Resources
Why We Use GIPHY, Not Tenor
Google announced it's shutting down the Tenor GIF API. Here's what happened and why Filmit plugins use GIPHY instead.
Tenor API Shutdown
On January 13, 2026, Google announced the deprecation of the Tenor GIF API. The API will be completely shut down on June 30, 2026.
No new API key signups are being accepted. Existing integrations will stop working after the shutdown date.
What happened?
Google acquired Tenor in 2018. For years, Tenor's GIF API was a popular alternative to GIPHY, used by messaging apps, social platforms, and creative tools worldwide.
In January 2026, Google announced they were shutting down the public API to "redirect engineering resources toward improving the core Tenor website and mobile app experiences." The decision left thousands of developers scrambling for alternatives.
The developer community was not pleased. The announcement came with just a few months' notice, and many apps that depended on Tenor's free API had to rapidly migrate to other services.
Why Filmit uses GIPHY
We made the decision to build on GIPHY's API early on, and the Tenor shutdown validated that choice. Here's why:
GIPHY is owned by Shutterstock, a company whose entire business is built on serving creative professionals. They have a strong incentive to maintain the API.
GIPHY offers a generous free tier (42 searches/hour, 1,000/day) that covers most plugin usage without any cost.
GIPHY has the largest collection of GIFs and stickers on the internet, giving you the best search results.
GIPHY's API has been running for over a decade with consistent uptime and backward compatibility.
No impact on Filmit users
If you use GIFer, ChitChat, or any other Filmit plugin that displays GIFs — you're not affected. Our plugins use GIPHY, not Tenor. Your GIF search will continue to work exactly as it does today.
Tenor API shutdown timeline
Google acquires Tenor
Google announces Tenor API deprecation. No new API key signups.
Tenor API fully shuts down. All integrations stop working.