GIF to WebP Converter

Encoding: the GIF uses lossless LZW over a palette of at most 256 colours; WebP uses lossy VP8 coding or lossless VP8L, and the download is a lossy WebP at the quality you choose (lossless under More options), keeping transparency.

Bit depth: 8 bits per pixel, as indexes into a palette in the GIF; WebP allows 8 bits per channel, and the WebP written here has 8 bits per channel.

Colour: an indexed palette of up to 256 colours per frame in the GIF; WebP supports RGB; lossy WebP stores colour at half resolution (4:2:0), written here as 8-bit sRGB.

Transparency: the GIF stores it as one palette entry marked transparent, so each pixel is either fully shown or fully hidden; the WebP keeps it as a separate alpha plane, available in lossy as well as lossless files.

Animation: image blocks with their own delay and disposal method, looped by the NETSCAPE2.0 extension; the WebP keeps every frame and its timing, as ANMF frame chunks, each with its own delay and blending.

Metadata: the GIF can carry comment and application extension blocks, but no EXIF; WebP can carry EXIF, XMP and ICC chunks, but nothing is copied across.

GIF is the classic animated image format. It is limited to 256 colours per frame and 1-bit transparency, so photos look grainy and files are large, but it plays everywhere.

A GIF starts with 'GIF89a' (or the older 87a), a logical screen descriptor and an optional global colour table, then image blocks, each preceded by a graphic control extension that sets its delay and transparent colour.

GIF files usually come from reaction clips, memes, old websites and screen recordings.

WebP is Google's web image format. It supports lossy and lossless compression, transparency and animation, and is typically 25 to 35 percent smaller than JPEG at the same visual quality.

A WebP is a RIFF file: 'RIFF', a length, 'WEBP', then chunks. A simple lossy file is one VP8 chunk and a lossless one is VP8L; the extended VP8X header announces alpha, animation, ICC, EXIF or XMP chunks.

WebP is the better choice for images on websites and in apps, while GIF suits short animations and reactions that must play everywhere.

WebP strengths: 25-35% smaller than JPEG; Transparency and animation in one format; Supported by every modern browser. Drawbacks to weigh: Some older desktop apps and photo printers cannot open it; Max 16383 px per side.