will download rather than display. That is fine when the file is heading into desktop software or an archive, and a problem if it is going on a web page.
Is my GIF file uploaded anywhere?
No. The whole thing runs inside the browser tab you already have open. Your GIF is read straight from your own disk, converted on your machine and handed back as an AVI. Nothing is sent anywhere, nothing is stored and there is no account.
Is there a file size limit?
There is no server-side limit because no server sees the file. The real ceiling is your device memory, since the input and the output both have to fit in the tab. A few hundred megabytes is usually fine on a desktop machine and considerably less on a phone.
Can I convert several GIF files at once?
Yes. Add as many as you like and they are processed one after another, then offered as separate AVI downloads or as a single ZIP. Speed depends on your own processor rather than on a queue.
Does the converter work offline?
Yes, after the page has loaded once. The engine is cached by the browser, so you can disconnect, reload and keep converting. That falls out of doing the work locally rather than being a separate mode you switch on.