BrowserTools

Video to GIF Converter

Turn any video clip into a looping GIF

By Guga — BrowserTools maintainer, Tbilisi, Georgia Updated 2026-09-21
Free Private No uploads

The first conversion on this page fetches a ~30 MB WebAssembly FFmpeg build from unpkg.com and caches it. After that the palette work and the GIF encoding happen locally, in this tab, with your clip never leaving the machine.

What is Video to GIF Converter?

Four numbers decide the output: where to start, how long to run, how wide the result should be, and how many frames per second to sample. The conversion is two-pass — FFmpeg generates a 256-colour palette from your chosen segment and then applies it to the frames, which is why the result avoids the muddy dithering you get from naive GIF exports. The result loops forever and carries no audio. Size grows quickly and predictably: at 12 fps a 10-second clip is 120 frames, and since each frame stores every pixel, doubling the width roughly quadruples the cost of each one. The controls cap out at 60 seconds, 1080 pixels wide and 24 fps, which is about where GIFs stop being a sensible format.

Convert a video snippet into an animated GIF with width, FPS and duration control. The classic way to share short loops where video isn't supported — converted locally.

Private Video to GIF Converter In Your Browser

Video to GIF Converter is processed locally with client-side JavaScript. Your files never touch a server, and there is no queue to wait in.

Step-by-Step

How to use Video to GIF Converter

1

Drop a video clip onto the panel — anything from a phone recording to a screen capture will do.

2

Set Start and Duration in seconds, then choose a Width in pixels and a frame rate between 5 and 24.

3

Press Convert to GIF. The first run needs a one-off engine download; later runs start immediately.

4

Preview the animated result in the image frame, then save it with the Download GIF button.

Key Capabilities
  • Generates a dedicated colour palette from the selected segment before encoding, avoiding generic dithering.
  • Offers explicit start, length, width and frame rate controls, each with real bounds rather than a single preset.
  • Scales with the Lanczos resampling filter and computes the height from the aspect ratio automatically.
  • Writes a GIF set to loop indefinitely and drops the audio track entirely.
Common Use Cases
  • A support engineer turning a two-second screen capture of a bug into a looping GIF for an issue thread.
  • A designer dropping a short product animation into a README where autoplaying video is not an option.
  • A social media manager trimming a 40-second highlight reel down to a 480-pixel loop that fits a comment thread.
Clear Answers

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I keep the GIF small enough to post somewhere?
Shorten the duration first, then narrow it. Because a GIF stores full frames rather than differences, cost scales with width squared times frame count: 480 px at 12 fps for 8 seconds is a very different file from 960 px at 24 fps for 20 seconds, and the latter can reach tens of megabytes.
Why do my colours look flat or posterised?
GIF has a hard ceiling of 256 colours per frame. This tool builds a palette from your own segment, so you get the colours that actually appear, but any smooth gradient or photographic skin tone will band. Video is simply the better format for anything photographic.
Is there a way to keep the sound?
No. GIF is a still-image format and this page discards the audio track. For a clip that needs sound, keep the video and post it as a video.
What happens on the very first conversion?
A ~30 MB WebAssembly FFmpeg build is downloaded from unpkg.com and cached by your browser, which can take a moment on a slow connection. After that the palette pass and the encode run locally, in the tab, and the clip never leaves the machine.