GIF with Sound Maker

How to make a GIF with sound

1. Drop the GIF into the first box and an audio file into the second.
2. Choose how long the video runs: loop the GIF for the whole sound, or play it a set number of times.
3. Move the start point if the part you want isn't at the beginning, and set a fade in or out.
4. Pick a fill colour if the GIF has transparent areas.
5. Press Make the video with sound, listen to the result, then download the MP4.

The download is an MP4, not a GIF, and that is the only honest way to do this. The animation becomes H.264 video with every frame's timing kept, and your audio becomes an AAC track alongside it, or Opus in a browser without an AAC encoder. Both are encoded by the browser itself, so the job needs no server and no install.

The tool takes a GIF up to 100.00 MB and 1920 × 1080 pixels, plus an audio file up to 50.00 MB and 6 minutes long. It writes up to 10 minutes of video. The audio is read with the browser's decodeAudioData decoder, which is why MP3, WAV and M4A are the safe choices and rarer formats depend on the browser.

Why GIFs have no audio

The format simply has nowhere to put it. CompuServe's GIF89a specification, the version animated GIFs rely on, defines blocks for images, colour tables, frame timing, plain text, comments and application data. There is no block for audio.

Pairing a GIF with a separate sound is an old trick. According to Know Your Meme's history of GIFs with sound, the gifsound.com domain was registered on 2 July 2011. The site paired the address of a GIF with a YouTube video so they played together, and the r/GifSound subreddit opened the next day to share the best pairings.

Every GIF with sound since has worked on the same principle: an animation and a sound played side by side. This tool does the pairing once and bakes both into one video file, so the sound travels with the picture instead of depending on a second link.

Looping a short GIF under a long sound

Most GIFs last a few seconds, and most sounds worth adding last longer. The tool offers two ways to reconcile the lengths, and it shows the resulting video length before you press the button.

Loop to the audio

This is the default and the classic use: the animation repeats for as long as the sound plays, and the final loop is cut at the exact moment the audio ends. Move the start point to skip an intro, and keep the one-second fade-out so the video doesn't end on a clipped note. The waveform highlights the part of the sound that will be used.

Trim the audio to the loop

Choose a number of plays instead, from one to ten, and the sound is cut where the last play ends. This suits a reaction GIF with a short sound bite. If the sound runs out before the animation finishes, the tool warns you and the remainder of the video is silent.

If you are writing a voiceover to sit under the loop, the video script timer tells you how many words fit in a given number of seconds, so the read ends with the animation.

Where a GIF with sound will actually play with sound

Anywhere that plays video with audio: messaging apps, social uploads, presentation software and video editors. The MP4 carries its sound with it, so there is no second file to lose. Before you post, check the length and aspect ratio each platform expects on the social video spec sheet.

Two things can still keep the sound quiet. Feeds and web pages often start videos muted, so viewers have to tap to hear them. And on the web, browsers generally block audible video from playing automatically until the visitor interacts with the page, as MDN's autoplay guide explains. Silent video is exempt, which is why GIF-style embeds are usually muted.

Anywhere that only accepts GIFs, such as a GIF search picker or a custom emoji slot, the sound cannot come along. Those places need the silent GIF, and the guide to when not to use a GIF covers the trade-off. If you started from a video clip that already has sound, you may not need a GIF at all; the video to GIF converter is for the opposite trip.

One last rule: only add audio you have the right to use. Music you didn't make, or haven't licensed, can get a post muted or removed on many platforms.

GIF with sound FAQ

Can a GIF have sound?

No. The GIF format has no place to store audio: a GIF file holds images, colour tables, timing and text, and nothing else. Anything you see labelled a GIF with sound is really a video file, or a player showing an animation and a sound at the same time. This tool makes the video-file version, an MP4.

How do I add sound to a GIF?

Drop the GIF and an audio file into the tool above, choose whether the animation loops for the whole sound or plays a set number of times, and press Make the video with sound. You get an MP4 in which the GIF loops under your audio. Everything happens in your browser, so neither file is uploaded.

How do I loop a GIF for the length of a song?

Keep the default setting, Loop the GIF for the whole sound. The tool repeats the animation until the audio ends and cuts the last loop exactly where the sound stops. Set a start point if you only want part of the song, and a fade-out so the ending doesn't stop dead. Songs up to 6 minutes long are accepted.

Which audio files can I use?

MP3, WAV and M4A (AAC) are the safe choices in current browsers. Ogg, Opus and FLAC depend on the browser, because the tool uses the browser's own audio decoder. The sound is then encoded as AAC where the browser can, which is what iPhones and Apple apps expect, or as Opus with a note on the result when it can't.

Can I get the sound out of a GIF?

No, because there is none to get. A GIF that seems to have sound was shown next to a separate audio source, or it was never a GIF, but a short video. If the animation came from a video, find that original video: it is the only place the sound still exists.