GIF to AVIF Converter
An animated AVIF plays like a GIF in an image tag but is compressed with the AV1 video codec, so the same loop costs a fraction of the bytes on a web page.
Video Converter
or drop MP4, MOV, MKV … files here ·
Max 95 MB per file· Up to 20 files· Deleted after 30 minutes
Files are processed on our servers and deleted after 30 minutes.
Lower is better quality and a bigger file. 18 looks identical to the source, 23 is the default, 28 and above shows visible softening.
Frames per second. Keep the source rate unless a platform asks for a specific one; 15–20 fps is plenty for GIFs.
Only used for PowerPoint files and single still images: how long each slide or picture stays on screen.
Auto uses AAC for MP4/MOV and Opus for WebM. Copy keeps the original sound untouched when the new format supports it.
192 kbps is transparent for music; 128 kbps is enough for speech.
Width of the animation in pixels; height follows the aspect ratio. 480 px suits chats, 720 px or more gives a high-quality GIF but a much larger file.
GIF holds at most 256 colors. Fewer colors make a smaller file but cause banding on gradients and skin tones.
Mixes palette colors in a fine pattern to hide banding. Sierra gives the smoothest result; none gives the smallest file.
Whether the animation repeats endlessly or plays one time and stops.
Optional. Seconds (e.g. 75) or minutes:seconds (1:15). Leave empty to start at the beginning.
Optional. Same format as the start time. Leave empty to keep everything up to the end.
The converted file will be at or just under this size.
How to use this tool
- 1
Add your GIFs
Upload up to 20 animated GIFs, 95 MB each. Short MP4 or WebM clips can also go straight to animated AVIF.
- 2
Set the width
Animated output starts at a Width of 480 px. Enter the GIF's own width under Advanced settings if you want it unscaled; Loop stays on Loop forever.
- 3
Convert to AVIF
Press Convert to AVIF and download the .avif files, ready to drop into a picture element on your site.
Why convert GIF to AVIF for a website
GIF stores every frame as a separate 256-color image. A product demo or screen-recorded walkthrough of a few seconds can weigh several megabytes, and on a landing page that one image often outweighs all the code. Google's Lighthouse audit has a dedicated check, "Use video formats for animated content", aimed at exactly these files.
AVIF was finalized by the Alliance for Open Media in 2019 as a still-image format built on the AV1 video codec, inside the HEIF container. An animated AVIF is an AV1 image sequence: later frames are predicted from earlier ones, exactly as in a video file, so only the change between frames costs bits.
GIF vs animated AVIF: what the format adds
| from ↓ · to → | More than 256 colors per frame | Smooth alpha edges | Motion-predicted frames | 10-bit color | Opens in every image viewer |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GIF | – GIF to More than 256 colors per frame: no | – GIF to Smooth alpha edges: no | – GIF to Motion-predicted frames: no | – GIF to 10-bit color: no | GIF to Opens in every image viewer: yes |
| Animated AVIF | Animated AVIF to More than 256 colors per frame: yes | Animated AVIF to Smooth alpha edges: yes | Animated AVIF to Motion-predicted frames: yes | Animated AVIF to 10-bit color: yes | – Animated AVIF to Opens in every image viewer: no |
GIF
Graphics Interchange Format
GIF was introduced by CompuServe in 1987 and is still the most widely supported format for short, looping animations. It is lossless but limited to a palette of 256 colours per frame, so photos and gradients show banding and dithering. It supports only on/off (1-bit) transparency, which leaves jagged edges on curved shapes. Animated GIFs are often far larger than the same clip as MP4 or WebP. Every browser, chat app and social platform plays GIFs.
- Compression
- Lossless
- Transparency
- Yes
- Animation
- Yes
- Introduced
- 1987 · CompuServe
AVIF
AV1 Image File Format
AVIF stores still images and image sequences compressed with the AV1 video codec, and was finalised by the Alliance for Open Media in 2019. It usually produces smaller files than both JPEG and WebP at the same visual quality and supports transparency, animation, wide colour gamut and HDR. Encoding is slower than older formats, and very fine textures can look smoothed at low quality settings. All major browsers now display AVIF, but many desktop apps, social platforms and older devices cannot open it.
- Compression
- Lossy or lossless
- Transparency
- Yes
- Animation
- Yes
- Introduced
- 2019 · Alliance for Open Media
GIF becomes AVIF when a site owner is chasing page weight: hero loops, product demos and UI walkthroughs keep their autoplaying image-tag behavior while the bytes drop sharply and the 256-color banding disappears.
When animated AVIF is the right replacement
AVIF works well for
- Hero and feature loops on your own website
- Product UI demos with gradients and shadows
- Pages scored on load time and Core Web Vitals
- Animations that need soft transparent edges
Keep the GIF for
- Email newsletters and signatures
- Forums and chat apps that only preview GIF
- Uploads to older CMS installs
- Recipients who will edit the frames later
Serving animated AVIF with a fallback
Current versions of Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari all play animated AVIF; Firefox was the last to add animation, in version 113. Publishing it behind a picture element with the GIF as fallback costs nothing and protects older browsers. Encoding AVIF is slower than writing a GIF, so expect a long clip to take noticeably longer to convert than it would as WebP.
If the loop is going to a chat app instead of your own site, a video file is safer: GIF to MP4 plays everywhere. The AVIF, HEIC and WebP guide compares the three modern image formats in detail.
GIF to AVIF questions
Will an animated AVIF loop the way a GIF does?
Yes. The Loop option is set to Loop forever, and browsers repeat an AVIF image sequence just like a GIF inside an img tag, with no controls and no sound. Choose Play once for an intro animation that should stop on its last frame.
Why does my AVIF show only the first frame?
The viewer understands still AVIF but not AVIF image sequences. Older image viewers and Firefox versions before 113, released in 2023, behave this way. Open the file in a current Chrome, Edge, Firefox or Safari to check the animation.
Does the AVIF keep my GIF's transparent background?
The AVIF format supports a full alpha channel, so it can hold transparency far better than GIF's on-or-off pixels. Check the result on a colored or checkered background before publishing, since a pasted-in matte color from the original GIF stays visible.
Can I upload animated AVIF to WordPress?
WordPress 6.5, released in 2024, added AVIF to the media library, provided the server's image library supports it. Older installs reject the upload, in which case keep the GIF or use GIF to WebP, which WordPress has accepted since 5.8.
How do I show the AVIF with a GIF fallback?
Wrap both in a picture element: a source tag with type image/avif pointing at the AVIF, then an img tag with the GIF. Browsers that decode AVIF take the small file, and anything else falls back to the GIF without a broken image.
