How to Add Text to a GIF
- Add or paste a GIF - Drop a file, click to browse, or paste a GIF from your clipboard (Ctrl+V / Cmd+V).
- Add text layers - Type your caption (press Enter for multiple lines), choose font, size, color, and stroke. Click "+ Add Text" to create a layer.
- Position text - Drag any text layer directly on the preview to move it, or tap where you want it to go. Long captions wrap automatically so they never run off the edge.
- Edit layers - Select a layer to load its settings into the controls, then change anything and watch the preview update live.
- Export - Click "Export GIF with Text" to render and download your captioned GIF.
Three Caption Styles That Always Work
Most captioned GIFs you see online use one of three visual formulas. All three are a couple of clicks in this editor, and the previews below are rendered live in your browser, exactly as CSS, the same way the tool draws them onto your frames:
Meme Style
Classic memeImpact font, white fill, black stroke of 2 to 4 px. Readable on any background. Top or bottom of frame.
like a subtitle
SubtitlePlain font on a dark strip near the bottom. The choice for quotes and reaction dialogue.
caption bar
Caption cardDark text on a white block, the look popularized by social clip accounts. Works best at the top.
Whichever you pick, the same two rules apply: keep the wording short enough to read in one loop, and place it where it will not cover the action.
If Your Export Comes Out Large
Adding text does not itself grow a GIF much, but re-encoding many large frames produces a big file if the source was big. Two fixes, both local: run the result through the GIF Compressor to cut the file size, or the GIF Resizer first to shrink the dimensions before captioning, which also makes the export itself faster.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can I add multiple lines of text?
Yes, two ways: press Enter in the text box to force a line break, or just keep typing, since long captions wrap automatically to fit the GIF's width. You can also add separate layers with independent styles and positions.
How do I move or resize the text?
Drag it directly on the preview with your mouse or finger. Pinch with two fingers to make it bigger or smaller (on desktop, scroll over the preview), or use the Size field for an exact value. Tapping an empty spot moves the selected layer there.
Will the text appear on all frames?
Yes, text layers are applied to every frame of the GIF. The text stays in the same position throughout the animation.
Can I paste a GIF from the web?
On desktop, yes: right-click a GIF online, copy it, then come here and press Ctrl+V (or Cmd+V on Mac). On iPhone and iPad, use the file picker instead, because iOS strips the animation from copied GIFs, so pasting there would only give you a still image.
Why do the fonts look different on iPhone?
iOS does not include Impact, Arial Black, or Comic Sans, so on iPhones and iPads the tool automatically substitutes the closest built-in Apple font for each style: a condensed heavy font for the meme look, a handwritten style for Comic Sans, and so on. Each choice still looks clearly different from the others.
Does adding text involve uploading my GIF?
No upload happens at any stage. The GIF is parsed frame by frame in your browser, the text is drawn onto each frame locally, and the new file is encoded on your device. That includes GIFs that arrive here from our other GIF tools, which travel through your browser's own storage rather than any network.