Video to GIF

Turn a video clip into an animated GIF, with palette optimisation.

Choose video file or drop it anywhere on this page MP4 · MOV · WEBM · MKV · AVI · WMV · FLV · M4V · 3GP · MPEG · +3 Processed on your device — never uploaded

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How to video to gif

Drop a video in. If you want only part of it, trim it first with the video trimmer.
Adjust frame rate, width and dither to balance quality against file size.
Convert and download. Check the file size — GIFs get large quickly above 10 seconds.

About this tool

GIF is a format that has outlived its technical relevance by decades purely through cultural inertia — everyone knows how to share and receive one. The format is also genuinely terrible by modern standards: 256 colours, no audio, poor compression. Keeping clips short (under six seconds), small (under 480 pixels wide), and at a modest frame rate is what makes a usable GIF rather than a multi-megabyte file.

Palette optimisation makes a meaningful difference. The difference between a generic 256-colour palette and one generated from the actual frames can cut banding dramatically on gradients and skin tones. It costs a small amount of processing time and is on by default for that reason. Floyd–Steinberg dithering is the other significant quality lever — it is the best-looking option for photographic content and the right default for almost everything.

Questions

Why are GIF files so big?

The GIF format was designed in 1987 and uses a simple LZW compression scheme that is very inefficient compared to modern video codecs. A three-second clip at 480 pixels wide and 15 fps can easily be 3–8 MB. By comparison, the same clip as an H.264 MP4 might be 200 KB. Where file size matters more than the loop-in-chat convenience of GIF, consider using WebM or MP4 video with autoplay and loop attributes — browsers display them exactly like animated GIFs, with far smaller files.

What is palette optimisation?

GIF is limited to 256 colours per frame. The default is a fixed generic palette that does not match the actual colours in your video. Palette optimisation analyses the frames and picks the 256 colours that best represent the specific content, which reduces visible banding and can also produce a smaller file because repeated pixel patterns compress better.

What is dithering?

Dithering simulates colours that are not in the 256-colour palette by mixing nearby pixels. Floyd–Steinberg is the standard algorithm and gives the most natural result. Ordered dithering is faster but produces a visible dot pattern. No dithering is fastest but shows sharp colour banding — acceptable for graphics with few colours, poor for photographs.

Video to GIF

How to video to gif

About this tool

Questions

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