How to turn a video into a GIF
- Drop an MP4, MOV or WebM file on the box above (up to 500 MB).
- Set the clip: the first 10 seconds are selected to start with. Type new start and end times in seconds — scrub the video preview to find them.
- Choose a Width (640 px suits chat apps and READMEs), a Frames per second value (12 is a good default for screen content) and a Compression level.
- Click Make GIF, check the result next to the video, then Download GIF. Change a setting and click again to compare.
Settings that matter — measured
We converted the same 10-second desktop screen recording (1600 px wide, H.264 in a MOV) with different settings in Chrome. Starting from the defaults — 640 px, 12 fps, Medium compression, 1.12 MB — here is what each change did:
| Change | GIF size | vs default |
|---|---|---|
| Width 480 px | 0.72 MB | −36% |
| Width 800 px | 1.68 MB | +50% |
| 10 fps | 1.01 MB | −10% |
| 20 fps | 1.46 MB | +30% |
| Compression Off | 2.24 MB | +100% |
| Compression Strong | 0.90 MB | −20% |
Frame rate matters less than most guides suggest. Doubling it from 10 to 20 fps doubled the number of frames but grew the file by only 45%, because consecutive frames of a screen recording are nearly identical and the encoder stores just what changed. Width and compression are the big levers.
Which videos open
Decoding uses the video decoder built into your browser, so support depends on the browser and the system rather than on this page. In our tests on a Mac, Chrome and WebKit (the engine behind Safari) both converted H.264 MP4, H.264 MOV, HEVC MOV and VP9 WebM, and every GIF came out exactly as long as the clip — 10.000 seconds for a 10-second selection.
The formats that fail are the ones browsers don’t decode at all, mainly Apple ProRes from editing apps. For those, export an H.264 copy first: in QuickTime Player choose File › Export As › 1080p.
How the GIF is made
The tool takes one frame from the video at each tick of the frame rate you chose — twelve per second at 12 fps — resizes it, and hands it to a GIF encoder. That encoder compares each frame with what is already on screen and writes only the pixels that changed; everything else becomes a transparent “keep what’s there” area that costs almost nothing to store. A light, fixed dither pattern keeps dark UI backgrounds from breaking into bands of colour, which 256-colour GIF palettes otherwise tend to do.
Frame timing is calculated from absolute time rather than by rounding each frame separately. GIF stores delays in hundredths of a second, so 12 fps can’t be exactly 83.3 ms per frame; alternating between 80 and 90 ms keeps the whole GIF the same length as the clip instead of slowly drifting.
When a GIF is the wrong choice
A GIF loops silently and plays anywhere an image can go — READMEs, docs, email, issue trackers. But it has no sound, no seeking and a 256-colour limit, and past 10–15 seconds it gets large quickly. If the place you are posting plays video, keep the MP4. If you already have a GIF that would be better as a video, the GIF to MP4 converter does the reverse, and the GIF Compressor can shrink one you have already made.
