Video to GIF Converter — Turn MP4 or MOV Clips into GIFs

Trim video or animation sources and export a crisp, frame-rate-controlled GIF entirely in your browser.

This page is not a separate, lighter GIF maker — it mounts the exact same trim-and-export engine built for this site's video trimmer, under a route aimed at people searching for a GIF converter specifically rather than a video editor with a GIF button buried in it. Pick a trim range, set a width and frame rate, and the same tested decode-composite-quantize pipeline runs underneath either name.

How to make a GIF from a video

  1. Drop an MP4, MOV or M4V clip onto the page; the Animated GIF panel opens with it.
  2. Drag the Start and End sliders to the few seconds you want to loop.
  3. Type a width between 16 and 960 pixels and choose 5, 10, 15 or 24 frames per second.
  4. Pick the palette: Max quality with 256 colors, or Smaller file with 64 colors.
  5. Click Export GIF, check the preview that appears, and save it with Download GIF.

Video to GIF input formats and free limits

Tips for a smaller, smoother GIF from a clip

Width and frame rate decide what gets sampled, not just the output size

Output width is constrained to a whole number between 16 and 960 pixels; height is derived automatically by preserving the source's aspect ratio, rounded to the nearest pixel. Frame rate governs how many distinct frames actually get pulled from the trimmed range — computed as trim duration multiplied by your chosen frames-per-second, rounded up.

This matters because a source clip rarely has a frame rate that divides evenly into whatever GIF rate you pick. Requesting 10 frames per second from a 30fps source doesn't just take every third frame — it computes, for every decoded frame, which output time-slot it falls into based on its actual timestamp, so sampling stays correct even when the ratio isn't a clean whole number.

When the source is slower than your target rate, frames get held, not invented

If your requested GIF rate is higher than what the source provides for some stretch, the pipeline doesn't fabricate motion that was never captured — it reuses the last decoded frame to fill empty time slots, holding a still rather than interpolating or leaving a gap. Slots already filled by a later decode are left alone, so faster native motion is never accidentally slowed by a stray duplicate, and the final decoded frame is always appended to fill the tail of the range.

A shared global palette, chosen once and applied to every frame

GIF's ceiling is 256 simultaneous colors per frame, and this tool spends that budget carefully: rather than picking a fresh palette for each frame, which causes visible flicker as the palette shifts, it samples up to 30 frames spread evenly across the trimmed range, builds one shared palette from that pooled sample, and maps every output frame onto that same fixed palette. The quality-versus-size choice is how large that shared palette is allowed to be — 256 colors for the least lossy result, or a reduced 64-color table when size matters more than fidelity.

A GIF has no audio track, and no setting changes that

This isn't specific to this tool's implementation — the GIF file format has no provision for an audio stream at all, unlike an MP4 or WebM container. Whatever sound existed in your source is discarded entirely on export, worth knowing if you're converting a clip specifically for its dialogue or music.

What still needs the browser's real decoder support

Exporting a GIF requires decoding the source's compressed frames, which depends on the same WebCodecs VideoDecoder check this site's video tools run on load — a browser without VideoDecoder won't offer GIF export. Unlike a full H.264 re-encode, GIF export needs no video encoder, since frames are quantized and palette-indexed rather than run through any video codec, so it stays available even on a browser that can decode but not encode H.264.

Your clip becomes a GIF without leaving the browser tab

Upload-based GIF makers keep your video on their servers for hours before deleting it. Here the frames are decoded, scaled and palette-mapped inside the tab from the file on your disk, and the finished GIF is handed back as a local download link, so no copy of the footage ever exists anywhere else.

Where a GIF is the wrong export target

Questions people ask about Animated GIF Converter & Maker

How do I convert an MP4 to a GIF?
Load the MP4 on this page, set the start and end of the moment you want, choose a width and frame rate, then click Export GIF. The clip is decoded and turned into an animated GIF in your browser, and a Download GIF button appears once the preview is ready.
What video formats can be converted to GIF?
MP4, MOV and M4V files, the formats the file picker accepts. They are opened as MP4-family containers and decoded with the browser's WebCodecs VideoDecoder, so H.264 footage works most reliably. WebM, MKV and AVI files are not supported by this converter.
Is my video uploaded or stored anywhere?
No. Decoding, frame sampling and GIF encoding all run in the browser tab using the file straight from your disk. The GIF is created as a local download link, and neither the source video nor the finished animation is sent to or kept on any server.
How long can a GIF made from a video be?
On the free tier the selected range can be up to 15 minutes, and Pro removes that cap. In practice memory is the tighter limit: every sampled frame is held as a full image, so long ranges at wide sizes and high frame rates can exhaust the tab well before that.
Can I make a GIF from a video on my phone?
Only if your mobile browser exposes the WebCodecs VideoDecoder, since GIF export needs it to read frames. When the API is missing, the page says so beside the export button instead of failing silently. Support varies by browser and version, so check the message the page shows.
Why does my GIF look choppy even though I set a high frame rate?
If the source video's actual frame rate is lower than your requested GIF rate for some stretch, the tool holds the last decoded frame in the extra slots rather than inventing new motion, which can look like brief stillness rather than smooth interpolation. Choosing a GIF frame rate closer to the source's native rate avoids this.
Can I keep the audio when exporting to GIF?
No. The GIF format has no audio channel at all, so there's nothing this tool's settings can do to preserve sound — it's a limitation of the file format itself, not a missing feature. Export as a video format instead if audio matters.
What output width should I pick for a reasonable file size?
Width is limited to 16-960 pixels with height computed automatically from your source's aspect ratio. Smaller widths and lower frame rates both shrink the file directly, since every sampled frame becomes a full palette-indexed image — for sharing-sized GIFs, widths in the low hundreds are usually enough.
Why do some colors look banded or off in my exported GIF compared to the source video?
GIF caps every frame at 256 simultaneous colors, and this tool builds one shared palette across the whole clip rather than a fresh one per frame to avoid flicker. Choosing the maximum-quality palette mode uses the full 256-color budget; the smaller-file mode drops to 64 colors and shows more visible banding on gradients.

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Content reviewed 2026-09-27.