How do I convert BMP to GIF?

Upload your BMP file using the box above, confirm GIF as the output format, then select Convert. The converted file is ready to download as soon as processing finishes — usually in a few seconds.

Is converting BMP to GIF free?

Yes, and there is nothing to sign up for. Every conversion route is free on every plan — paying raises limits such as file size and how many conversions you get, and removes advertising. It never unlocks a format, adds a watermark or degrades the output.

Will the quality change when converting to GIF?

GIF uses lossy compression, so some data is discarded to keep the file small. The default quality setting is tuned to be visually or audibly transparent for most material, and you can raise it in the conversion settings.

What happens to my file afterwards?

The uploaded file is deleted as soon as the conversion completes, and the converted file is removed automatically once its retention window ends. Download links are signed and expire within minutes.

bmpgif

Convert BMP to GIF

Free online converter for BMP files. Indexed-colour format with animation support. Nothing to install, no watermark, and every file is deleted automatically.

Drag and drop your files

Upload a BMP file to convert it to GIF. Up to 3 files at once, 100 MB each.

Free · up to 3 files · 100 MB each · files deleted automatically after 1 hour.

About BMP and GIF

BMP .bmp

Microsoft's plain bitmap. It generally stores pixels with no compression at all, which makes it simple to read and very large on disk.

Good for

Dead simple — every pixel stored literally
No compression artefacts of any kind
Reliably readable by old Windows software

Trade-offs

Enormous files, often ten times a PNG of the same image
Effectively unusable on the web
Transparency support is inconsistent between readers

image/bmp

GIF .gif

A 1987 format that survives for one reason: it animates, and it plays everywhere without a video player. Its palette is capped at 256 colours per frame.

Good for

Animation that works in any browser and any chat app
Lossless within its 256-colour palette
Universally supported after nearly four decades

Trade-offs

256 colours means visible banding on photographs
Transparency is on-or-off per pixel, so edges look jagged
Far larger than a real video file for the same clip

image/gif

BMP and GIF side by side

BMP compared with GIF
	BMP	GIF
Compression	Uncompressed	Lossless, 256-colour palette
Transparency	Limited — 32-bit variants only	Yes — 1-bit, no partial
Animation	No	Yes
Typically used for	Legacy Windows software, intermediate working files	Short loops, reaction clips, simple animations

What changes when you convert BMP to GIF

Down to 256 colours

GIF stores a palette of at most 256 colours per frame. A photograph converted from BMP has to be reduced to fit, which shows as banding across skies, skin and gradients. For a still image this is almost never the right format — GIF is worth choosing only when something must animate everywhere without a video player.

How the GIF is written

Our default is a high effort setting on the palette search, which is where GIF quality is won or lost. The quality control on the converter moves this if you need to — the default aims to be indistinguishable from the source at a sensible file size, rather than to win a compression benchmark.

Expect a dramatic drop in size

A BMP stores every pixel literally, with no compression at all — which is why they are so large. GIF compresses, so the same image commonly lands somewhere between a tenth and a half of the size it started at. Nothing about the picture changes to achieve that: the file was simply storing its pixels in the least efficient way available.

Nothing is lost in this step

Both BMP and GIF store every pixel exactly, so this conversion changes the container rather than the content. What changes is file size and what will open it — convert freely, and as often as you like, without degrading anything.