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HEIC to GIF converter

Convert HEIC to GIF in your browser. No upload and no account: the file never leaves your device, so the only size limit is your device’s memory.

I want GIF
90%
Icon sizes
How to make the SVG

Tracing suits logos, icons and flat artwork and scales cleanly. Photos are better kept as pixels inside the SVG.

16
50%
Dither Scatters black dots to suggest gray, instead of a hard cut-off.
Advanced 5
Keep the animation For animated GIF, WebP and APNG sources. Turn off to save just the first frame.
Rotate
Mirror horizontally
Mirror vertically

For an exact width and height, use the Resize Image tool instead.

Bytes of your files sent anywhere: 0 B

Related conversions

Other ways to convert HEIC

Convert other formats to GIF

Read more about the HEIC format and the GIF format, or see every image tool and all image conversions.

Should you convert HEIC to GIF?

Worth it when an app or an editor needs GIF, or before you edit the picture several times. GIF won’t restore the detail HEIC already threw away, and the file will be larger, but nothing more is lost from here on.

GIF is also the more widely supported of the two: it opens everywhere, while HEIC is mainly an Apple format.

HEIC is the iPhone’s photo format, built on the HEVC video codec; GIF is a 256-color image format best known for short looping animations. Use GIF for a few seconds of silent animation that has to play inline everywhere, including in email clients that block video.

HEIC and GIF compared
Property HEIC GIF
Compression Lossy Lossless
Transparency No On/off only
Animation No Yes
Support Mainly an Apple format Opens everywhere
Best for Storing photos on Apple devices without using much space Short, silent loops and reaction images
Introduced 2017 1987

How to convert HEIC to GIF

  1. 01

    Add your HEIC

    Drop your HEIC image onto the box, or click to choose it. It is read from your disk and stays there.

  2. 02

    Check the settings

    The output is already set to GIF. Change the quality if you want to; the defaults suit most files.

  3. 03

    Save the GIF

    Press convert and save the GIF. Several files come back together as a ZIP.

What changes when HEIC becomes GIF

GIF can’t add back what HEIC removed

The HEIC was compressed when it was saved, and that detail is gone. GIF records exactly what the HEIC contains now, compression marks included, and keeps it that way however often you edit and re-save.

iPhone photos convert with their orientation

Portrait photos stay upright, and Live Photos become a still GIF. Location and camera details aren’t copied into the new file.

Expect a much larger file

GIF is far bigger for the same content. Choose it because something needs GIF, not to send or store the file. HEIC: An iPhone photo is usually 1–3 MB. GIF: A five-second animation can easily pass 10 MB.

This page is put together from our notes on each format, choosing only what is true of HEIC and GIF, so every pairing states the same facts the same way. How these pages are made.

Why it doesn’t upload

Changing a picture’s format is work your browser already knows how to do. Sending your photos to a server first only adds waiting and risk, so nothing is sent.

How to check for yourself

Worth knowing

  • About the HEIC. AirDrop and iCloud often convert photos to JPG for you, but cables, email and “Files” copies keep HEIC, so the same photo works on one computer and not another.
  • About the GIF. A few seconds of video as GIF is often ten times the size of the same clip as MP4, because GIF compresses each frame as a separate picture.
  • DDS, PSD, EXR, XWD and JPEG 2000 are read by the FFmpeg engine, a one-time 31 MB download.

Questions

Will converting HEIC to GIF lose quality?

No further quality is lost: GIF keeps exactly what is in the HEIC. It can’t undo compression the HEIC already has.

Will the GIF be smaller than the HEIC?

Expect a much larger file. GIF is far bigger for the same content. Choose it because something needs GIF, not to send or store the file. HEIC: An iPhone photo is usually 1–3 MB. GIF: A five-second animation can easily pass 10 MB.

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