Processed entirely on your device — nothing is uploaded
How to use the video to gif
- 1Drop a video into the box above — MP4, MOV, WebM and AVI all work.
- 2Set the start time and how many seconds of clip you want.
- 3Choose a frame rate and output width.
- 4Press Create GIF and download the result.
Why this makes better GIFs than most converters
GIF is limited to 256 colours per frame. A video frame typically contains tens of thousands. Something has to decide which 256 to keep, and that decision is most of what determines whether the result looks good or looks like it came off a 1998 web page.
A single-pass converter uses a generic web-safe palette, which is why so many GIFs have posterised skies and muddy skin tones. This tool runs two passes: the first analyses your actual clip and generates a palette optimised for the colours it contains, and the second renders the frames using it.
The extra pass roughly doubles the encoding time and is worth it in almost every case. Combined with Bayer dithering — which trades a subtle cross-hatch texture for much smoother gradients — it is about as good as GIF gets.
Keeping the file size under control
GIF has no interframe compression worth the name, so file size scales almost linearly with duration and frame count. A ten-second clip is roughly twice the size of a five-second one, with no economies of scale.
The three levers, in order of effect: length, width, and frame rate. Halving the duration halves the file. Halving the width quarters it, since area scales with the square. Dropping from 24 fps to 12 halves it again, and for most content 12 to 15 fps reads as perfectly smooth — GIF has never been a high-frame-rate format and viewers do not expect it to be.
As a rough guide, five seconds at 480 pixels wide and 12 fps typically lands between 2 and 5 MB depending on how much motion there is. A static shot with a talking head compresses far better than a panning landscape.
When you should not use GIF at all
If the destination is a web page you control, a muted autoplaying MP4 or WebM will be five to ten times smaller than the equivalent GIF at better quality. Every modern browser supports it, and with the loop, muted and playsinline attributes it behaves exactly like a GIF to the viewer.
GIF remains the right choice where a video element is not possible: some chat clients, older email systems, certain forum software, and any context where the content has to behave like an image. Social platforms mostly convert uploaded GIFs to video behind the scenes anyway.
So the practical rule is: use GIF when the platform requires an image that moves, and video everywhere else.
Encoding in a browser tab
This runs ffmpeg compiled to WebAssembly, single-threaded. The core is about 32 MB and downloads once per session, so the first conversion has a noticeable wait before anything appears to happen.
Single-threaded is a deliberate choice rather than an oversight: the multithreaded build requires HTTP headers that isolate the page, and those headers break other things a site needs. Slower encoding is the better trade.
Practically, expect a few seconds per second of clip on a modern laptop, longer on a phone. Keep the tab in the foreground while it works — browsers throttle background tabs aggressively, which can stall the encode.
Frequently asked questions
Why is my GIF so large?
GIF has no meaningful interframe compression. Shorten the clip, reduce the width, or drop the frame rate — width has the biggest effect since file size scales with area.
What frame rate should I use?
12–15 fps looks smooth for most content and halves the size compared with 24. GIF has never been a high-frame-rate format.
Should I use GIF or video?
Video, wherever a video element is possible — it is five to ten times smaller at better quality. Use GIF only where the platform requires an image.
Why does the first conversion take so long?
The ffmpeg WebAssembly core is about 32 MB and downloads once per session. Later conversions start immediately.
What video formats can I use?
Anything ffmpeg reads — MP4, MOV, WebM, AVI, MKV and more.
Is my video uploaded?
No. ffmpeg runs inside your browser tab; the file never leaves your device.