WP GIF Uploader – Animated GIF Upload and Thumbnails
Upload animated GIFs and keep the animation in every thumbnail WordPress generates, instead of a still first frame.
Solid choice
WP GIF Uploader is a solid plugin choice in 2026, with a few things worth checking first. It runs on 1K+ sites, is rated 5/5 and was last updated 1 month ago, and scores 73/100 on our health check.
- Tested with the latest WordPress (7.1)
- Very few reviews so far
How does it stack up?
Side-by-side on installs, updates, ratings & supportDaily downloads
Download spikes usually follow a new release — each site that auto-updates counts as a download.
Rankings
Where WP GIF Uploader stands todayWordPress.org search rankings
Live position in the plugin search, top 100| Keyword | Position |
|---|---|
| animated gif | #1 |
| gif | #1 |
| gif animation | #1 |
| gif upload | #1 |
| wordpress gif | #1 |
Version adoption
Share of active sites per release.
Rating breakdown
★★★★★★★★★★ 5 from 1 reviews
About WP GIF Uploader
From the official readme · v1.0.5Description
Upload an animated GIF to WordPress and the thumbnail, medium and large copies it generates come back as a single still frame. The original still animates; every size WordPress made from it does not.
This plugin generates those subsizes with the animation intact, so a GIF stays a GIF wherever your theme happens to display it.
Features
- Every subsize WordPress generates from a GIF keeps its animation.
- Works on upload, so there is nothing to configure and nothing to run.
- Uses Imagick where your host provides it, and falls back to a built-in method where it does not.
The Pro version goes further. It applies crop, scale, rotate and flip to a GIF from the media edit screen with every frame intact, builds a new GIF out of images you already have, adds image or text watermarks, and lets you decide whether a GIF plays on load, on hover or on click.
Pro Features
- Create GIF from images.
- Add image and text watermarks to gifs.
- Control the GIF play action [ hover – click ].
- Apply all the edits operations on gif in the media edit page without losing the animation [ crop – rotate – flip – scale ].
- Optimize GIF loading by using first frame image at page load.
- Regenerate animated-subsizes.
Other Plugins for the Same Job
The ones that pair with working on images.
WP GIF Editor — the Pro version of this plugin. Crop, scale, rotate and flip GIFs with every frame intact, watermark them, build a GIF from images, and load the first frame first so a heavy GIF does not hold up the page.
Image Sizes Controller — switch off the image sizes your theme registers but never displays. Worth doing here, because every size you keep is another animated copy of every GIF.
WP Image Converter — convert a library that is already full of JPEGs and PNGs to modern formats in bulk, keeping the originals.
WP Images Watermark — put an image or text watermark on what you upload, automatically or on the images you pick.
Installation
- Upload the plugin to the
/wp-content/plugins/directory - Activate the plugin through the ‘Plugins’ menu in WordPress
- Start uploading GIF images from media and subsizes will keep the animation.
- The GIF Editor settings live under Media in the admin menu.
Frequently asked questions
Why do my animated GIFs stop moving in WordPress?
Because you are almost certainly not looking at the GIF you uploaded. WordPress keeps your original, then generates a thumbnail, medium and large copy of every image, and the tool it uses to do that reads only the first frame of a GIF. Your theme displays one of those generated copies, so what you see is a still image. The original is untouched and still animates. This plugin generates those copies with every frame intact, so whichever size your theme picks is still animated.
Do I have to re-upload the GIFs already in my library?
Yes, for those existing files. The plugin works at upload time, so anything added before you activated it still has still-frame subsizes. Re-uploading a GIF regenerates them properly. The Pro version can regenerate animated subsizes for images you already have, without re-uploading.
Does it need Imagick?
No. It uses Imagick when your host provides it, because that is the faster path, and falls back to a built-in method when it does not. You do not have to configure which one is used.
Will this make my pages slower?
An animated GIF is a large file, and keeping it animated at every size keeps it large. That is the trade. Two things help: reduce how many image sizes your theme registers, so there are fewer copies in the first place, and load the first frame as a still image until the page has finished loading, which is a Pro feature.
Does it work with GIFs in the block editor and page builders?
Yes. The plugin changes how the image sizes are generated, not how they are displayed, so anything that renders a WordPress image works normally.
Changelog
1.0.5
- Added: prompts on the media screens that read your own library – how many GIFs you have, how many are over 1 MB, and how many animated copies each upload turns into. Dismissible, and quiet for a month once dismissed.
- Fixed: five strings were tagged with a text domain the plugin does not register, so they could never be translated.
- Fixed: the Pro notice on the attachment screen now escapes its output.
- Fixed: the Plugin URI in this readme pointed at a page that no longer exists.
- Changed: tested up to WordPress 7.1.
- Changed: Requires PHP is now 7.0, matching the rest of our plugins. It said 5.4 in this readme and 5.6 in the plugin, and 5.6 has been unsupported since 2018.
- Added: a Frequently Asked Questions section, answering why GIFs stop animating in WordPress.
- Changed: added the short description, which was missing, and replaced the list of thirteen other plugins with four that are actually related.
1.0.4
- Tested up to WordPress 6.9.
1.0.3
- Added: Imagick support for generating GIF subsizes.
1.0.2
- Compatibility updates.
For developers
Is this your plugin? Show off the numbers.
Add a live badge to your site, docs or GitHub README. It updates on its own — no account needed.
Best WP GIF Uploader alternatives
All animated gif plugins →| Rank | Plugin | Active installs |
|---|---|---|
| 2 |
WP Gif Resizer
This plugin allow WordPress to generate animated thumbnail from GIF files, instead of…
|
30+ |
| 3 |
Son of GIFV
Convert animated GIFs to GIFV format
|
10+ |
FAQ
WP GIF Uploader: quick answers
Straight answers, pulled from live WordPress.org data.
Live data from WordPress.org · checked Oct 11, 2026
Is WP GIF Uploader free?
Yes. WP GIF Uploader is free to download and use from the official WordPress.org plugin directory.
Is WP GIF Uploader safe to use in 2026?
WP GIF Uploader is a solid plugin choice in 2026, with a few things worth checking first. It runs on 1K+ sites, is rated 5/5 and was last updated 1 month ago, and scores 73/100 on our health check.
How many websites use WP GIF Uploader?
WP GIF Uploader is active on 1K+ WordPress websites and has been downloaded 15,555 times since it launched in August 2021. It was downloaded 726 times in the last 30 days.
Does WP GIF Uploader work with WordPress 7.1?
Yes. The developer has tested WP GIF Uploader up to WordPress 7.1.3, the latest release. It requires WordPress 4.5.0 or newer.
What PHP version does WP GIF Uploader need?
WP GIF Uploader requires PHP 7.0 or higher. Most hosts run PHP 8.x today, so it works on any modern WordPress hosting.
When was WP GIF Uploader last updated?
The latest version, 1.0.5, was released on September 8, 2026 (1 month ago).
Who makes WP GIF Uploader?
WP GIF Uploader is developed and maintained by GrandPlugins.
What are the best alternatives to WP GIF Uploader?
The most popular alternatives to WP GIF Uploader are WP Gif Resizer (30+ installs) and Son of GIFV (10+ installs).
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