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APNG to GIF — Convert an Animated PNG to Animated GIF
Convert an animated PNG (APNG) to an animated GIF right in your browser — the reverse of GIF to APNG. The decoder composites every APNG frame and re-encodes it as a universally-supported GIF, keeping the animation timing, frame count and loop count. No upload, no watermark — your file never leaves your device.
Upload an APNG to convert to GIF
Drop an animated PNG (.png or .apng) here, or click to browse. Everything runs locally on your device.
Paste (Ctrl/⌘+V) or drop an image — or import from a URL
APNG to GIF converts an animated PNG (APNG) into an animated GIF entirely in your browser — the exact reverse of our GIF to APNG tool. A pure-JavaScript decoder reads the APNG chunk by chunk, composites each frame (honoring its dispose and blend operations) into a full RGBA image, and re-encodes the sequence as a standard animated GIF. GIF is the most universally supported animation format on the web: it plays in every browser, chat app, forum, and social platform, and auto-plays inline almost everywhere — which APNG still does not. The conversion preserves per-frame timing, the frame count, and the loop count. Because GIF is limited to a 256-color palette per frame and 1-bit (on/off) transparency, the palette is re-quantized during conversion; this is an inherent property of the GIF format, not a defect. Everything runs locally with no WebAssembly: your file is never uploaded, there is no queue, no watermark, no sign-up, and it works offline once the page has loaded.
What an APNG loses on the way to GIF
| What happens | The APNG you upload | The GIF that comes out |
|---|---|---|
| Colours | Up to 16.7 million per frame, and photographic frames really do use them: 14,204 distinct colours in a single 320x240 frame in our test set. | Rebuilt on a palette of at most 256 per frame. On those photographic frames each colour channel landed 2.24 off on average and up to 14 off at worst — visible as banding in a gradient, invisible in most flat art. |
| Transparency | 256 levels, so an edge can fade out gradually. | One bit: fully see-through or fully opaque. On a frame with a soft alpha fade, 300,120 pixels changed, the worst by 127 levels. A soft edge becomes a hard one. |
| File size | The size you uploaded. | Usually much smaller, and that is the reason to do this. The same photographic frames were 673.5 KB as GIF against 1686.7 KB as APNG; with the alpha fade, 421.7 KB against 1771.4 KB. |
| Frames and timing | Per-frame delays stored as an exact fraction. | Every frame kept, each with its own delay, rounded to the hundredth of a second GIF stores. A file that loops forever still loops forever. |
| Where it plays | Every current browser, but still refused by plenty of older software and upload forms. | Everywhere. This is the format to reach for when something will not accept anything else. |
| Going back | — | Converting the result back to APNG returns the 256 colours and the hard edges, not the originals. The palette step is where the information goes, and nothing downstream can recover it. |
Measured by running photographic frames through this page's own modules — the same code the browser runs. Reproduce with scripts/measure-apng-truecolor.mts. Two things are worth knowing before you convert. First, the loss is real but it is concentrated: flat illustration, screen recordings and pixel art often survive a palette almost untouched, while photographs and gradients band. Second, the size win is the whole point and it is large. Going the other way is measured too, on 8 Wikimedia animations: a GIF converted to APNG came out at 95% to 1064% of the upload, middle file 182%, and gained nothing measurable, because a GIF's frames already hold at most 256 colours and no partial transparency at all — there is nothing left for the bigger format to preserve.
How It Works
Choose a tool
Pick from 168+ tools to resize, convert, compress, or enhance your image.
Upload & edit
Drag and drop your image and adjust the settings. It stays on your device.
Download
Save your result instantly — no watermark, no sign-up required.
Why Image Machine?
Your files never leave your device
All processing runs locally in your browser. Your images are never uploaded to a server.
Completely free
Every tool is free, with no limits, no watermarks, and no hidden costs.
Lightning fast
No upload waiting — your images are processed instantly on your own device.
Professional quality
Pixel-perfect output with full control over format, size, and quality.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why convert an APNG to GIF?
GIF is supported virtually everywhere — every browser, messaging app, forum, and social network plays it and auto-loops it inline. APNG, while higher quality, is still not accepted by many chat apps and platforms. Converting to GIF gives you a file you can paste or upload almost anywhere, which is ideal for reactions, stickers, and short looping clips.
Will the GIF look exactly like the APNG?
Mostly, but not pixel-for-pixel. GIF allows only 256 colors per frame and on/off (1-bit) transparency, so an APNG with full 24-bit color, gradients, or soft anti-aliased edges will be re-quantized to a palette. You may see slight color banding or harder edges around transparent areas — this is a fundamental GIF limitation, not a flaw in the conversion. The animation timing and loop count are preserved exactly.
Does it keep the animation timing and loop count?
Yes. Each APNG frame's delay (its fcTL delay fraction) is converted to the GIF's per-frame delay, and the APNG num_plays value is written as the GIF loop count — 0 means loop forever, a positive number plays that many times. The frame count is preserved one-to-one.
Is it private, and does it work with static PNGs?
The conversion runs entirely on your device in the browser, so your file is never uploaded and nothing is stored on a server. If you drop a regular (non-animated) PNG, it is treated as a single-frame image and converted to a one-frame GIF. Palette-indexed, 16-bit, and interlaced PNGs are not supported and will report a clear error.