Convert video to GIF in your browser
The Video to GIF converter turns a few seconds of any video into an animated GIF without uploading the file anywhere. Open an MP4, WebM or MOV, scrub to the moment you want, set the start and end points, choose a frame rate, width and number of colours, and press Make GIF. The frames are grabbed from the video, reduced to a palette and encoded on your own device.
It is ideal for reaction GIFs from a phone clip, short product demos for a README or support article, animated previews for a tweet or a chat, and tutorials where a 5-second loop explains more than a screenshot. Because GIF is a 256-colour format with no audio, the controls here are about finding the balance between smoothness, size and sharpness — the live estimate helps you stay under the limits of wherever you are posting.
How to use the Video to GIF
- Drop a video onto the box or click to choose one. The first frames load into the preview.
- Drag the Scrub slider (or click the video to play) to find your clip, then use the Set buttons or type the Start and End times in seconds. Up to 15 seconds can be converted.
- Choose a Frame rate — 10 fps is a good default — and a Width; the height follows the video’s aspect ratio.
- Pick a colour count and whether to dither. Fewer colours and no dithering make a much smaller file.
- Press Make GIF, wait for the progress bar, check the preview and press Download GIF.
Video to GIF features
Precise clip selection
Scrub frame by frame, set in and out points from the current frame, or type exact times to a tenth of a second.
Frame rate and size control
5 to 20 frames per second and widths from 240 to 800 pixels, with upscaling blocked so GIFs never look blurrier than the source.
Per-frame palettes
Every frame gets its own optimised palette of up to 256 colours, so colours stay accurate even as the scene changes.
Optional dithering
Ordered dithering smooths gradients and skies at low colour counts; switch it off for flat graphics and the smallest files.
Live size estimate
See the clip length, frame count, pixel size and an estimated file size before you encode.
Loop settings
Loop forever, play once, or play three times — the setting is written into the GIF so it behaves the same everywhere.
How to keep a GIF small
GIF size grows with frames × pixels × colours. A 400 px wide, 10 fps, 5-second GIF with 128 colours is typically 2–4 MB; the same clip at 20 fps and 640 px can be 15 MB. These settings have the biggest effect:
- Shorten the clip. Every second at 10 fps adds ten full frames. Most great GIFs are 2–4 seconds long.
- Lower the frame rate. 10 fps looks smooth enough for most motion; 5–8 fps works for slow movement or screen recordings.
- Reduce the width. Halving the width quarters the number of pixels. 320–480 px is plenty for chat and social media.
- Use fewer colours. 64 colours is often indistinguishable from 256 for video; 32 suits screen recordings and cartoons.
- Turn off dithering for flat graphics. Dithering adds high-frequency noise that compresses poorly.
- If the result is still too big, compress a still image instead with the Image Compressor, or trim the clip in a tighter crop before converting.
Platform limits worth knowing
Limits change often; check the platform’s help page if a file is rejected.
| Platform | GIF limit (approx.) |
|---|---|
| X / Twitter | 15 MB on web, 5 MB on mobile |
| Discord | 8 MB without Nitro (uploads); larger files are converted |
| Slack | 1 GB upload, but previews stop animating above a few MB |
| GitHub README / issues | 10 MB per file |
| Converts GIFs to video; keep under 16 MB | |
| Keep under 1–2 MB so it loads inline |
GIF versus a short video
GIF is popular because it autoplays and loops in almost every app, but it is an inefficient format from 1989: no more than 256 colours per frame, no audio, and compression that cannot exploit similarities between frames the way video codecs do. A 3 MB GIF often carries the same clip as a 200 KB MP4. If the destination supports autoplaying video — most social networks and messaging apps now do — a trimmed MP4 or WebM will look better and load faster. Use GIF where only GIF works: README files, some forums and chat apps, and places where you cannot control the player. To extract just the sound from a clip instead, use Video to Audio.
Video to GIF FAQ
Is this video to GIF converter free?
Yes. It is free with no account, no watermark and no limit on how many GIFs you make. Conversion runs in your browser.
Is my video uploaded to a server?
No. The video is opened by your browser’s own player, frames are drawn onto a canvas and the GIF is encoded locally. Only the small encoder script (about 9 KB) is fetched from a CDN.
Why is there a 15-second limit?
A GIF stores every frame as a full image, so long clips become enormous — a 30-second clip at 10 fps would be 300 frames and tens of megabytes. Fifteen seconds (up to 300 frames) keeps files practical and encoding fast on phones.
Why does my GIF look grainy or speckled?
That is dithering, which simulates more colours by mixing pixels. Increase the colour count to 256 for smoother results, or turn dithering off for a cleaner look on flat graphics.
Can I make a GIF from a YouTube video?
The tool works with video files on your device, not with links. Download or record the clip first, then open the file here.
Which video formats are supported?
Anything your browser can play: MP4 with H.264, WebM (VP8, VP9, AV1) and most MOV files from phones. AVI, WMV, MKV and HEVC files usually need converting to MP4 first.