Updated · Built and checked by the PlinzoTools team, formulas tested against published sources
Convert a Windows .ico icon file to GIF instantly, right in your browser.
Upload a ICO file to convert it to GIF.
This tool converts a Windows .ico icon file to GIF entirely in your browser. ICO is a container format built for Windows icons and website favicons -- a single .ico file can bundle several resolutions of the same image, so this tool reads the real ICO byte structure, extracts the largest embedded image, and re-encodes it as a real, LZW-compressed .gif file.
Click the upload area and choose an .ico file. The converted preview appears immediately; click Download to save it as a real .gif file.
Need to go the other way? Use the GIF to ICO tab above, or open the GIF to ICO converter directly.
GIF's near-universal, decades-old support makes it useful anywhere .ico files aren't accepted -- old forums, some embed widgets, and CMS upload filters that only allow a fixed list of common formats. Most icons (simple, flat-color artwork) convert to GIF's 256-color palette with no visible quality loss.
A GIF can hold at most 256 colors in its palette. This tool reads the pixels of the largest image inside your .ico and first counts the distinct colors. If there are 256 or fewer, it builds the palette from those exact colors, so nothing changes visually. The palette size is then rounded up to the next power of two, with unused entries filled in, because the GIF format only allows table sizes such as 2, 4, 8, and so on up to 256. Most icons fall in this exact-color group.
If the icon has more than 256 distinct colors, which can happen with gradients, glows or soft shadows, the tool switches to a fixed grid of 256 colors made from 8 levels of red, 8 of green and 4 of blue, and maps every pixel to its nearest grid color. There is no dithering, so smooth gradients can show visible bands.
The GIF this tool writes has no transparent color. Transparent pixels are first flattened onto white, and only the red, green and blue values are stored. Transparent regions of the icon therefore end up white rather than see-through. If your icon relies on transparency, use PNG instead, or place the icon on a background color you choose in an editor before converting.
Imagine a 64x64 icon that is a flat green square with a white letter and nothing else. It has two colors, so the palette is exactly those two and the output is an exact copy in GIF form. Now imagine the same icon with a soft blurred shadow around the letter: the shadow adds many intermediate shades. If the total stays at or under 256 the copy is still exact, but if it goes beyond, the tool uses the fixed grid and the shadow may look slightly blocky. Checking the preview after conversion tells you which case you fell into.
The tool extracts icon entries stored as embedded PNG. If your .ico only holds old bitmap-style entries or is corrupted, you may get an error saying no image could be read. Re-export the icon from its source artwork or an icon editor and try again.
No -- the whole conversion happens locally in your browser. Your file never leaves your device.
The largest embedded image is used, so you get the highest-resolution version the icon file contains.
No -- this produces a single static-frame GIF, not an animation.
No. The GIF written here has no transparency, so transparent areas are flattened onto white. Use PNG if you need transparency.
The tool maps every pixel to the nearest color in a fixed 256-color grid. There is no dithering, so gradients may show banding.
It extracts embedded PNG entries from the icon. Files with only old bitmap-style entries, or damaged files, may fail. Re-exporting the icon usually solves it.
Yes. The GIF has the pixel dimensions of the largest embedded image, with no scaling.
Converting ICO to GIF changes more than the file extension -- ICO is best suited to favicons and Windows application icons, while GIF is built for simple graphics and short looping animations.
| ICO | GIF | |
|---|---|---|
| File extension | .ico | .gif |
| Compression | a container holding PNG or BMP images | lossless, but limited to a 256-colour palette |
| Transparency | Full transparency (alpha channel) | On/off transparency only |
| Animation | Single image | Supported |
| Colours | up to 32-bit colour with alpha | 256 per frame |
| Best for | favicons and Windows application icons | simple graphics and short looping animations |
| Support | all browsers for favicons and Windows for icons | every browser, chat app and editor |
The conversion happens in your browser; the file is never uploaded.