Video to GIF

How to make a GIF from a video

1. Drop a video onto the box above, or click it to choose one — MP4, MOV, WebM and MKV all work, including clips straight off a phone. It opens in a player so you can watch it first.
2. Drag the Where the GIF starts slider to the moment it should begin — or pause the player there. The purple stretch on the bar shows exactly which part will be used.
3. Set the length (up to 20 seconds), the width, the frame rate and whether it should loop. The line underneath estimates the file size as you change things.
4. Press Make GIF. Frames are read and encoded one at a time with a running count; the finished GIF appears as a preview and downloads under your video’s name, ending in .gif.

What people use it for

A GIF plays by itself, silently and on repeat, almost anywhere an ordinary picture is accepted. That makes it handy for:

• Showing a bug or a feature in a support ticket, a README or a help article.
• Reaction clips and in-jokes for group chats and forums.
• Product loops for a shop listing or an email newsletter, where video won’t embed.
• Lifting one memorable moment out of a long phone recording.

Good to know

GIF dates from 1987 and has the limits to match. Each frame can hold only 256 colours, so smooth gradients such as skies and skin tones may show bands. This tool builds one shared palette from frames spread across your clip, which keeps colours steady from frame to frame rather than shimmering, though a clip that cuts between very different scenes has to share those 256 colours between them. GIF also compresses far less efficiently than video: every frame is stored whole, so a few seconds at 480 pixels wide often runs to several megabytes. Size follows the pixel count — halving the width cuts it to roughly a quarter, and 10 frames per second instead of 15 saves about a third. A GIF carries no sound; if you want the audio too, MP4 to MP3 saves it separately.

Frames are decoded by your browser itself, then reduced to a palette and assembled into a GIF by a small encoder running in this page. Nothing about the clip is sent anywhere — worth knowing, since most GIF makers want the entire video on their server before they will cut three seconds out of it. Starting from still photos rather than a video? GIF Maker animates those.

Questions people ask

Why is my GIF so big?

Because a GIF stores every frame as a complete picture, while a video mostly stores the differences between frames. Keep an eye on the estimate before you start: a narrower width, a lower frame rate or a shorter stretch brings the size down quickly. 320 pixels wide at 10 fps is a sensible choice for chat apps.

Why can’t I make a longer GIF?

Beyond 20 seconds a GIF usually becomes too heavy to share or load comfortably, and building it takes a lot of memory on a phone. For anything longer, a short video file is almost always the better format.

Can I use a video from my iPhone?

Yes. If you shot it with the camera’s default High Efficiency setting, the clip is HEVC, which Safari handles but other browsers often don’t — open this page in Safari on the iPhone, iPad or Mac and it works there, still with nothing uploaded. Choosing Settings › Camera › Formats › Most Compatible records future clips in H.264, which every browser reads. Photos from the same phone may be HEIC; HEIC to JPG converts those.

Will the GIF loop?

With Loop forever ticked, it repeats endlessly, which is what most people expect from a GIF. Untick it and the file plays once and stops on the last frame. A few apps loop every GIF whatever the file says, so the setting matters most on web pages and in email.