Video to GIF
In your browser, no upload
GIF
10 frames a second · up to 15 s
GIF
MP4 · MOV · WebM → GIFSpecification
8 rows| Item | Value | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Input | MP4, MOV, WebM | Whatever this browser can play |
| Output | GIF | .gif, animated, loops forever |
| Frames | 10 a second | 100 ms per frame, fixed for now |
| Length | First 15 seconds | A longer video stops there |
| Size | Up to 480 px wide | A smaller video keeps its size |
| Sound | Dropped | A GIF has no audio track |
| Colours | 256 per frame | Video frames have far more, so they are reduced |
| Processed in | This browser | Not sent to a server |
What happens
3What happens, and why
Drop a video and the browser steps through it, 10 times a second, and writes each of those moments into one animated GIF that loops forever. The video is opened by this browser, decoded here and never sent to a server. A file this browser cannot play is refused with a message rather than half-converted.
A GIF is not a video format, so the result is always re-encoded and the badge says so. Each frame is reduced to 256 colours, which shows as banding in gradients, skin and shadow, and there is no sound: a GIF has no audio track. A frame is also a full picture rather than a difference from the one before, which is why a few seconds of video become several megabytes.
Three numbers are fixed: 10 frames a second (100 ms each), at most 15 seconds, and 480 px of width. They are the numbers that keep a GIF small enough to post, and each one is repeated in the line under the result so you can see what the file you downloaded actually contains. Which part of the video those seconds come from is yours to choose: two boxes under the result take a start and an end, and the GIF is made again from that stretch.
FAQ
3Which part of the video becomes the GIF
The first 15 seconds, from the very start. To use a different part, cut the clip on the trim page first — that page copies rather than re-encodes, so nothing is lost — and drop the cut file here. Choosing the moment on this page is planned.
Why is the GIF so large
Every GIF frame is a whole picture with its own colour table, and there are 10 of them a second. A video codec stores what changed between frames instead, which is why the same seconds are far smaller as MP4. Fewer seconds is the one thing that reliably makes the file smaller; the GIF resize page can also make it narrower afterwards.
Is the video uploaded
No. The browser opens the file from your disk, and the frames are drawn and written into the GIF on this page. Nothing about the file leaves the machine.