Video to GIF Converter

Turn Any Video into a GIF in Your Browser

"How do I make a GIF from a video?" Upload any clip — MP4, WebM, MOV, MKV, or M4V — capture the frames you want, and export a looping animated GIF without installing anything. Everything runs locally in your browser, so the video file never leaves your device.

How to Convert a Video to a GIF

There are three practical ways to turn a video into a GIF — one fast, two manual.

1. Use the Video to GIF Converter above (fastest)

Click Choose Video and pick a file from your device. Once the preview loads, either:

• Capture Frame — scrub to the exact moment you want and grab a single still. Repeat for each frame you want in the GIF.
• Capture Sequence — set a start and end time (in seconds) and the tool samples the clip automatically at your chosen frame rate.

Reorder frames by dragging, delete any you don't want, then tune the animation delay and loop count on the right. When the preview looks right, click Export GIF to download. No signup, no watermark, no upload.

2. Use FFmpeg on your desktop

If you're comfortable on the command line, FFmpeg produces clean GIFs from MP4 or MOV files:

ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf "fps=15,scale=480:-1:flags=lanczos" -loop 0 output.gif

This converts input.mp4 to a looping 480px-wide GIF at 15 FPS. Raise fps for smoother motion (at the cost of file size) or lower scale for a smaller file.

3. Screen-record and reconvert

On macOS, QuickTime Player can record a screen region — trim it in Photos or iMovie, then drop the clip into the tool above. On Windows, the built-in Xbox Game Bar (Win+G) captures an MP4 you can convert the same way. Useful when the source isn't a file you can download directly.

MP4 to GIF, MOV to GIF, WebM to GIF

The converter accepts every common browser-playable video format — MP4, WebM, MOV, MKV, and M4V — and treats them the same way. You don't need to transcode or rename the file first; just upload and capture. Because conversion happens in your browser using the HTML5 <video> element, anything your browser can play, the tool can read.

Tips for a High-Quality GIF (Small File, Smooth Motion)

GIF is an old format — it maxes out at 256 colors per frame and grows quickly with every added frame. A few settings keep quality high and size reasonable:

1. Keep it short. Under 5 seconds is ideal. Each extra second of capture multiplies the file size.
2. Lower the frame rate first. 15 FPS looks nearly as smooth as 24 FPS for most casual motion and cuts file size significantly. Pick 10 FPS for slow scenes or reaction clips.
3. Downscale the width. A 480px-wide GIF is plenty for social and messaging. 720px is the upper end before the file gets unwieldy.
4. Trim precisely. Start and end on clean motion so the loop feels seamless — avoid cutting mid-gesture.
5. Fewer colors, smaller file. If the source has mostly one or two dominant hues, the GIF compresses harder than a rainbow-colored clip.

Loop Count and Animation Delay, Explained

Animation delay is the milliseconds between frames — the converter defaults to 100ms (10 FPS). Lower values speed the animation up; higher values slow it down. Match this to your capture frame rate for natural-looking motion.

Loop count controls how many times the GIF replays. 0 means infinite loop (the default, and what most platforms expect). Any number above 0 plays the GIF that many times, then freezes on the final frame — useful for a one-shot reveal where you don't want the motion repeating.

Already Have Frames? Use the Images to GIF Tool Instead

If your source is a set of static images (screenshots, photos, exported illustration frames) rather than a video, use the Images to GIF converter — it's the sibling tool, optimized for combining multiple image files into a single animated GIF. Use this page when you're starting from a video file and want to sample frames out of it.

Privacy: Nothing Leaves Your Browser

The conversion runs entirely client-side using the gif.js library. Your video is never uploaded to a server, never stored, and never seen by anyone else. That matters for gameplay footage, private recordings, work clips, and anything else you'd rather not hand to a stranger's upload endpoint.