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Rotate and Flip a GIF the Right Way

Which directions can you rotate or flip a GIF?

Rotate an animated GIF or mirror its frames horizontally or vertically. Use a quarter turn for a sideways animation, or a custom angle to straighten the subject. The same transformation is applied throughout the loop. A custom angle can expose space around the image, so check the background and frame edges before downloading.

Cost: Free to use. File size and usage limits apply.

How to rotate or flip a GIF

  1. Upload one GIF

    Click Choose file or drop a GIF on the preview. Animated and single-frame GIFs up to 200 MB work. GIFs you uploaded or created in other tools are listed under Uploads, so you don't need to upload them again.

  2. Turn it in quarter steps

    Use the three quick-turn buttons below Live angle: the first turns the GIF 90° counter-clockwise, the second 90° clockwise, the third 180°. Each click adds to the angle shown, so four quarter turns in the same direction bring the GIF back to where it started. Reset sets the angle back to 0°.

  3. Fine-tune the angle

    Drag the Custom angle slider (-180° to 180° in 1° steps) or type a value into the field next to it. Positive values turn clockwise, negative values counter-clockwise. The animated preview turns with every change.

  4. Mirror and pick a background

    Set Flip to Horizontal or Vertical if the picture needs mirroring. If your angle is not a multiple of 90°, choose a Background colour for the corners.

  5. Rotate, check, download

    Click Rotate GIF. When the job finishes, the preview plays the finished GIF and the result card shows its file size. Check it, then click Download. Adjust takes you back to the original with your settings kept; New GIF opens the file picker for the next one.

Rotation settings explained

Quick turns: 90° and 180°
A quarter turn swaps width and height: a 480 × 270 px GIF becomes 270 × 480 px. A 180° turn keeps the size. Nothing is cropped and no border is added. This is the fix for a phone recording or screen capture that plays lying on its side.
Custom angle
Any angle, for example 2° or 3° to level a tilted horizon. An angle that is not a multiple of 90° enlarges the canvas so no corner is cut off: a 480 × 270 px GIF becomes 520 × 350 px at 10° and 531 × 531 px at 45°. The frames are also resampled, which softens thin lines slightly. The slider range of -180° to 180° reaches every orientation.
Flip
Three states: Off, Horizontal and Vertical. Only one flip can be active. Horizontal mirrors left to right, for example when text reads backwards. Vertical mirrors top to bottom. Flip and angle combine freely, and the live preview shows exactly the orientation the finished GIF will have.
Background
Colour picker, black (#000000) by default. It fills the four empty corners that a custom angle creates and has no effect on 90° or 180° turns or on flips. The corners are always filled with a solid colour. To get rid of the corners, rotate first and then trim the edges with Crop GIF.
Live angle and Reset
The number above the quick-turn buttons is the angle that will be applied. Reset only sets the angle back to 0°; Flip and Background keep their values.

What happens to colours, transparency and timing

Every frame is turned the same way and the number of frames stays the same. If you click Rotate GIF with the angle at 0° and Flip on Off, you get an unchanged copy of the file.

Any rotation or flip re-encodes the GIF. The frames are written with a 256-colour palette built from the GIF's own colours, so flat areas, gradients and brand colours stay faithful. Because the frames are compressed again, the file size can change; custom angles also add pixels for the filled corners.

Transparency is kept. A sticker or logo GIF with a see-through background stays see-through; only the corners created by a custom angle are filled with the Background colour.

Timing is kept. Every frame keeps its delay, including a longer pause on the final frame, and the GIF keeps its loop setting, so a GIF made to play only once still plays once.

Formats and limits

Input formats
GIF, animated or single-frame. For PNG, JPG and other still images, use Rotate Image.
Output format
GIF
Maximum file size
200 MB per GIF
Files per job
1
Processing
On our servers with FFmpeg, not in your browser. A job can run for up to 15 minutes.
Watermark
None
Storage
Uploads and results are deleted automatically after 48 hours for guests and after 30 days for free accounts. Paid plans can keep files longer.

Frequently asked questions

Which way do I turn a sideways GIF?

Look at where the top of the picture points. If it points left, turn it 90° clockwise with the second quick-turn button. If it points right, turn it 90° counter-clockwise with the first. If the GIF is upside down, use 180°. The preview shows the new orientation before you start the job.

Why does my rotated GIF have a different file size?

Rotating re-encodes every frame, and a custom angle adds pixels for the filled corners, so the size rarely matches the original exactly. To make the file smaller, run the result through Compress GIF; the rotated GIF is already listed under Uploads.

Does rotating keep a transparent background?

Yes. Transparent pixels stay transparent. Only the corners created by a custom angle are filled with the solid Background colour; for a GIF that will sit on a white page, set Background to white (#ffffff) so the corners blend in.

What is the difference between flipping and rotating?

Rotating turns the picture around its centre; flipping mirrors it. Horizontal swaps left and right, Vertical swaps top and bottom. A vertical flip looks the same as a 180° turn combined with a horizontal flip. Neither changes the order of the frames; to play a GIF backwards, use Reverse GIF.