Introducing the gifs.com API

Everyone wishes for something...

"...I wish I could make gifs from vines or instagram videos."

"...I wish I could convert my gifs to optimized HTML5 videos, .webm's, or .mp4's."

"...I wish the transcoding was the fastest in the world."

Your wishes have been granted.

The gifs.com API makes it dead simple to convert and transcode a vast array of media into our HTML5 optimized gifs.com player, a compressed .gif, .webm and .mp4.

Can I see an example?

Example request - try switching out the source with a vine link!

Send us any .gif, .mp4, .webm, .mov, .avi, .flv, giphy, imgur, gfycat, streamable, instagram, twitter, facebook, or vine links and we transcode your media lightning fast and serve it up in our awesome gifs player ⚡️.

Documentation | Examples | Snippets | Get in Touch | FAQs

Media Routes

The media routes allows anyone to add short media from various sources including external URLs and uploading from disk. There is a 150mb size and 30s time limit for all media being added.

Import Endpoint POST https://api.gifs.com/media/import

We support importing the following file mime types:

• image/gif
• video/mp4
• video/webm
• video/avi
• video/x-flv
• video/quicktime

You can also link directly to a giphy, imgur, gfycat, streamable, instagram, twitter, facebook, or vine web page and we'll automagically find the best quality file to import.

Send a POST request with the following schema as content-type: application/json:

Parameter	Type	Required?	Description
source	string	required	The source URL of the media to add
title	string	optional	The title of the media
tags	[]string	optional	The tags relating the the media
nsfw	boolean	optional	If the media is not safe for work
attribution	object	optional	Any attribution you want displayed

Attribution object schema is:

Parameter	Type	Required?	Description
site	string	required	twitter, reddit, instagram, or a custom URL
user	string	optional	The username for social media sites
url	string	optional	The url if site != social media

Example Request

POST /media/import HTTP/1.1
Host: api.gifs.com
gifs-api-key: beta-access-token-monty
Content-Type: application/json
Accept: application/json
Accept-Charset: utf-8
{
 "source": "http://i.imgur.com/WUYpq61.gif",
 "title": "Cat does a front flip",
 "tags": ["cat", "flipping", "cat flip", "amazing cats"],
 "attribution": {
   "site": "twitter",
   "user": "gifsCom"
 }
}

Example Response

HTTP/1.1 201 OK
Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8
{
 "success":{
    "page": "https://gifs.com/gif/wpk4Lw",
    "files": {
        "gif": "https://j.gifs.com/wpk4Lw.gif",
        "jpg": "https://j.gifs.com/wpk4Lw.jpg",
        "mp4": "https://j.gifs.com/wpk4Lw.mp4",
        "webm": "https://j.gifs.com/wpk4Lw.webm"
    },
    "oembed": "https://gifs.com/oembed/wpk4Lw",
    "embed": "<iframe src='https://gifs.com/embed/wpk4Lw' frameborder='0' scrolling='no' width='309' height='291' style='-webkit-backface-visibility: hidden;-webkit-transform: scale(1);' ></iframe>",
    "meta": {
        "duration": "2.61s",
        "frames": "26",
        "height": "291",
        "width": "309"
    }
 }
}

Upload Endpoint POST https://api.gifs.com/media/upload

You can upload image/gif, video/mp4, and video/webm media by sending a POST multipart/form-data request with the following form fields:

Parameter	Type	Required?	Description
file	file	required	The file being uploaded
title	string	optional	The title of the media
tags	[]string	optional	The tags relating the the media
nsfw	boolean	optional	If the media is not safe for work
attribution_site	string	optional	twitter, reddit, instagram, or a custom URL
attribution_user	string	optional	The username for social media sites
attribution_url	string	optional	The url if site != social media

Example Request

curl \
  -F "file=@/media/gifs/awesome.gif" \
  -F "title=The most awesome gif eva" \
  -F "tags=awesome, cool, fun, gnarly" \
  https://api.gifs.com/media/upload

Example Response

HTTP/1.1 201 OK
Content-Type: application/json; charset=utf-8
{
 "success":{
    "page": "https://gifs.com/gif/2k9BMv",
    "files": {
        "gif": "https://j.gifs.com/2k9BMv.gif",
        "jpg": "https://j.gifs.com/2k9BMv.jpg",
        "mp4": "https://j.gifs.com/2k9BMv.mp4",
        "webm": "https://j.gifs.com/2k9BMv.webm"
    },
    "oembed": "https://gifs.com/oembed/2k9BMv",
    "embed": "<iframe src='https://gifs.com/embed/2k9BMv' frameborder='0' scrolling='no' width='640' height='360' style='-webkit-backface-visibility: hidden;-webkit-transform: scale(1);' ></iframe>",
    "meta": {
        "duration": "4.104s",
        "frames": "123",
        "height": "360",
        "width": "640"
    }
 }
}

FAQs

I just made something cool with the gifs API, can you feature it?

Feel free to send a pull request! If it's awesome, we'll merge it into our examples.

What are you adding next?

The gifs API is the foundation for all gifs projects. Up next is:

Captioning and effects! 🔥

Can I help or contribute, or pretty please see a sneak peak?

Oh - yes! We'd love to get some feedback. Please feel free to get in touch with us.