GIF Caption Adder

Add caption to GIF files in four steps

1. Drop a GIF. The first frame appears in the live preview, which uses the same drawing code as the export.
2. Pick a white-box caption or text on top, and type the caption. Long lines wrap to the width of the GIF, and Enter adds a line break of your own.
3. Set the size, weight, alignment and padding. A box sits above or below and fits the text or takes a fixed height; text on top takes a position, colours and an outline.
4. Limit the caption to a frame range if you want, then click Add caption and download. The before-and-after file size shows next to the download.

Every frame is decoded, captioned and re-encoded in the browser tab, and nothing is uploaded. The tool takes GIFs up to 100 MB, up to 600 frames, frames up to 2,073,600 pixels (1920 × 1080), and up to 512 MB of captioned frames in memory.

White-box captions vs text on top

The right style depends on where the GIF is going and what is in the frame.

When the white box works better

The white box is the format most meme captions use: black text on a white band above the animation. It extends the canvas instead of covering it, so faces and punchlines stay visible. Black on white is also readable whatever the footage looks like, with no outline needed.

The cost is height. At the default size, a 480 × 270 GIF with a two-line caption grows to 480 × 390, which changes how it crops in a feed. A fixed box height keeps a series of GIFs consistent; the text then shrinks to fit the box.

When overlay text works better

Text on top keeps the original dimensions, which matters for emoji and sticker slots or any embed with a fixed size. It also reads like a subtitle, so it suits dialogue and timed reactions.

Over busy footage the outline does the work: by default about a twelfth of the text size, with rounded joins so letters like M and W do not grow spikes.

Keeping caption text sharp in a 256-colour GIF

Each GIF frame can use at most 256 colours, so the encoder has to choose them. A shared palette is built from a sample of frames. A caption that appears on only a few frames can miss that sample, and then its letters snap to the nearest colour available: off-white text, a muddy outline.

This tool reserves the caption colours (fill, outline and box) in every palette it writes. We tested a caption on 3 of 120 frames with a shared palette. Without reserving, 0 of the 2,974 solid fill pixels kept their exact yellow; with it, every one did.

The blended pixels along each letter's edge are quantized with the rest of the frame, so at small sizes pick weight 900 and a 2 to 3 px outline over thinner settings.

Adding a caption changes the file size. In our tests a white box added 4 to 6% to noisy footage, because it adds new pixels and new colours. "Per frame" palettes give the truest colour; "shared" is usually smaller. If the result passes a size cap, run it through the GIF file size reducer.

Captions on only part of the loop

The frames field decides when the caption shows. Use * for every frame, a range such as 12-30, or a list such as 1,5,9. Frame numbers start at 1, and the frame count appears under the original preview.

That is enough for subtitle-style timing: the setup on the first half of the loop, the punchline on the second. Run the tool once per caption, feeding the output back in. Each pass re-encodes, so use as few passes as you can.

Before and after the caption

Crop first, then caption: the GIF cropper removes empty borders, and the default text size here follows the GIF's width. Starting from a video? Make the GIF in the video to GIF converter first.

For a still image, the image watermark tool adds text or a logo with position, opacity and tiling controls.

GIF caption FAQ

How do I add a caption to a GIF?

Drop the GIF into the tool above, pick a white-box caption or text on top, and type your caption. Check the live preview, then click Add caption and download the new GIF. Every frame is captioned in your browser, so the file is never uploaded.

How do I put text above a GIF in a white box?

Choose the white-box caption style and leave the box above the GIF. The tool adds a white band to the top of every frame, sized to fit your text, and writes the caption in black. The animation itself is not covered or shrunk; the GIF simply gets taller by the height of the box.

Can I add text to an existing GIF without losing the animation?

Yes. The tool decodes every frame, draws the caption onto each one and re-encodes the GIF with the original frame delays and loop setting. Because the file is re-encoded, its size changes, and the tool shows the before-and-after size next to the download.

What font does the caption use?

Inter, a free, open-source bold sans-serif that this site serves, at weight 700, 800 or 900. If Impact is installed on your device, the tool offers it as well, but it is never downloaded or bundled. Characters Inter does not cover, such as Chinese, Arabic or emoji, are drawn with your device's own fallback font.

Can the caption appear on only some frames?

Yes. Type a frame range such as 10-24, or a list such as 1,5,9, in the frames field and the caption only appears on those frames. With the white-box style, the box stays on every frame so the GIF keeps one size, and it is simply empty outside the range.