Animated GIFs keep only the first frame
If your GIF moves, stop here. This converter saves the first frame only, and the AVIF you get is a single still picture. There's no option to keep the animation. For a moving image, keep the GIF.
The conversion makes sense for still GIFs: logos, buttons, diagrams and clip art saved from older websites. Those files turn into an AVIF that usually takes less space and shows in Chrome 85, Firefox 93 and Edge 121 or later, and in Safari on iPhone from iOS 16 and Safari 16.4 on Mac.
How to convert GIF to AVIF
- Pick the GIF files, up to 5 at a time and 300 MB each. If a GIF is animated, make sure the frame you want is the first one, because that's the frame the AVIF will hold.
- Set AVIF as the output for each file.
- Download the .avif once our servers have finished.
One GIF in, one still AVIF out.
A GIF has at most 256 colours, and AVIF cannot add more
GIF, published by CompuServe in 1987, stores each frame with a palette of up to 256 colours. That's why photos saved as GIF show bands in skies and skin. Converting to AVIF doesn't fix this. The AVIF can hold millions of colours, but it only gets the 256 that were in the GIF, so banding stays. Flat artwork with few colours converts cleanly. If you need the exact pixels rather than a smaller copy that drops some detail, use GIF to PNG. The reverse direction, AVIF to GIF, also keeps one frame. Other options are on the GIF converter page.