Why is my GIF so much bigger than the video?

Because GIF compresses each frame separately and has no way to say that most of this frame matches the last one. A video codec does exactly that, which is why an MP4 of the same clip can be a tenth of the size.

How do I make it smaller?

In this order: shorten the clip, drop the frame rate to 10 or 12, reduce the width, then cut the colours to 64. The estimate updates as you go, so you can see which change is worth making.

Can I keep the sound?

Not in a GIF, which has no audio at all. If sound matters, a short MP4 is what you want, and most places that accept a GIF accept a silent MP4 too.

Yes, forever, which is the normal behaviour for a GIF and what most viewers expect.

Video to GIF

Pick a few seconds of a video and get an animated GIF. The controls each change the file size, and the estimate updates as you move them, because the usual problem with a GIF is that it comes out at 30 MB.

Choose a video or drop it hereMP4, MOV or WebM, up to 500 MB.

Runs entirely in your browser. Your files are never uploaded.

How to use Video to GIF

1Choose a video and scrub to where the clip should start.
2Set the length, width, frame rate and number of colours.
3Check the size estimate underneath.
4Make the GIF and download it.

Why GIFs get so large

GIF stores a palette of at most 256 colours per frame and compresses each frame on its own. There is no motion compensation, which is what every video codec uses to avoid storing the same background thirty times a second.

The practical result: five seconds of 480-pixel video at 12 frames a second is a few megabytes, and the same clip at 800 pixels and 20 frames a second can be five times that. Every control on this page is a lever on that number, and the figure under them moves as you change each one.

That figure is an upper guide rather than a prediction. Detailed camera footage lands near it; flat material compresses far better, and a screen recording of large blocks of colour came out six times smaller than the estimate.

Frame rate, width and colours

Frame rate costs the most, since it multiplies the number of frames. 12 a second looks smooth enough for most footage and is a third smaller than 18.

Width costs almost as much, because pixels go up with the square. Dropping from 640 to 480 removes nearly half the data.

Colours matter less than people expect, and 128 is usually indistinguishable from 256 on video footage. Going down to 32 is visible on gradients, which is what the dither option is for: it scatters the error so a sky becomes grain instead of bands.

How the frames are collected

The video is seeked to each frame time in turn and the picture is drawn onto a canvas. That means the frames are exactly the ones the player shows, at the times you asked for, rather than whatever arrives while a clip plays in real time.

It also means a long clip takes a moment per frame. Thirty seconds at 12 frames a second is 361 seeks, and the progress bar counts them.

Limits

Thirty seconds and 300 frames per GIF, whichever comes first.
A GIF has no sound. Nothing here can keep the audio.
Frames are collected one seek at a time, so a long clip takes a while.
MP4, MOV and WebM open. AVI, MKV and HEVC files usually will not.

Frequently asked questions

Why is my GIF so much bigger than the video?: Because GIF compresses each frame separately and has no way to say that most of this frame matches the last one. A video codec does exactly that, which is why an MP4 of the same clip can be a tenth of the size.
How do I make it smaller?: In this order: shorten the clip, drop the frame rate to 10 or 12, reduce the width, then cut the colours to 64. The estimate updates as you go, so you can see which change is worth making.
Can I keep the sound?: Not in a GIF, which has no audio at all. If sound matters, a short MP4 is what you want, and most places that accept a GIF accept a silent MP4 too.
Does it loop?: Yes, forever, which is the normal behaviour for a GIF and what most viewers expect.