The effect of grating dispersion on pulse evolution in a photorefractive self-pumped phase conjugator is analyzed. The broadening factors and the time-dependent phases of self-pumped phase-conjugate pulses of unchirped and chirped Gaussian pulses are obtained. When the grating dispersion and the angular dispersion cancel the material dispersion, the self-pumped phase-conjugate pulse has a minimum width, which is determined by the first-order dispersion of the grating. The self-pumped phase conjugation of an unchirped Gaussian pulse broadens and is linearly chirped whereas the self-pumped phase conjugation of a chirped Gaussian pulse is compressed when the dispersion-induced chirp cancels the initial chirp.