GIF Resizer
Change an animated GIF’s dimensions without losing the animation. Set an exact width and height, scale by percentage, or pick a preset. Resizing runs in your browser, so the file never leaves your device — the same way the rest of the Switch Labs media tools work.
Drop an animated GIF here
Resizing runs in this tab. The GIF is never uploaded.
Resizing or compressing: which one do you actually need?
Most people who search for a GIF resizer have a size problem, not a dimensions problem. They were told a file is too big and resizing is the lever they reached for. That instinct is usually right, because dimensions are the strongest lever available: file size tracks total pixels, so halving the width takes about three quarters of the bytes off.
But the two jobs are genuinely different, and mixing them up costs you quality:
- Resize when the GIF is stored larger than it is displayed. A 1200px GIF rendered in a 480px column is spending most of its file on pixels nobody sees. There is no visible cost to fixing that.
- Compress when the dimensions are already right. The GIF compressor works the palette, frame rate, and dithering instead, which is what you want when you cannot afford to lose resolution.
In practice the fastest route to a small GIF is both, in that order: resize to the size it will actually display at, then compress the result. If you are aiming at a specific number, the target-size compressor takes it from there.
What resizing costs you
Downscaling a GIF is a resample, and the tool uses lanczos filtering, which preserves edges better than the bilinear default most converters use. Two things still change:
- Small text goes first. If your GIF is a screen recording with UI labels or code in it, downscale in steps and read the text in the preview each time rather than jumping straight to 50%.
- The palette is rebuilt. Resampling produces colors that were not in the original 256-entry table, so a new palette has to be generated. Keeping the color setting at 256 makes this as close to invisible as GIF allows.
Upscaling is a different story: there is no detail to recover, so you get a soft image in a larger file. The tool warns you when you set a width above the source, because that is almost never what someone wants.
Frequently asked questions
Does resizing a GIF break the animation?
No. Every frame is rescaled and the timing and loop settings are carried through, so the output animates exactly as the original did. What does change is the color palette: a GIF has to be re-palettized after a rescale, because the resampled pixels are new colors that were not in the original 256-entry table.
How much smaller will the file be?
Roughly with the square of the scale factor, because file size tracks total pixels. Halving the width also halves the height when the aspect ratio is locked, leaving about a quarter of the pixels and usually somewhere near a quarter of the bytes. The exact number depends on content, which is why the tool shows you the measured result instead of a promise.
Should I resize or compress?
Resize when the GIF is displayed smaller than it is stored, which is extremely common. Compress when the dimensions are already right and you need fewer bytes from the same picture. Resizing costs you detail you were not showing anyway, so if the GIF is wider than the space it renders in, resize first and compress second.
Can I make a GIF larger?
The tool will do it, but you should not. Upscaling invents no detail, so the result looks soft, and it makes the file bigger rather than smaller, which is the opposite of what almost everyone resizing a GIF wants. If you need a larger GIF, re-make it from the original video at the size you want.
Is the GIF uploaded to a server?
No. FFmpeg is compiled to WebAssembly and runs inside this browser tab. The file is read from your disk into the page, resized there, and written back out as a download. Nothing is transmitted, so there is no server-side copy of your file.
Related GIF tools
- GIF compressor — palette, frame rate, and dithering when dimensions are already right
- GIF maker — build a GIF from images or a video clip at the right size from the start
- GIF to MP4 — when the format itself is the size problem
- How to compress a GIF without losing quality — the five levers, ranked by what each one costs
Related Tools
More free tools that might be useful
GIF Compressor
Compress and optimize GIF files
GIF Maker
Make an animated GIF from images or a video clip
Image Compressor
Compress and optimize JPG, PNG, and WebP images without losing quality