PixelArtHive

PixelArtHive is deliberately not an AI tool. It shrinks your image to a grid you choose, 16, 32, 64 or 128 pixels across or any width, and reduces it to a set number of colors. Run the same image with the same settings and you get the same pixels back, which matters if you're making sprites for a game and need them to stay consistent.

Most of the control is in the colors. You can pick anywhere from 2 to 64 and let the converter choose them, then click individual colors to lock them so they stay when you lower the count. Or apply a full palette: NES, Game Boy, PICO-8, Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum, artist sets like Sweetie 16 and Endesga 32, a Lospec palette link, or one you add yourself. The palette list previews your image in each one before you commit. Dithering, with eight error-diffusion methods or a Bayer 4×4 pattern, smooths out skies and other gradients. The site's own advice is to leave it off for logos and flat drawings.

Downloads are sharp-edged PNGs at the original size, an enlarged version with grid lines and edge coordinates for printing, or an Aseprite file. Animated GIFs work too. If you already drew something, you can upload it just to add a grid without changing any pixels.

The Pixel Art Upscaler goes the other way. Give it an enlarged copy of a sprite and it rebuilds it at its native size, or scales existing pixel art up cleanly. A Minecraft Pixel Art Generator turns an image into a block plan.

It's free, with no sign-up and no watermark. The privacy policy, updated November 1, 2026, says images are decoded and processed in your browser and never uploaded, and palettes you add stay in your browser's local storage. Importing by link is the one exception. Your browser fetches the image straight from that host, which has to allow it. Video files such as MP4s aren't supported, and the result depends heavily on the source. The site suggests cropping to the subject and keeping the background simple. PixelArtHive is run by one person in Los Angeles.