How to Put a GIF in an Email

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GIFs grab attention. They’re fun, visual, and perfect for breaking the scroll. But insert them wrong, and your email ends up in spam, or even never gets delivered. You still don’t know how to incorporate them into your cold emails and newsletters? Here is how to drop a GIF that gets clicks (not complaints)!

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Before You Start – What You Need to Know About GIFs in Emails

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GIFs are awesome, until they ruin your email. Before you start dragging and dropping dancing dogs into your cold outreach or company newsletter, you need to know what you’re getting into. Yes, GIFs can boost clicks, engagement, and attention. But they can also wreck your deliverability, slow down load times, and cause your email to look broken in half of your recipients’ inboxes.

Here’s the reality:

• Not every email client fully supports animated GIFs. Outlook desktop (hello, dinosaurs) still freezes GIFs on the first frame.
• Large GIFs are spam filter bait. Anything over 1MB is risky, as some filters block it on size alone.
• Embedded GIFs in cold emails are a red flag. Cold email is already under scrutiny from spam filters. Add an embedded animation and you’re basically screaming “mark me as spam.”
  
  

If you're doing cold outreach: host the GIF externally and link to it. For newsletters or warm emails? Go for it, and just keep it light, branded, and tested.

But a GIF won’t save you if your domain isn’t trusted. Before you hit “send,” make sure your sender reputation is solid. Mailreach’s Email Warmup helps you build inbox trust fast, so your GIF-filled email actually gets delivered.

Warming up = smarter outreach, so start now!

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Method 1 – How to Insert a GIF in Gmail

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Gmail is GIF-friendly, as long as you know the limits. So it doesn’t matter if you’re sending from your browser or directly from the mobile app, Gmail always makes it relatively simple to insert animated visuals. But you still have to be smart about how you do it. 

So please, don’t just drag a file in and pray for the best. You’ve got to think about file size, hosting method, and how it’s going to render across devices.

Here’s how to do it right on both desktop and mobile:

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On Desktop (Gmail Web)

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This is your best option for inserting GIFs in Gmail. The desktop version gives you full control over how and where your GIFs appear. The cleanest method? Use the image insert tool with a hosted URL.

Why hosted > upload? Because Gmail will compress and reprocess your file when you upload directly, which can degrade quality or way worse: break animation entirely! This is precisely why hosting the GIF externally (e.g., Giphy, your own CDN) will guarantee that the animation will stay crisp and lightweight.

Here are the few steps to follow:

1. Open Gmail, click “Compose”,
2. Click the Insert Image icon in the toolbar,
3. Select “Web Address (URL)”,
4. Paste the link to your hosted GIF,
5. Hit insert—and boom, it’s in.
   
   

Our pro tip: Do not hesitate to use Google Drive or Giphy with public sharing enabled to make sure the GIF is visible to all recipients, even behind firewalls.

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On Mobile (Gmail App)

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The Gmail mobile app doesn't give you the luxury of inserting from a URL. So you’ve got two options:

• Attach the GIF directly from your phone (as a file),
• Paste it inline if your keyboard or clipboard supports rich media.
  
  

But there’s a catch: attached GIFs increase email weight, and the animation may not show up cleanly across all devices. And worse news: large files on mobile = slower loads + higher spam risk.

So please, use this ONLY for warm conversations, internal comms or fun replies, and never for your cold outreach or huge sends. If you absolutely need to use a GIF, then just host it online and paste the link, not the image.

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Method 2 – Add a GIF in Outlook Email

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Outlook is the problem child of email clients when it comes to media. Between the ancient desktop app rendering engine and the inconsistent support across platforms, using GIFs in Outlook is more of a gamble than Gmail or Apple Mail. That said, if you know the rules of the game, you can still win.

Here’s how to work with (not against) Outlook:

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Outlook Web

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This is your safest bet within the Microsoft ecosystem. Outlook Web (Outlook.com) supports inline images, including animated GIFs, fairly well.

Here are the simple steps to follow:

1. Compose a new email,
2. Click Insert > Pictures,
3. Choose either “From this device” or paste in a hosted image URL,
4. Drop in your GIF, preview it, and hit send.
   
   

Keep in mind that Outlook Web tends to preserve animation as long as the file is small and lightweight (under 2MB is safest). Anything bigger might get frozen or not render at all.

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Outlook Desktop App

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Here’s where things get dicey. The Outlook desktop app still uses Word as its rendering engine, which does not fully support animated GIFs in many versions. What that means: your GIF will often display as a static image, just the first frame.

So should you skip it? Not necessarily. You can still insert the GIF for platforms that support it, but you should always test it on the recipient side if they’re likely using Outlook.

Here are the steps:

1. Click Insert > Pictures > This Device,
2. Choose your GIF,
3. It will embed in the email body—but may not animate.
   
   

The best solution: include a fallback CTA or alt text, like “Click here to view the animated version”. Just like that. 

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Outlook Mobile

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Finally, Outlook mobile has limited support, but slightly better than the desktop app in some cases. GIFs may animate—but again, file size and formatting matter.

Best move? Don’t embed the file, and use a hosted link with a preview or static image + CTA.

Why? Less friction. Faster load. More control over the experience.

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Method 3 – Add GIFs in Apple Mail (Mac & iOS)

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Good news: Apple Mail plays nice with GIFs, on both macOS and iOS. Unlike Outlook, it supports looping animation right out of the box. That said, you still need to watch file size and test across clients.

Here are the steps for Mac + iOS:

1. Open a new message,
2. Drag and drop the GIF directly into the email body,
3. It renders inline and plays automatically (loop or single play, depending on the GIF’s settings).
   
   

Simple? Yes. Safe for all campaigns? Not always. Cold emails with embedded media are still risky, even in Apple’s world. So for deliverability’s sake, we still recommend GIF links over embedded media unless you’re sending warm content.

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Pro Tips to Make Your GIF Look Great in Emails

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A great GIF can drive clicks, boost reply rates, or make your message memorable. A bad one? It tanks performance and ruins your credibility.

Here’s how to do it like a pro:

• Keep it under 1MB. Big files = slow emails + higher spam scores. If it takes longer than 2 seconds to load, you're losing people.
• Host it smart. Giphy, Imgur, or your own CDN give you better control and load speed than dragging files into the message.
• Add alt text. This isn’t just for accessibility—it’s a smart fallback in case the image doesn’t load.
• Test before launch. Always preview your email in at least Gmail, Outlook, and Apple Mail. What looks great in one might break in another.
• Use sparingly. One strong GIF > three distracting ones. Let it shine—don’t clutter the screen.
  
  

And please remember: never embed in cold email! Just use hosted preview images + links instead, and everything will work just fine.

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Alternatives – Use GIFs in Email Signatures or Newsletters

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Sometimes the best GIF strategy is passive but powerful. Here is what you can do: use your GIF in places that really support subtle repetition and branding.

And good news, email signatures are perfect for this:

• Animated logos,
• Subtle blinking CTAs (“Book a Call” button with light motion),
• Scroll prompts or micro-interactions.
  
  

Newsletters are another playground, knowing that you can also use GIFs to:

• Highlight product features,
• Animate testimonials,
• Add motion to buttons or section headers.
  
  

The key is balance. Nobody wants to have an email looking like a slot machine, so the solution is to limit yourself to one GIF per message max. That’s it.  

GIFs are fun, until they trigger spam filters. Large files, weird formatting, and sketchy image sources can tank your deliverability. Before sending anything flashy, run your message through the Mailreach Spam Test.

Get a Free Spam Test report right now!

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