Eric Binnion

One of those blog things

How to download a gif from Giphy

Recently, when I was trying to download a gif file from Giphy, I noticed that when I went directly to the file, https://media.giphy.com/media/14kdiJUblbWBXy/giphy.gif for example, that it was actually loading a web page instead of the gif file.

Now, on this page, you could choose to alternative/right click on the image and then click “Save Image”. But, this will download the image with a .webp extension. From there, you can choose to change the extension to .gif if you’d like. But, I’ll be honest and tell you that I didn’t consider switching the extension at first. So, I dug further.

I figured that Giphy was probably detecting that based on who/where the request was coming from, so I tried downloading the gif file by running a cURL command. This worked, but it’s not convenient to have to open up a terminal window to run a cURL command.

Luckily, a kind person left a very helpful comment below with an even simpler approach, which I think is the simplest approach overall.

Simple approach

When we go to a standard Giphy source URL, like https://media.giphy.com/media/14kdiJUblbWBXy/giphy.gif, a web page is loaded instead of the gif that we want. Now, the only thing we have to change for the actual gif to load is to change media.giphy.com to i.giphy.com.

So, if we take the above example, we could load the actual gif by going to https://i.giphy.com/media/14kdiJUblbWBXy/giphy.gif

From here, we can alternate/right click to download the gif with the correct extension and go on about our day.

Downloading via cURL

curl https://media.giphy.com/media/KXgJsSeOfvSgg/giphy.gif --output ~/Desktop/download.gif

This resulted in the actual gif file that I wanted being placed on my Desktop as download.gif.

?
?

76 responses to “How to download a gif from Giphy”

  1. Daniel B Avatar
    Daniel B

    Thanks for this. I dont know why Giphy just doesn’t allow you to get a GIF file as need, instead they force another format. The command worked as expected.

    Reply
    1. ??? Avatar
      ???

      I’m on the computer and I just right-clicked and clicked “save image as…” It saved the gif as a gif and not an image

      Reply
      1. Matt Avatar
        Matt

        This works, but when I upload it to my WordPress site the gif displays as a static image?

        Reply
        1. Eric Binnion Avatar
          Eric Binnion

          Embed it at full size and it should work as an animated gif as expected.

          Reply
        2. Peter Payne Avatar
          Peter Payne

          This is likely a WEBP that’s pretending to be a GIF. I have a FFMPEG script that fixes these for me when I find one.

          Reply
    2. Jssaab Avatar
      Jssaab

      Don’t open the gif, download from the thumbnail, right click save as gif… easy peasy

      Reply
  2. Tocakyca Avatar
    Tocakyca

    You are the greatest man, thank you

    Reply
  3. Ian Avatar
    Ian

    Thank you!

    Reply
  4. Joe Avatar
    Joe

    OK, noob question, but is running a cURL command different than pasting into a browser? Instead of a download, I’m directed to search results on that address. (Tried three browsers and several default search engines) . Thanks!

    Reply
    1. Eric Binnion Avatar
      Eric Binnion

      Hi Joe – Yes, running a cURL command is different than pasting into the browser. On a Mac, you’ll need to run this from the Terminal app, or some other similar program. If you’re on a PC, there should be an equivalent there as well, though I haven’t had a PC in a while.

      Reply
      1. Joe Avatar
        Joe

        Awesome (or as Keanu would say it, “Whoa”) . https://media.giphy.com/media/daAsPFgZkW9iM/giphy.gif
        Thanks!

        Reply
    2. test Avatar
      test

      Ya they properly check request header with the origin flag

      Reply
  5. Brad Avatar
    Brad

    Baller. Exactly what I wanted.

    Reply
  6. Tosin Alabi Avatar
    Tosin Alabi

    Hello how can I do this for Mac Os

    Reply
    1. Eric Binnion Avatar
      Eric Binnion

      Hello Tosin,

      Open up the “Terminal” app, copy and paste the command above (being sure to replace the URL with that of the GIF that you want) into the “Terminal” app, then hit enter. Afterwards, the GIF should be available on your Desktop.

      Reply
  7. Charla Carlat Avatar
    Charla Carlat

    I right clicked on the Gif from Giphy > Save to (Google) Keep> Then from Keep, Right clicked gif then > Save. It default saves as .gif. I have a label created for GIFS in Keep. You can also do this for your Google Drive but may have to go through keep first. Of course you have to have the Google Keep Extension and chrome app. If you don’t have Keep, you should. BTW- Did this from PC Windows…. More than one way to skin a fish.

    Reply
  8. Barbara Avatar
    Barbara

    You rock!!!!!

    Reply
  9. Redneval Avatar
    Redneval

    Really appreciated, my man!!

    Reply
  10. Ben Avatar
    Ben

    Oh my god, thank you so much, that was clear and to the point, even for non-tech people 🙂

    Reply
  11. LS Avatar
    LS

    ???? Dude! MUCH APPRECIATED!

    Reply
  12. Peter Avatar
    Peter

    % Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current
    Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed
    0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 –:–:– –:–:– –:–:– 0Warning: Failed to create the file ~/Desktop/download.gif: No such file or
    Warning: directory
    0 1201k 0 5484 0 0 5484 0 0:03:44 –:–:– 0:03:44 167k
    curl: (23) Failed writing body (0 != 5484)

    i got this only

    Reply
    1. Brigid Avatar
      Brigid

      I also got this message when trying to run the cmd prompt in Windows.

      Reply
  13. JAKE Avatar
    JAKE

    ALTERNATELY, RIGHT CLICK THE GIF AND CHOOSE SAVE IMAGE AS…… ******FACEPALM

    Reply
    1. Levy Avatar
      Levy

      We don’t want the image, we want the gif.

      Reply
      1. Eric Binnion Avatar
        Eric Binnion

        Hey Levy,

        A gif is a type of image. If you right click and “save image as”, you should be able to save the animated gif file.

        Reply
        1. Dee Avatar
          Dee

          It saves as a still image, but thanks.

          Reply
  14. Maddy Avatar
    Maddy

    Hi Eric, Thanks. I am on a Mac-book. What is a cURL and where do I find the “TERMINAL” that you refer to?

    Reply
    1. Yuki Avatar
      Yuki

      go into your launchpad, and terminal should be in there. Mine was inside launchpad, in an “Others” folder

      Reply
  15. KNN Avatar
    KNN

    Just disable java script

    Reply
  16. CapnFatback Avatar
    CapnFatback

    Another hack seems to be if you replace the “https://media” in a link with “i,” you get a direct link to the gif that can be dragged to the desktop. For example, turn
    https://media.giphy.com/media/vLruErVSYGx8s/giphy.gif
    into
    i.giphy.com/media/vLruErVSYGx8s/giphy.gif

    Tally ho!

    Reply
    1. Eric Binnion Avatar
      Eric Binnion

      This is beautiful! Thanks for leaving a comment with the suggestion.

      Reply
    2. Ben Avatar
      Ben

      You YES YOU! This rocks.

      Reply
  17. Beth Coller Avatar
    Beth Coller

    I’m having the same issue- the file is downloading as a web page when I right click on it. I tried your command and it downloaded a file that is a .gif, but when I open it, it opens in preview and just shows all the photos as layers. I tried in in photoshop as well and it did the same thing. Thanks for your help,

    Reply
    1. Eric Binnion Avatar
      Eric Binnion

      Instead of opening in preview, try opening in a browser like Chrome. This should play the gif file for you.

      Reply
    2. Yuki Avatar
      Yuki

      Hello, I was struggling with that for a while because everytime i open the gif I downloaded, it just opened up each frames as images, but I then realized it’s only doing that because Mac’s opening the file in Preview, and it can’t display gifs. Just ignore that, your file is still a gif, and if you send it to someone/somewhere, it will still display as a moving gif.

      Reply
  18. HarbroHouse Avatar
    HarbroHouse

    What a great piece of expert advice.
    Key to the whole thing for Mac Users is this:
    Open up the “Terminal” app, copy and paste the command above (being sure to replace the URL with that of the GIF that you want) into the “Terminal” app, then hit enter. Afterwards, the GIF should be available on your Desktop.
    I had never come across Terminal before (in fact nore anything else in the utilities folder).
    Thank you for the knowhow.

    Reply
  19. Rosa Developer Avatar
    Rosa Developer

    Thank you so much! It worked 🙂

    Reply
  20. Tex Avatar
    Tex

    ¡Genial truco, gracias por compartir!

    Reply
  21. Harry Avatar
    Harry

    Worked for me too..!! Nice find mate.

    Reply
  22. DLeeWHP Avatar
    DLeeWHP

    Thank you!!!

    Reply
  23. Greegore Avatar
    Greegore

    i.giphy.com worked perfectly. Thank you for this:)

    Reply
  24. Skaffa Avatar
    Skaffa

    On windows you can just type this in your search bar; https://i.giphy.com/media/INSERT GIF URL HERE/giphy.gif

    From there you just get the raw GIF that you can save, drag or whatever else you may want to do with it

    Reply
  25. Elijah Ayandokun Avatar
    Elijah Ayandokun

    Thanks man…..
    This really saved me a lot of stress.
    I’m so grateful

    Reply
  26. Nick Willis Avatar
    Nick Willis

    Cheers i was trying for ages to figure out how to download gifs from giphy

    Reply
  27. Rob Avatar
    Rob

    Thanks a lot!! Choose the option for replacing “media” with “I”. Still works like a charm
    i.giphy.com/media/m2Q7FEc0bEr4I/giphy.gif

    Reply
  28. Edith Valle Avatar
    Edith Valle

    Thanks a lot!

    Reply
  29. Caissa Avatar
    Caissa

    I appreciate this!

    Reply
  30. A Numann Avatar
    A Numann

    In the save as window, use quotation marks to force the extension – “filename.gif” – this should tell the OS to ignore the .webp part. Works in Windows 10.

    Reply
  31. Kyle Avatar
    Kyle

    Thank you so much!

    Reply
  32. Alexander Danilchenko Avatar
    Alexander Danilchenko

    Thanks! You have just saved me hours

    Reply
  33. Miska Rauma Avatar
    Miska Rauma

    Thanks man. You are a hero.

    Reply
  34. Milena Avatar
    Milena

    Thank you!!

    Reply
  35. cahyo Avatar
    cahyo

    Amazing, great, you are my hero

    Reply
  36. Beven Spangenberg Avatar
    Beven Spangenberg

    Thanks… so simple and it works!

    Reply
  37. arvek Avatar
    arvek

    Thank you

    Reply
  38. Cate Lee Avatar
    Cate Lee

    OMG! Thank u!

    Reply
  39. Rohaan Avatar
    Rohaan

    THANK YOU SO MUCH !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
    +REP
    +REP
    +REP
    +REP
    +REP
    +REP

    Reply
  40. Duaffy Avatar
    Duaffy

    I WISH I COULD HUG YOU!! Thank you so much 🙂

    Reply
  41. Tamil News Avatar
    Tamil News

    i just got this error

    curl https://media.giphy.com/media/KXgJsSeOfvSgg/giphy.gif –output ~/Desktop/download.gif
    % Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current
    Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed
    0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 –:–:– –:–:– –:–:– 0Warning: Failed to create the file ~/Desktop/download.gif: No such file or
    Warning: directory
    0 793k 0 1371 0 0 1371 0 0:09:52 0:00:01 0:09:51 1253
    curl: (23) Failed writing body (0 != 1371)

    C:\Users\Nixs News Tamil>curl https://media.giphy.com/media/KXgJsSeOfvSgg/giphy.gif –output ~/Documents/download.gif
    % Total % Received % Xferd Average Speed Time Time Time Current
    Dload Upload Total Spent Left Speed
    0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 –:–:– –:–:– –:–:– 0Warning: Failed to create the file ~/Documents/download.gif: No such file or
    Warning: directory
    0 793k 0 4113 0 0 4113 0 0:03:17 –:–:– 0:03:17 4621
    curl: (23) Failed writing body (0 != 4113)

    how to overcome this

    Reply
  42. Diwakaran Avatar
    Diwakaran

    hi i just did in another method… if is useful kindly include in post..

    i used online wepb to gif convertor to download it by entering url of giphy media

    Reply
  43. Guy Eshet Avatar
    Guy Eshet

    right on, thanks a million!

    Reply
  44. MGF Avatar
    MGF

    The simple approach worked great. It took me a bit to figure out I needed to paste the Giphy URL into a browser bar in order to edit it they way you describe before I copied and pasted it into my Shopify email marketing image upload section. Much appreciated.

    Reply
  45. Jabybiam Avatar
    Jabybiam

    Bwahahahahahaaaa. screw you Giphy.. this works perfectly FINALLY back to being normal. Thank you!

    Reply
  46. Dan A Lambeth Avatar
    Dan A Lambeth

    The URLs I get from Giphy.com have a totally different format. If I copy the link address, I get https://giphy.com/gifs/starwars-movie-star-wars-l1AsPDzmgSdwDG7v2. If I copy the image address, I get https://media0.giphy.com/media/l1AsPDzmgSdwDG7v2/100.webp?cid=ecf05e473qpyr8bd70odw41c0wmy2wzbvfj28og204g5q5yt&rid=100.webp&ct=g. If I copy the image, I get something that I can’t even paste into here. Do you have advice on how to mangle either of the above style URLs into something Google Slides likes? thanks.

    Reply
    1. Jason Avatar
      Jason

      I was able to simply replace the first part of the url that says “media0.giphy…” with just the “i.giphy… and this method worked once more! ;P

      Reply
  47. John Randall Wilson Avatar
    John Randall Wilson

    There is no save image as option….WTF?

    Why does this website make it so fucking hard to just download a simple .gif file???? GRRRRRRRRRRR

    Reply
  48. Andreea Avatar
    Andreea

    I don’t know who you are or where you’re from BUT OMG THANK YOU SO MUCH!
    So helpful!

    Reply
  49. Ashleigh G Avatar
    Ashleigh G

    I’m on a desktop and changed the format to “i.giphy.com” but when I right click on the giphy it isn’t giving me a download option

    Reply
  50. Mirella Avatar
    Mirella

    Thank you kind human for this!

    Best

    Reply
  51. Agustina Lorenzo Avatar
    Agustina Lorenzo

    THANK YOU!!!!Q

    Reply
  52. Priyanshu Bharadwa Avatar
    Priyanshu Bharadwa

    Thank you so much!! I am editing a video and I needed this MEME! God bless you! ^_^

    Reply
  53. Monica Avatar
    Monica

    I’m on Android and what worked for me was clicking the 3 dots (…) under the gif and it pops out and lists the tags used and the options to report the gif or cancel. Long click the gif here to download and it gives it to you in .gif form.

    Reply
  54. Erik Avatar
    Erik

    Thanks you soo much for this tip I was going crazy trying to find how to do this on the web no where is there info on how to do this with mobile or on android when I tired to search for it send gifs as a message and always convert webd to pic every time

    Reply
  55. David Avatar
    David

    Thanks!! 🙂

    Reply
  56. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    I absolutely adore you Eric! Now I can add a testimonial wall to my client’s website which from his customers that post primarily videos from IG.

    Reply
  57. Primal. Avatar
    Primal.

    The “i.giphy” method no longer works on Android. It just results in the same “webp” files. I suspect Giphy has updated their site to stop regular people downloading gifs from their gif website.

    Reply

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.