Pixel art GIF maker
Drop in a short video and get an animated pixel art GIF: choose the resolution, palette and frame rate. Free, in your browser.
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ℹ️ Ads keep Pixelateme free — quick tips to get the most out of the site
Pixelateme has no paywall and no account system. The ads you see are what pay for the servers, so everything stays free with no sign-up. A few tips so they never get in your way:
- A sponsor tab or popup may open the first time you click or tap. Just close it and come back — your image is untouched, since everything happens right in your browser.
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Drop an image or video
or browse files · max 15MB
LIVE PREVIEW
Drop a photo of people
or browse files · stays on your device
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How it works
Upload
Drop in a photo or video — it never leaves your browser.
Pixel Art or Hide Faces
Make retro pixel art, or pixelate faces for privacy.
Tune it
Set pixel size & palette, or auto-detect / draw over faces.
Download
Save your result as PNG (or animated GIF for video).
Why Pixelateme
100% private
Everything runs on your device — no uploads, no accounts.
Hide faces fast
Auto-detect faces or draw boxes to pixelate people & objects.
Retro palettes
Gameboy, NES & CGA looks with optional dithering.
Video → pixel GIF
Turn clips into animated pixel art with adjustable FPS.
Video in, pixel art GIF out
Drop a short video into the box above (MP4, MOV or WebM, up to 15 MB) and Pixelateme converts every frame into pixel art, then stitches them into an animated GIF you can download. Choose the width in pixels, a palette (full colour, Game Boy, NES or CGA), dithering on or off, and a frame rate from 1 to 30 fps. Everything renders on your own device: no upload queue, no account and no watermark.
Settings that make a good pixel GIF
- Keep clips short. 2–6 seconds is the sweet spot. GIF is an old format and gets big fast; long clips make huge files and take longer to render.
- Frame rate: 8–12 fps feels like a retro game animation and keeps files small. 24–30 fps is smoother but much heavier.
- Width: 48–80 pixels reads as a sprite; 96–128 keeps faces and text legible.
- Palette: a small palette (Game Boy, CGA) gives the most retro look and the smallest files. Full colour keeps the footage recognisable.
- Simple motion wins: a wave, a pet jumping, a skateboard trick. Fast camera pans turn into noise.
Ideas
- Pixel reaction GIFs and stickers for Discord or group chats.
- An animated pixel-art profile picture (see pixel me for still avatars).
- Retro intros for videos and streams.
- A Game Boy style clip: use the Game Boy palette with dithering.
Hiding something in a video instead?
This page is about the pixel art look. If you need to pixelate a face or plate in footage for privacy, read how to pixelate a video first. The honest answer is that this tool pixelates the whole frame and doesn't track a moving face.
Frequently asked questions
How do I turn a video into a pixel art GIF?
Drop the clip into the box above, set the width, palette and frame rate, then click Download. The pixelated animation saves as a GIF. Nothing is uploaded.
What video formats and sizes work?
Anything your browser can play, usually MP4, MOV and WebM, up to 15 MB. Short clips of a few seconds work best.
Why is my GIF file so big?
GIF stores every frame as a separate image. Lower the frame rate (8–12 fps), use a smaller width, a smaller palette, or a shorter clip.
Can I upload a GIF and pixelate it?
Not as an animation. A GIF upload is treated as a still image (its first frame). Convert the GIF to a short MP4 first, then drop that in.
Is there a watermark?
No. The GIF is yours, with no watermark and no account needed.
Does it work on iPhone?
Yes, in Safari and other modern browsers. Very long or high-resolution clips may be slow on older phones; trim them first.
People also ask
Does pixelating an image reduce its quality or file size?
It destroys detail permanently — that is the point — but the exported file is not necessarily smaller. The pixel dimensions stay the same; only the content becomes blockier. As it happens, large flat areas of a single colour compress very well, so a heavily pixelated PNG often ends up smaller than the original. Keep your untouched original, because you cannot undo it from the export.
Do free online pixelate tools upload and keep my photos?
Most of them do — they receive your file, process it on their servers and hand back a link, which means a copy exists on someone else’s machine, usually under terms that let them retain it. That is a poor trade when the reason you are pixelating is that the image shows something private. Pixelateme is built the other way round: the work is done by your own browser with the Canvas API, so nothing is transmitted. If you want to prove it, load this page, switch off your network, and it still works.
Is there a catch — a watermark, a sign-up, or a paid tier?
No. Every feature is free, there is no account, nothing is watermarked, and there is no resolution or export limit beyond the 15 MB input cap. The site is paid for by the ads you see, and a $5 donation turns those off for a year. That is the entire business model.