JPEG to GIF converter

JPG → GIF quantizes a photo to 256 colours, so it is for legacy systems that only accept GIF, not for making something animated or smaller.

Converted with Image engine · input deleted within 24 h
Free: 5 conversions a day · 5 MB each
Higher limits →

From real runs

What you get — and what changes

Element	Result	What happens
Colour count	Changed	The JPEG's full colour range was reduced to an adaptive 256-entry palette; all 256 entries were used for the 1200×800 sample.
Gradients	Changed	A 200×100 patch of sky held 19 distinct colours in the JPEG and 17 in the GIF, with Floyd-Steinberg dithering hiding most of the banding.
Dimensions	Kept	1200×800 in, 1200×800 out; no resampling happens unless width or height is set.
File size	Changed	The 43,177-byte JPEG became a 72,884-byte GIF: LZW on an indexed image does not compete with JPEG on photographs.
Animation	Kept	The output is a single-frame GIF87a; there is nothing to animate in a still JPEG and no frame is invented.
EXIF	Lost	GIF has no EXIF block, so camera, date and GPS tags are dropped regardless of the stripMetadata setting.
Transparency	Kept	JPEG has no alpha, and the GIF is written fully opaque; no colour is reserved as transparent.

Colour count Changed
The JPEG's full colour range was reduced to an adaptive 256-entry palette; all 256 entries were used for the 1200×800 sample.
Gradients Changed
A 200×100 patch of sky held 19 distinct colours in the JPEG and 17 in the GIF, with Floyd-Steinberg dithering hiding most of the banding.
Dimensions Kept
1200×800 in, 1200×800 out; no resampling happens unless width or height is set.
File size Changed
The 43,177-byte JPEG became a 72,884-byte GIF: LZW on an indexed image does not compete with JPEG on photographs.
Animation Kept
The output is a single-frame GIF87a; there is nothing to animate in a still JPEG and no frame is invented.
EXIF Lost
GIF has no EXIF block, so camera, date and GPS tags are dropped regardless of the stripMetadata setting.
Transparency Kept
JPEG has no alpha, and the GIF is written fully opaque; no colour is reserved as transparent.

Sample conversions

Illustration-style JPEG

Input: sample.jpg, 1200×800 baseline JPEG, 43,177 bytes, flat shapes over a sky gradient.
Output: 1200×800 GIF87a with a 256-colour palette, 72,884 bytes, in 45 ms; dithering kept the sky smooth at normal size.

Same file resized for a legacy CMS

Input: The same JPEG with {"width":400}.
Output: A 400×267 GIF a fraction of the size; the smaller image hides the palette limits better than the full-size one.

A real JPEG → GIF run

We converted our JPEG sample (42 KB) with Image engine on 2026-10-20. It took 150 ms and produced a 71 KB GIF file, 1.7× larger than the input. The engine raised 1 warning, listed below.

Input · sample.jpg · 42 KB

1200 × 800 px, baseline

Width: 1,200
Height: 800
Encoding: baseline

Output · sample.gif · 71 KB

1200 × 800 px, GIF87a

Width: 1,200
Height: 800
Encoding: GIF87a

Image metadata stripped from output.

Options and when to change them

width: Set it for thumbnails; GIF's 256 colours look better at small sizes.
height: Set it with width for a fixed box; leave one empty to keep the aspect ratio.
fit: Use cover to crop into a fixed frame for avatars; contain pads to fit.

Do it yourself

Pillow

bash

from PIL import Image

Image.open("in.jpg").convert("P", palette=Image.Palette.ADAPTIVE).save("out.gif")

convert() dithers by default; pass dither=Image.Dither.NONE for flat posterized output.

ImageMagick

bash

magick in.jpg -colors 256 out.gif

Add -dither None to disable dithering.

JPEG to GIF by API or MCP

The HTTP API and the MCP server run the exact engine this page uses (Image engine); the response carries the same warnings the web converter shows. Check support first with GET /api/v1/pairs?from=jpg&to=gif.

curl

curl -X POST https://filetypeconverters.com/api/v1/convert \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $FTC_API_KEY" \
  -F "file=@input.jpg" -F "from=jpg" -F "to=gif" \
  -F 'options={"dpi":96}' \
  --output output.gif

Options this engine accepts for JPEG → GIF

Key	Applies to	Type	Default
dpi	Reading JPEG	number	96
width	Writing GIF	number	0
height	Writing GIF	number	0
fit	Writing GIF	contain · cover · fill	contain
quality	Writing GIF	number	90
background	Writing GIF	string	#ffffff
stripMetadata	Writing GIF	boolean	true

API reference

When this is the wrong conversion

If you want a smaller file, JPG → WebP or JPG → AVIF wins by a wide margin; the GIF was larger than the JPEG.
If you want an animation, this route produces a still; assemble frames with ffmpeg or a GIF editor.
If the image needs transparency, convert to PNG or WebP; JPEG has no alpha to carry into the GIF.

JPEG to GIF questions

Why is my GIF bigger than the JPG?

JPEG compresses photographs by discarding detail the eye misses; GIF stores an indexed image with lossless LZW. On a 1200×800 photo-like picture that was 72,884 bytes of GIF against 43,177 of JPEG.

Does JPG → GIF make it animated?

No. A JPEG is one frame, and the GIF holds that one frame. Animation needs several source images combined in sequence.

Will colours look posterized?

Gradients are dithered into the 256-colour palette, which reads as slight grain rather than bands at normal viewing size. Skin tones and sunsets show it most; flat graphics show it least.