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Convert MP4 to GIF

Add an MP4 clip and this page turns it into a looping animated GIF with ffmpeg.wasm running inside your browser; the video is never uploaded. You choose the frame rate, width and palette tier. The caveat that matters most: GIF stores every frame in at most 256 colors, so the result is often larger than the MP4, and output over 50 MiB is refused.

Tool facts

Input limits
MP4 up to 100 MiB and 60 seconds; longer clips are refused, not trimmed
Frame rate
6, 10, 15, 24 or 30 fps, with 10 fps preselected
Width
320, 480, 640, 720 or 960 px (480 by default); height follows the clip's aspect ratio
Palette tiers
Small file: 128 colors, coarse dither · Balanced: 256 colors, medium dither · High quality: 256 colors, fine dither
GIF output cap
50 MiB per result
Conversion engine
ffmpeg.wasm, about 31 MB, fetched on your first Convert and cached afterwards

Task path / input to outcome

How to make a GIF from an MP4 clip

  1. 01

    Add the MP4

    Press Choose an MP4 video, or paste or drop the file anywhere in the panel. The direction is already MP4 → GIF, and the clip length is read before any engine loads.

  2. 02

    Set Frames per second and Width

    Lower fps and a narrower width shrink the GIF fastest; 10 fps at 480 px is the starting point.

  3. 03

    Pick a Quality tier

    Choose Small file, Balanced or High quality. Each tier sets the palette size and dithering method, never the frame count.

  4. 04

    Convert, preview, download

    Press Convert. The first run shows the engine download progress; when the GIF is ready, play the preview, check its size and press Download.

Why the GIF is bigger and grainier than the MP4

A GIF plays anywhere an image does, including chat threads, issue trackers, README files and email, with no video player involved. That reach is why short clips still get converted to it.

MP4 encodes motion by predicting each frame from its neighbours; GIF stores every frame as its own indexed image. Output size therefore climbs with frame rate × width × duration, and frame rate is the first lever to pull: 10 fps instead of 30 keeps a third of the frames.

Each run builds a single palette from the whole clip and maps every frame to it with dithering, so gradients, skin tones and dark scenes may show banding or a dotted texture. Sound is discarded because GIF has no audio track, and the file is set to loop forever.

Common questions

How do I get the GIF under a size limit?
Reduce Frames per second first, then Width, then switch to the Small file tier, which uses 128 colors. Any result above 50 MiB is refused with that advice, so a long, wide clip may need several adjustments.
Why is my two-minute video refused?
Clips are limited to 60 seconds and 100 MiB, read from the MP4 header before the engine downloads. Trim the video in an editor and convert the shorter part; the converter does not cut it for you.
Does the GIF include the video's sound?
No. The GIF format has no audio channel, so only the picture is converted. Keep the MP4 if the soundtrack matters.
What gets downloaded the first time I convert?
Only the ffmpeg.wasm engine, about 31 MB, served by this site. It is stored in this browser's cache, including for offline reuse, while your clip is processed in memory on the device.
Will the GIF loop?
Yes. The output is written with an infinite loop flag, so it repeats continuously in any viewer that honours GIF looping.

Video GIF Converter