Video to GIF Converter

Video to GIF Converter: Turn a video clip into an animated GIF. Input: Files from your device and values you enter. Output: Results shown on the page and a downloaded GIF file. Privacy: Runs in your browser: inputs and files stay on your device and are not uploaded.

How to convert a video to GIF

1. Drop a video file. It must be a format your browser can play: MP4 (H.264) and WebM work everywhere, MOV works in Safari.
2. Set the start and end time; the first five seconds are selected to begin with. Short clips of 2–6 seconds make the best GIFs.
3. Choose the frame rate and width, and a size limit if the GIF has to fit one. 10–15 fps at 360–480 px wide is a good balance between smoothness and file size. Drag on the frame to crop to the part that matters.
4. Click Make GIF, check the preview and download it. Try Boomerang for a back-and-forth loop.

Keeping GIFs small

GIF is an old format: every frame is stored as a full image with at most 256 colors, so file size grows quickly with width, frame rate and length. Halving the width roughly quarters the size; dropping from 15 to 10 fps saves a third. Dithering scatters pixels to fake smooth gradients and looks better on skies and skin, but compresses worse; turn it off for screen recordings and flat graphics. Many platforms limit GIFs to around 8–15 MB.

Each frame gets its own optimised palette of up to 256 colours, built from the pixels that changed. Pixels that did not visibly change since the previous frame are stored as transparent, and each frame only covers the area that changed, which keeps screen recordings and clips with a still background small. Dithering is applied only in smooth areas such as skies and gradients, never on text or edges. Frames are decoded with your browser's video decoder, so nothing is uploaded and no watermark is added.

Pick a Size limit and the GIF is made again at a smaller width, frame rate or palette until it fits. To show only part of the screen, drag a rectangle on the frame above the settings.