Video to GIF: Make an Animated GIF From a Video File

How do I turn a video into a GIF?

Press Choose a video, or drop a file on the page, and drag the two sliders on the thumbnail strip to pick the seconds you want. Set the frames per second and the width, check the estimated file size, then press Make GIF and Download. Your browser reads the frames and builds the file, and nothing is uploaded.

1. Press Choose a video or drop a file on the page. The video opens in your browser and a strip of thumbnails shows the whole clip.
2. Drag the Start and End sliders. The highlighted part of the strip is the part that becomes the GIF, and the preview shows the first or last picture of it.
3. Choose the frames per second, the width, a crop and the speed. Watch the frame count, the pixel size and the estimated file size change.
4. Press Make GIF. A progress bar shows each frame being read; Cancel stops it. Then press Download.

The default clip is the first 6 seconds. At 10 frames per second that is 60 frames, and at 2x speed the same 6 seconds plays in 3 seconds with 30 frames. Crop keeps the largest area of the shape you pick, from the middle unless you slide it: on a 1920 x 1080 video, 1:1 keeps a 1080 x 1080 square starting 420 pixels from the left, and 9:16 keeps a 608 x 1080 tall strip. A width of 640 on the whole 1920 x 1080 picture gives a 640 x 360 GIF, and 480 on the square gives 480 x 480. To change a GIF you already have, use GIF Maker, and to pull one still picture out of it use GIF to PNG.

What is the best fps and size for a GIF?

For screen recordings and short clips, 10 to 15 frames per second at 320 to 480 pixels wide keeps motion readable and the file modest. Use 20 to 30 frames per second only for fast action, and a width above 480 only when detail matters. Every step up in either one adds bytes, as the tables below show.

The tool reads the frame rate as a count of frames per second of the finished GIF, then picks the video moments for it: at 10 frames per second, frame 1 sits 0.1 second into the GIF. A GIF stores each delay in hundredths of a second, so 15 frames per second cannot be written exactly. The tool spreads the rounding across frames instead (delays of 7, 6, 7, 7, 6, 7 hundredths for the first six frames), so the clip plays for its true length. The test clip is a bouncing ball over a gradient, so a real video with more detail will land higher. The estimate on the page is the better guide for your file.

Why is a GIF larger than the video it came from?

A video codec stores a few full pictures and, for the frames between them, only what changed. A GIF stores every frame as a complete picture, squeezed with a lossless method and limited to 256 colors. Gradients and camera noise compress poorly in that format, so the GIF weighs more than the same clip as video.

MDN's codec guide describes how modern video codecs predict each frame from earlier ones, and the web.dev article on replacing animated GIFs with video explains the same gap for web pages. In our test, one 320 x 180 frame is 225 KB as raw pixels, and the GIF spent about 7.6 KB on each frame at 10 frames per second. A GIF still has the edge in one place: it plays anywhere an image can go, with no player, no sound and no click to start. If you control the page it will sit on, a short video is the smaller choice.

Which video formats work in the browser?

The tool opens whatever your browser can play. H.264 video in an MP4 file plays in every current major browser, and WebM with VP8 or VP9 plays in current Chrome, Edge and Firefox. Other codecs, such as HEVC in some MOV files, depend on the browser and the device. If a file will not open, the page says so.

A video file has two parts: the container (MP4, WebM, MOV) and the codec inside it (H.264, VP9, HEVC). MDN's container and codec guides list which browsers support each, and support for HEVC in particular varies by browser and by device. The page asks your browser whether it can play the file's type, tries to open it either way, and shows a plain message if it cannot, with the container named. Re-saving the video as H.264 MP4 or WebM in any video app fixes the usual case. For the MP4 case on its own, see MP4 to GIF.

How do I make a GIF smaller?

Use fewer frames first, a narrower width second, and a shorter clip third. Lowering the frames per second or raising the speed cuts the frame count, and the width sets the pixels per frame. Fewer colors and switching dithering off trim a little more. The page re-estimates the size each time you change a setting.

Colors help less than frames and width here: 16 colors came to 122 KB, 19 percent under 256 colors, while 5 frames per second came to 77 KB, 49 percent under 10. Dithering added 19 percent (151 KB against 127 KB) but smooths the sky gradient, and the sizes do not fall in a straight line with the color limit because dithering adds fine grain at small palettes. Speed 2x halves the frames: 10 frames came to 77 KB. Ping-pong order plays forward and back, so a 20-frame clip became 38 frames and 288 KB, against 151 KB in order.