GIF to ICO Converter
Convert a GIF image into a Windows .ico icon file — pick which frame and which sizes to embed, from 16×16 up to 256×256. Free and private, entirely in your browser.
Input
Static or animated GIF — for an animated GIF, pick which frame to use below. Nothing is uploaded; everything runs in your browser.
Off (default): a non-square frame is center-cropped to a square. On: the full frame is kept and padded with transparency instead, so nothing is cropped off the edges.
ICO file
Upload a GIF to generate a multi-resolution .ico file containing every size you select.
Guides
Convert a GIF image into a Windows .ico icon file, entirely in your browser. Pick which of the six standard icon sizes — 16×16 up to 256×256 — to embed, and every size you select is packed into one .ico. Nothing is uploaded; decoding the GIF and building the icon file both happen on your device.
How to use it
- Upload a GIF — static or animated.
- For an animated GIF, drag the Frame slider to pick which frame becomes the icon.
- Toggle which sizes to include. All six are on by default; deselect any you don't need.
- Download the generated
icon.ico.
Animated GIFs
A .ico file has no concept of animation, so only one frame of an animated GIF is used as the icon's source image — the rest of the animation is dropped. The Frame slider (0–100%) lets you pick which one: drag it to the frame that looks best as a still icon, and every size regenerates from that frame instantly. If you need to preview or extract other frames first, try the GIF Splitter.
Choosing sizes
- 16×16 / 32×32 — the classic sizes Windows uses for taskbar and title-bar icons.
- 48×48 / 64×64 — desktop shortcuts and larger list views.
- 128×128 / 256×256 — Explorer's large-icon and extra-large-icon views, and any modern app that wants a high-resolution icon.
Including more sizes makes the file bigger but means Windows never has to stretch a smaller icon to fill a larger slot. For a general-purpose app icon, keeping all six selected is the safest default.
Non-square GIFs
Icons are square. By default, a non-square frame is center-cropped to the largest square that fits inside it. If you'd rather keep the entire frame instead of losing the cropped-off edges, turn on "Keep full image (don't crop to square)" to letterbox it instead: the full frame is scaled to fit and padded with transparency on the short axis.
Tips
- Start with the largest, cleanest GIF you have — every embedded size is downscaled from the frame you pick, so more detail in means a sharper 256×256 icon out.
- A GIF's transparent pixels carry straight through to every size in the
.ico. - Converting a static PNG, JPG, WebP, or SVG instead? Use the PNG to ICO Converter.
- Need to pull sizes back out of an existing
.ico? Use the ICO to PNG Converter.
Is my GIF uploaded anywhere?
No. Decoding the GIF, resizing the picked frame on a canvas, and packing the .ico container all happen in your browser. Nothing is sent to a server.
Why does my icon look static even though I uploaded an animated GIF?
.ico files can't animate — Windows always shows one still image per size. This tool uses whichever frame the Frame slider is set to as that image (frame 1 by default), similar to how the GIF to PDF Converter uses a single frame for its single-page output.