Got questions about JSON Animation Viewer or Lottie animations in general? Here are answers to the most common questions we receive.
JSON Animation Viewer is a free, browser-based tool that lets you preview Lottie JSON animation files instantly. You can drag and drop a .json file onto the viewer or click to select one from your device. The animation plays immediately, and you can adjust its size using a built-in slider. No installation, no sign-up, and no file uploads to any server. Everything runs locally in your browser.
Lottie is an open-source animation format originally developed by Airbnb. Animations are created in tools like Adobe After Effects and exported as lightweight JSON files using the Bodymovin plugin. These JSON files describe every frame, layer, shape, and keyframe of the animation in a structured data format. Lottie players (like lottie-web for browsers or lottie-ios/lottie-android for mobile) read this data and render the animation in real time. The result is smooth, scalable, vector-based animation that looks crisp on any screen size and loads much faster than traditional GIFs or video files.
Yes, completely. JSON Animation Viewer processes your files entirely within your browser using client-side JavaScript. Your animation files are never uploaded to any server. There's no backend, no database, and no cloud storage involved. When you close the browser tab, your animation data is gone from memory. This makes the tool safe for previewing proprietary animations, client work, and confidential design assets. You can verify this yourself by checking the network tab in your browser's developer tools while using the viewer.
JSON Animation Viewer supports standard Lottie JSON files with the .json extension. These are typically exported from Adobe After Effects using the Bodymovin plugin, but any tool that outputs valid Lottie JSON data will work. This includes animations from LottieFiles, Haiku Animator, and various Figma-to-Lottie plugins. The viewer does not currently support dotLottie (.lottie) files, which are a compressed container format. If you have a .lottie file, you'll need to extract the JSON from it first using a tool like the LottieFiles converter.
There are a few common reasons an animation might fail to load:
Yes. JSON Animation Viewer is fully responsive and works on mobile devices and tablets. The interface adapts to smaller screens, and you can tap the file select button to choose a JSON file from your device's storage. Drag and drop also works on devices that support it. Performance depends on your device's processing power, but most modern smartphones handle Lottie animations smoothly since the format is designed to be lightweight.
The most common workflow starts in Adobe After Effects. Design your animation using shapes, paths, and keyframes, then install the Bodymovin plugin to export it as a Lottie JSON file. There are also alternative tools: LottieFiles has a browser-based editor, Haiku Animator provides a standalone application, and several Figma plugins can convert designs to Lottie format. For a detailed walkthrough, check out our blog post on how to create Lottie animations step by step.
Lottie animations outperform GIFs in almost every measurable way. File sizes are typically 5 to 10 times smaller because Lottie uses vector data instead of rasterized frames. Lottie animations scale to any resolution without losing quality, while GIFs become pixelated when enlarged. You can control Lottie animations programmatically (play, pause, reverse, change speed, respond to user interactions), which isn't possible with GIFs. Lottie also supports transparency without the file size penalty that comes with transparent GIFs. The only area where GIFs still have an edge is universal support: GIFs work everywhere without any library, while Lottie requires a player library. Read our detailed Lottie vs GIF comparison for more.
Yes, completely free with no hidden costs. There are no premium tiers, no usage limits, and no feature gates. You can preview as many animations as you want, as often as you want. The project is also open source, so you can inspect the code, contribute improvements, or fork it for your own use. Visit our GitHub repository to see the source code.
JSON Animation Viewer is an open-source project licensed under the MIT License. You're free to fork the repository and adapt it for your own needs. However, the viewer isn't designed as an embeddable widget. If you want to display Lottie animations on your own website, consider using the lottie-web library directly. It gives you full control over playback, styling, and interaction. For React projects, libraries like lottie-react or @lottiefiles/react-lottie-player provide convenient component wrappers.
Several platforms offer free Lottie animations for personal and commercial use. LottieFiles is the largest marketplace with thousands of free animations. IconScout, Lordicon, and useAnimations also provide free Lottie files. Always check the license terms before using an animation in a commercial project. Some animations require attribution, while others are fully free under permissive licenses. For a curated list, see our blog post on the best Lottie animation resources for developers.
If your question isn't answered here, feel free to open an issue on our GitHub Issues page. We read every issue and respond as quickly as we can. You can also browse existing issues to see if someone else has already asked the same question.