Make a GIF from an MP4 video
This MP4 to GIF converter turns a few seconds of an MP4 into an animated GIF that loops anywhere — in chats, README files, forums, emails and slide decks. Open the video, scrub to the moment you want, set the start and end, and the page grabs the frames, reduces them to a palette and writes the GIF on your own device.
MP4 is the easiest input there is: almost every MP4 holds H.264 video, which every current browser decodes, so phone clips, screen recordings, downloaded videos and exports from editors all open straight away. The work is in choosing what to keep, because GIF is a much older and heavier format than the video it comes from.
How to use the MP4 to GIF Converter
- Drop an MP4 onto the box, or click to choose one. The first frame appears in the preview.
- Drag Scrub (or click the video to play it) and press Set under Start (s) and End (s) — or type the times. Up to 15 seconds can become a GIF.
- Pick a Frame rate and Width (px). The estimate below shows the frame count, pixel size and expected file size.
- Choose Colours, Dithering and Looping, then press Make GIF.
- Check the animation in the preview and press Download GIF.
MP4 to GIF Converter features
Frame-accurate clip
Scrub through the MP4, set in and out points from the current frame, or type times to a tenth of a second.
Size you control
5 to 20 frames per second and widths from 240 to 800 pixels; widths larger than the video are disabled so the GIF never gets blurrier than the source.
Per-frame palettes
Each frame gets its own palette of up to 256 colours, with optional ordered dithering for smooth gradients.
Live size estimate
See frames, dimensions and an approximate file size before encoding, so you can fit a platform’s upload limit first time.
Private
The MP4 is opened by your browser’s own video player; only the small open-source gifenc encoder (MIT licence) is downloaded.
What changes when MP4 becomes GIF
A GIF is usually five to ten times bigger than the MP4 it came from, which is why the clip length, width and frame rate matter so much. If the place you are posting accepts video, a short MP4 looks better and loads faster; use GIF where only an image will do.
| MP4 (H.264) | Animated GIF | |
|---|---|---|
| Colours | Millions (8-bit 4:2:0) | Up to 256 per frame |
| Compression | Predicts frames from each other | Every frame stored separately (LZW) |
| Sound | Yes | No |
| Typical size, 5 s at 480 px | About 0.3–1 MB | About 2–6 MB |
| Plays and loops automatically | Only where the page or app allows it | Almost everywhere |
Best settings for common MP4s
- Screen recordings and app demos: 8–10 fps, 480–640 px, 64 colours, dithering off. Flat interface colours compress very well this way.
- Phone and camera footage: 10–12 fps, 320–480 px, 128–256 colours, dithering on to avoid banding in skies and skin.
- Reaction GIFs: keep it under 3 seconds at 320 px; most chat apps preview small GIFs instantly.
- Trim a long video to the exact moment first with the video cutter if scrubbing a long file is fiddly.
- Already have a GIF that is too big? Shrink it with the GIF compressor, or turn it back into a small video with GIF to video.
MP4 to GIF Converter FAQ
How do I convert an MP4 to a GIF?
Open the MP4 in this MP4 to GIF converter, set the start and end of the clip, choose frame rate, width and colours, then press Make GIF and Download GIF. Everything runs in your browser.
Why is my GIF so much bigger than the MP4?
GIF stores every frame as a full picture with at most 256 colours and cannot reuse unchanged areas the way H.264 does. Shorten the clip, lower the frame rate or width, and use fewer colours to bring the size down.
Can I convert a long MP4?
You can open a long video, but each GIF covers at most 15 seconds (300 frames). Longer GIFs become tens of megabytes and many apps refuse them.
Does the GIF keep the sound?
No. GIF is an image format with no audio track. If you need the sound, share the MP4 itself or extract the audio separately.
My MP4 will not open — why?
A few MP4s use HEVC (H.265) or AV1 video that some browsers cannot play. Try Chrome or Safari, or convert the video to H.264 first with the video converter.
Is the MP4 uploaded?
No. The video is decoded by your browser and the GIF is encoded on your device, so private recordings stay private.