Best Places to Find and Share GIFs Online

Updated October 2026: This article has been rewritten and expanded with current information.

Animated GIFs are one of the oldest image formats still in everyday use, and also one of the most social. A two-second loop of someone rolling their eyes or a cat falling off a couch can say more in a group chat than a paragraph of text. Most people now pick GIFs from a search box built into their keyboard or messaging app, but behind that box sits a small number of libraries that supply nearly all of the content.

That landscape has changed a lot since this guide was first published in early 2023. Two of the sites on the original list have closed or faded, the biggest GIF library changed owners after a long antitrust fight, and in 2026 Google cut off outside apps from its Tenor library. This updated guide covers where to find and share GIFs today, how the major services differ, and what to keep in mind before you post one.

A quick history of the format

GIF stands for Graphics Interchange Format. CompuServe released it on June 15, 1987, with a team led by computer scientist Steve Wilhite. Each GIF can use a palette of no more than 256 colors, which is why the format works well for simple graphics and looks grainy with photographs. A 1989 revision of the format added frame delays and transparency, and Netscape Navigator 2.0 added looping in 1995. That looping trick is what made the reaction GIF possible.

The format has outlived several obituaries. In 2012, the American division of Oxford University Press named "GIF" its word of the year, in recognition of its use as a verb. Wilhite favored a soft "G" (as in "jif"), though the hard "G" is more common. Today, many services that say "GIF" actually deliver short, silent MP4 or WebM video files, because video compresses far better than the original format. The experience is the same for the viewer, but pages load faster.

The best places to find and share GIFs in 2026

GIPHY

GIPHY is one of the biggest dedicated GIF search engines and the library behind the GIF button in many apps. You can search and share from the website or the mobile apps without an account, and signed-in users can upload their own GIFs and stickers or make simple ones from a video clip. GIPHY also runs a public developer API, which is why its search shows up inside so many third-party apps. Brands and creators can set up verified channels, so official reaction GIFs from TV shows, sports leagues and musicians often come from GIPHY.

GIPHY was founded in New York in February 2013 and has changed hands twice since; the ownership story is covered in its own section below. Since June 2023 it has been owned by the stock-image company Shutterstock.

Tenor

Tenor is Google's GIF library. It powers the GIF button in Gboard, Google Messages and Google Chat, and it has its own website and GIF Keyboard app for Android and iOS. For years it was also the search behind GIF pickers in apps such as Discord, X and WhatsApp. That ended in 2026: Google stopped accepting new API sign-ups in January and shut the Tenor API down for outside developers on June 30, 2026. The Tenor site and Google's own apps still work, but if your favorite non-Google app's GIF results suddenly looked different this summer, that is why.

Imgur

Imgur is an image host with a large community that votes on and comments on posts, and it remains a popular place to upload and link animated clips. It accepts GIFs and converts many of them to video for faster playback. One caveat: since September 30, 2025, Imgur has been unavailable in the United Kingdom. The block followed a UK Information Commissioner's Office investigation into how the site handled children's data, and Imgur images embedded on other websites show a "not viewable in your region" message to UK visitors.

Tumblr

Tumblr has been a home for GIF culture since the early 2010s, especially for fan communities that turn scenes from TV and film into GIF sets. Its built-in GIF search lets you add animations to posts, and its tag pages are a good way to browse GIFs on a specific show, artist or theme. It is still active, and is best treated as a place to follow people who make GIFs rather than a plain search engine.

Reddit hosts several large communities built around animated clips, including r/gifs and r/reactiongifs, plus countless smaller ones for specific interests. Reddit itself does not offer a GIF editor, but it does let you post GIFs and video and, in many communities, add GIFs to comments. It is better for discovering unusual or newly made clips than for quickly finding a reaction.

KLIPY

KLIPY is a newer library of GIFs, stickers, memes and clips that offers its own API to apps. It gained attention in 2026 when Discord, after testing both GIPHY and KLIPY as replacements for Tenor, appeared to settle on KLIPY. It is worth knowing about if you see its name in an app's GIF picker.

Sites from the original list that are gone or uncertain

Gfycat, once known for high-quality, high-frame-rate clips, no longer exists. Snap, which bought it in 2020, shut it down on September 1, 2023, and deleted the content stored there. Many old Reddit and forum links to Gfycat now lead nowhere. The original version of this article also listed GIFbin and GIFCOP; we could not confirm that either still operates as a useful GIF library, so we have removed them from our recommendations.

Service	Best for	Account needed to share?	Status (Oct 2026)
GIPHY	Fast reaction GIF search, official brand GIFs	No (yes to upload)	Active; owned by Shutterstock
Tenor	GIFs inside Google apps and Gboard	No	Active; API closed to non-Google apps June 30, 2026
Imgur	Uploading and linking your own clips	No (yes to post publicly)	Active; blocked in the UK since Sept 30, 2025
Tumblr	Fan-made GIF sets, browsing by tag	Yes to post	Active
Reddit	Discovering new or niche clips	Yes to post	Active
KLIPY	GIFs and stickers inside partner apps	No	Active
Gfycat	High-quality clips (formerly)	n/a	Shut down Sept 1, 2023

Status checked against each service and news reports in October 2026.

How GIPHY went from Facebook to Shutterstock

In May 2020, Facebook agreed to buy GIPHY for a reported $400 million, saying it would fold the library into Instagram. Facebook said other apps would keep the same access to GIPHY's API and that people could still upload GIFs. Even so, the deal raised two worries. One was data: GIPHY's search is embedded in many rival apps, and critics asked whether Facebook could learn about users of those apps through it. The other was competition, since rivals depended on a library that Facebook now controlled.

The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) opened an investigation in June 2020 and blocked full integration while it looked into the deal. In November 2021, it ordered Meta, as Facebook had renamed itself, to sell GIPHY. The CMA was concerned that Meta could cut rivals off from GIPHY or require more user data as a condition of access. Meta appealed. In July 2022 the Competition Appeal Tribunal sent the case back on procedural grounds while upholding most of the decision, and in October 2022 the CMA again ordered the sale. Meta complied, and in May 2023 agreed to sell GIPHY to Shutterstock for $53 million in cash, a fraction of what it paid. The sale closed on June 23, 2023.

From format to platform: key dates

June 15, 1987
CompuServe releases the GIF format.
1995
Netscape Navigator 2.0 adds looping, enabling the endless animated GIF.
February 2013
GIPHY is founded in New York as a GIF search engine.
May 2020
Facebook agrees to buy GIPHY for a reported $400 million; Snap acquires Gfycat the same year.
November 30, 2021
UK CMA orders Meta to sell GIPHY.
October 18, 2022
After a tribunal review, the CMA repeats its order.
June 23, 2023
Shutterstock completes its $53 million purchase of GIPHY.
September 1, 2023
Gfycat shuts down and deletes its content.
September 30, 2025
Imgur becomes unavailable in the UK.
June 30, 2026
Google shuts the Tenor API for non-Google apps.

Sources: Wikipedia (GIF, GIPHY), TechCrunch, BleepingComputer, PC Gamer.

How to share GIFs well

Use the built-in picker first. On phones, the GIF button in Gboard, the iOS Messages image search, or your chat app's own picker is the quickest option and needs no extra app.
Share links, not huge files, when you can. Copying a GIPHY, Tenor or Imgur link lets the recipient's app load an efficient video version instead of a large GIF file.
Making your own? Upload a short video clip to GIPHY or Imgur, or use a free browser converter. Keep it a few seconds long, crop it tightly, and remember the 256-color limit if you export a true GIF file.
Mind copyright and context. Most reaction GIFs are clips of TV shows and films. Casual sharing in chats is widely tolerated, but using them in advertising or on a commercial site can create legal problems. Use official channels or your own footage for anything commercial.
Think about accessibility. Add a short description when your platform allows alt text, and avoid rapidly flashing GIFs, which can affect people with photosensitive conditions.
Save what matters to you. Gfycat's closure showed that hosted clips can disappear. If you made a GIF you care about, keep the original file.

The bottom line

For most people, GIPHY and Tenor cover everyday reaction GIFs, and they are already built into the keyboards and apps you use. Imgur, Tumblr and Reddit are better for discovering creative or niche clips and sharing your own. The services behind your GIF button can change without warning, as Gfycat's shutdown and Tenor's API closure showed, so if a picker suddenly looks different, the library behind it has probably changed.

Sources

Top image: "Woman texting on a smartphone" by Kristin Hardwick, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons (resized). Charts by Thank You Robot.

Best Places to Find and Share GIFs Online

A quick history of the format