Convert GIF to APNG Online

GIF to APNG — Smoother Color, Cleaner Transparency

APNG (Animated PNG) is the modern upgrade to the animated GIF: where GIF caps each frame at 256 colors with hard on/off transparency, APNG carries full 24-bit color and a real 8-bit alpha channel, so gradients, soft shadows, and anti-aliased edges stay smooth on any background. Convert your GIF to APNG when you want a higher-quality animated image and your audience uses modern browsers — the tradeoff is a larger file and slightly narrower compatibility than GIF.

APNG vs GIF — Side by Side

What You Gain Converting GIF to APNG

• A real alpha channel. GIF transparency is binary, so a logo or sticker on a non-white page shows a jagged white-or-transparent fringe. APNG re-encodes those edges with smooth 8-bit alpha, so the same animation drops cleanly onto any background.
• Headroom for re-editing. APNG is a true-color, lossless container. Once the animation lives in APNG, further edits, recolors, or recompression don't keep re-quantizing it down to 256 colors the way GIF does.
• A graceful fallback. The first APNG frame is a valid PNG, so any viewer that doesn't understand the animation chunks still shows a clean static image instead of a broken one.
• Acceptance where GIF is blocked. Some upload forms and emote systems reject .gif but accept .png/.apng — converting gets you in.

What You're Trading

• Bigger files, usually. APNG stores full color losslessly. For a simple flat-color loop a GIF is often smaller; the size gap narrows or reverses on detailed, gradient-heavy content.
• ~95% browser support, not 100%. Modern Chrome, Firefox, Safari, Edge, and Opera play APNG. Internet Explorer never did, and a few apps that accept GIF won't animate APNG — they show the first frame.
• It can't un-bake the GIF. A GIF has already been reduced to 256 colors, so converting it to APNG won't invent the colors GIF discarded. APNG cleans up the transparency edges and stops further quality loss, but for full-quality output, encode APNG from a true-color source (a video or PNG sequence), not from an already-quantized GIF.

How to Convert GIF to APNG

1. Upload Your GIF File: Drag and drop or click "Add Files" to select an animated GIF. Static and animated GIFs both work, and batch conversion is supported — drop in several at once.
2. Set the Framerate: Pick an output framerate (10 FPS is the recommended default). Matching the source GIF's frame timing keeps motion looking the same; a lower framerate trims file size.
3. Choose Colors, Quality, and Resolution: Leave Colors on "Original" to keep every color the source GIF has, or pick "By Color Reduction + Dither" to shrink the file. Adjust Image quality (%) and set a max resolution or resize by percentage if you want a smaller output.
4. Convert and Download: Click Convert and download your APNG. Files upload over an encrypted connection, are processed on our servers, and are deleted automatically after a few hours — no sign-up, no watermark.

APNG Export Settings on This Page

Frequently Asked Questions

Will converting my GIF to APNG make it look better?

It fixes transparency and stops further quality loss, but it can't restore detail the GIF already threw away. A GIF is already reduced to 256 colors per frame, so the APNG inherits that palette — converting won't magically add the missing 16 million colors. What it does fix: the jagged 1-bit transparency edges become smooth 8-bit alpha, and because APNG is lossless, no extra dithering or banding gets added on top. For genuinely full-color, smooth output, encode APNG from a true-color source like a video or PNG sequence rather than from an existing GIF.

Is the APNG file going to be bigger than my GIF?

Often, yes. APNG stores full 24-bit color with lossless PNG compression, while GIF uses an 8-bit palette, so for simple flat-color loops the GIF is usually smaller. The gap narrows — and sometimes reverses — on detailed or gradient-heavy animations where APNG's compression works better. To keep the APNG small, leave Colors on "By Color Reduction + Dither," lower the framerate, or reduce the resolution. If size is critical, you can also run the result through compress APNG.

Which browsers and apps support APNG?

APNG plays in roughly 95% of browsers worldwide: Chrome 59+, Firefox 3+, Safari 8+, Edge 79+, and Opera 46+, on both desktop and mobile. Internet Explorer never supported it. In any viewer that doesn't understand the animation, the first frame displays as a normal static PNG, so the image is never broken — it just doesn't move. If you need an animation that moves literally everywhere, keep a GIF copy.

Does APNG keep the transparency from my GIF?

Yes, and it improves on it. GIF transparency is 1-bit — every pixel is either fully transparent or fully opaque, which is why GIF logos show a hard fringe on colored backgrounds. APNG re-encodes transparency with a full 8-bit alpha channel, so partially transparent and anti-aliased edges render smoothly. The original GIF's edges were already hard, so the conversion won't soften them retroactively, but it preserves the transparent regions and stores them in a format that supports proper soft edges going forward.

Should I use APNG or WebP instead of GIF?

Both beat GIF on color and compression. APNG is lossless, plays in ~95% of browsers, and degrades gracefully to a static first frame where unsupported — a safe choice for stickers, emotes, and UI animations. Animated WebP usually produces smaller files and supports lossy compression, but support is slightly different across older clients. If small size matters most, try GIF to WebP; if you want lossless quality with a guaranteed static fallback, APNG is the better pick.

Can I batch convert several GIFs to APNG at once?

Yes. Drop in as many GIF files as you want and they convert in parallel on our servers. You can apply the same framerate, color, and resolution settings to every file or adjust them per file, then download the results individually or as a ZIP.

How do I turn an APNG back into a GIF?

Use the reverse converter: APNG to GIF re-quantizes the animation to GIF's 256-color palette and 1-bit transparency for maximum compatibility. Expect some color banding and hard transparency edges back, since GIF can't carry APNG's full color and alpha — that's the cost of universal playback.

Is converting GIF to APNG safe and private?

Yes. Your GIF is uploaded over an encrypted (TLS) connection, converted on our servers, and the upload is deleted automatically after a few hours. There's no sign-up, no watermark on the output, and files are never shared or made public. The only practical limit on a very large or long GIF is upload size and time, not your device.