Video to GIF

What this tool does

Video to GIF converts a section of an MP4, WebM, MOV or MKV file into a looping animated GIF. It builds an optimised 256-colour palette from your clip first, so skin tones and gradients look far cleaner than a one-pass conversion, and it lets you trade quality against file size with frame rate, width and colour settings.

GIFs still work in places that refuse video: README files, documentation, email newsletters, chat apps and many issue trackers. The catch is that the GIF format is old. Each frame can hold at most 256 colours and there is no inter-frame compression of the kind modern codecs use, so a careless conversion produces either banded, speckled colours or a file of 30 MB for ten seconds of footage.

This converter runs a WebAssembly build of FFmpeg inside your browser. It samples your clip to generate a palette tuned to that footage (palettegen), then maps every frame onto that palette with the dithering method you choose (paletteuse), and only redraws the rectangle that changed between frames. The video never leaves your device; the only download is the engine itself, about 31 MB the first time, which your browser then caches.

How to use Video to GIF

1. Drop a video file onto the upload area or click to choose one.
2. Play the preview and use “Set start to current time” and “Set end to current time” to mark the clip, or type Start time and End time in seconds.
3. Pick a preset (Small, Balanced, High quality) or set Frame rate, Width, Colours and Dithering yourself.
4. Leave “Loop forever” on for a classic repeating GIF, or switch it off to play once.
5. Click Create GIF and watch the progress bar; use Cancel if you want to change settings.
6. Preview the animation, compare the file size, then click Download.

Tips for better results

• Width has the biggest effect on size: halving the width roughly quarters the number of pixels per frame.
• 10 to 12 fps looks smooth for screen recordings and reactions; 20 fps or more is only worth it for fast motion.
• Use “None” dithering for flat UI captures and diagrams, and Sierra for footage with skies or skin gradients.
• Keep clips under about 15 seconds. If you need longer, a muted MP4 is usually a tenth of the size and plays almost everywhere.

Common use cases

• Showing a software feature in a GitHub README or a help-centre article.
• Making a reaction GIF from a short phone video.
• Adding a product demo loop to an email campaign where video is not supported.
• Turning a screen recording into an animated step for a tutorial.

Common mistakes to avoid

• Converting a whole minute of 1080p video: the result can exceed 50 MB and many platforms reject GIFs over 10 to 15 MB.
• Using 256 colours and high frame rate together for a chat sticker, when 64 colours at 10 fps looks almost identical at a fraction of the size.
• Expecting sound: the GIF format has no audio track, so any audio in the video is discarded.