JPG to GIF converter
Your JPG goes in and a GIF comes out. GIF is the usual choice for short looping animations and reaction clips. Expect the GIF to be a good deal bigger, which is what keeping every detail costs. Your file never leaves your computer.
Need the other direction? Convert GIF to JPG
How to convert JPG to GIF
- 1 Drop your JPG .jpg or .jpeg or .jpe file onto the page, or click to browse for it.
- 2 Check the options. Nothing is thrown away on the way to GIF, so there is no quality dial to set.
- 3 Convert. The work happens on your own machine, so how long it takes depends on your computer and the file.
- 4 Download the GIF, or add more files and do the whole set in one go.
Why convert JPG to GIF
- You want a copy that will not get any worse each time you edit and save it, and GIF gives you that.
- Animation plays everywhere with no player or plugin needed.
- Flat colours stay crisp, with nothing smudged around the edges.
- Short looping animations and reaction clips.
- JPG: no transparency: see-through areas come out on a solid colour.
JPG compared with GIF
How the two formats differ on the things that decide whether a conversion is worth making.
| Property | JPG | GIF |
|---|---|---|
| File extension | .jpg | .gif |
| Compression | Lossy | Lossless |
| Transparency | No | Yes |
| Animation | No | Yes |
| Colour depth | 8 bits per channel, 24-bit colour | 8-bit indexed, 256 colours per frame |
| Typical file size | Smaller | Larger |
| Introduced | 1992 | 1987 |
| Developed by | Joint Photographic Experts Group | CompuServe |
Quality and what changes
GIF stores every pixel exactly, but it can only preserve what the JPG already contained. The compression artefacts baked into the source are preserved perfectly along with everything else, so the picture does not improve, it just stops degrading. Expect the file to grow substantially, often several times over, because JPG was discarding data that GIF now has to write out in full.
- One GIF limitation to keep in mind: transparency is on or off with nothing in between, so edges look jagged.
Questions about JPG to GIF
Does converting to GIF add transparency?
It makes transparency possible but it cannot invent it. There is nothing see-through in a JPG to recover, so the background stays exactly as solid as it was. Removing a background is a separate editing step.
Does converting JPG to GIF improve the quality?
No. GIF preserves what it is given perfectly, including the compression artefacts already present in the JPG. It stops further loss from happening, which is worth doing before editing, but it cannot recover detail that was discarded.
Why is my GIF bigger than the JPG?
Because JPG was discarding data and GIF is not. A lossless format has to write out every pixel it is handed, artefacts included, so growing several times over is normal and does not mean anything went wrong.
Why does the GIF look grainy or banded?
GIF allows only 256 colours per frame. Photographic content, gradients and skin tones cannot be represented exactly, so the encoder dithers, which reads as speckle. Flat graphic content survives the palette far better than filmed footage.
Is my JPG file uploaded anywhere?
No. The whole thing runs inside the browser tab you already have open. Your JPG is read straight from your own disk, converted on your machine and handed back as a GIF. 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 JPG files at once?
Yes. Add as many as you like and they are processed one after another, then offered as separate GIF downloads or as a single ZIP. Speed depends on your own processor rather than on a queue.