Video to GIF
Turn any video clip into an animated GIF without uploading the file. Trim the exact moment, pick width, frame rate and quality — frames are extracted and encoded in this tab, so your footage never leaves your machine, and there is no watermark.
Heads up: GIF encoding is CPU-heavy — every frame is quantized to 256 colors in this tab. Short clips fly; a 30-second clip at 15 fps can take a minute or two and will warm up a modest device. Your files never leave this tab.
Drop a video file
or drop anywhere on this page · Choose a file · 100 MB
Accepted: MP4, M4V, MOV, WebM, MKV, AVI, WMV, ASF, FLV, 3GP, 3G2, MPG, MPEG, M2V, VOB, TS, M2TS, MTS, OGV, MXF, DV, F4V, RM, RMVB, DIVX
How does Video to GIF work?
A GIF is a flipbook: a short stack of still images, each reduced to 256 colors, played back in a loop. Professional converters do it with ffmpeg; this page does it with the two media APIs every modern browser ships — the video element for decoding and the canvas for grabbing frames — plus a small GIF encoder written for this tool.
How the pipeline works
Your video is seeked through the trimmed range frame by frame at the chosen frame rate, and each frame is painted to a canvas. All frames are then quantized together with median-cut into one shared 256-color palette (High adds Bayer dithering so gradients don't band), each frame is mapped to palette indices, and the indices are compressed with LZW — the same compression GIF has used since 1989. A NETSCAPE looping extension makes the result loop forever.
Why GIFs are small — and when they aren't
GIF only stores 256 colors per frame and compresses flat areas brilliantly, which is why cartoons and screen recordings shrink to almost nothing. Noisy camera footage with film grain barely compresses — that is the format's honest limit, not a bug in the tool. The 30-second cap, 640 px width cap and 450-frame cap keep the output shareable and your tab alive.
Formats, honestly stated
The page accepts what your browser can decode — MP4 (H.264), WebM and MOV cover essentially everything people have. The output is always an animated GIF89a, which plays everywhere: chats, docs, and every social network.
Example input
clip.mp4 — the 3-second celebration moment
Example output
clip.gif — 480 px wide, 10 fps, looping forever
What options and edge cases does Video to GIF support?
| Parameter | Type | Default | Behaviour & edge cases |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trim the clip | start / end sliders | First 5 s | The exact window converted; capped at 30 seconds. |
| Width | 320 / 480 / 640 px | 480 px | Output width; height follows the source aspect ratio. |
| Frame rate | 5 / 10 / 15 fps | 10 fps | Higher is smoother but makes bigger files; 10 fps is the sweet spot for most clips. |
| Quality | High / Medium / Low | High | High: full 256-color palette with dithering. Medium: 256 colors, lighter. Low: 128 colors, no dithering, smallest files. |
Frequently asked questions
Is my video uploaded anywhere?
No. The decode, the frame extraction and the GIF encoding all run in this tab — the video element, a canvas and a purpose-built encoder are all local. Your files never leave this device.
How long can the GIF be?
30 seconds at most, and 450 frames total. GIF is a flipbook format from 1989 — it was never meant for movies. For anything longer, Compress Video is the better tool; for a perfect loopable moment, this is it.
Why does my GIF look posterized?
GIF stores at most 256 colors per image, so smooth gradients band — that is the format, not a bug. The High quality setting applies ordered dithering, which breaks banding into film-like grain and looks dramatically better on gradients and skin tones.
Why is my GIF file so big?
GIF compresses flat areas well and noise badly. Screen recordings and cartoons shrink to almost nothing; grainy phone footage barely compresses. Lower the frame rate to 5 fps, drop to 320 px, or pick Low quality — each roughly halves the file.
Will it loop forever?
Yes. The encoder writes the NETSCAPE looping extension, so the GIF repeats indefinitely everywhere — chats, browsers, and presentation tools.
What is the difference between GIF and WebM/MP4?
GIF plays as an image with no player controls and works absolutely everywhere, but it is limited to 256 colors and bigger files. If you need small files with full color, Compress Video produces MP4/WebM instead — same tab, same privacy.
Which related tools should I use next?
- Compress VideoShrink video to 10 MB for Discord or 25 MB for email, in the browser.
- Add Music to VideoPut a soundtrack under your video, or strip its audio, in the browser.
- Upscale ImageEnlarge photos 2×–8× with a true Lanczos resampler and live 1:1 preview.
- Convert ImageJPG, PNG, WebP and AVIF, with transparency handled properly.