MP4 to GIF
Pick the seconds, watch them loop, convert. Nothing is uploaded.
MP4 is the file every phone, camera, screen recorder and download produces, so this is the page most people want. The converter opens with the Demo preset — 480 px, 15 fps — which suits a short clip for a chat, a page or a document; the handles under the picture choose the part.
Open the converter → Opens the converter set to 480 px wide at 15 fps. Drag the handles to pick the part you want.- 100% freeNo account, no daily quota, no paid tier.
- Nothing is uploadedThe video is read and converted on your device and never reaches a server.
- No catch on the outputNo watermark, no forced downscaling, no size cap.
- Updated in the openEvery fix and every change is written down on the changelog page.
What is inside an MP4, and what a GIF keeps
An MP4 is a container: inside it is a video stream, almost always H.264 or H.265/HEVC, and usually an audio stream. The video is stored as differences between frames at a chosen bitrate, which is why a minute of 1080p fits in a few tens of megabytes. A GIF has none of that machinery. It is a sequence of full pictures with at most 256 colours each, compressed with a 1987 algorithm, and no sound. Converting is therefore a matter of choosing a few seconds, a width and a frame rate, and accepting that the result will be larger per second than the MP4 was — usually much larger.
The converter reads the MP4 with your browser's own decoder, takes frames from the selected part at the frame rate you chose, scales them to the width you chose, gives each frame its own 256-colour palette with dithering, and stores only the pixels that changed from the previous frame. That last step is what keeps screen recordings and steady-camera clips small; footage where everything moves every frame gets no help from it.
Choosing the part and the settings
Drop the MP4 and the first three seconds start looping. Drag the blue handles on the film strip to move the selection; drag the middle of it to slide the whole selection along. Arrow keys nudge by one frame, Shift+arrow by a second, and pressing I or O while the preview plays sets the start or end to the current frame, like an editor. The badge in the corner of the preview shows the output width, frame rate, length and frame count, and the estimate under Convert is measured from your actual frames.
Width is the biggest lever on size: 320 px for a chat, 480–640 px for a page or a README, 800 px only when the GIF will be shown large. 12–15 fps is smooth for most footage; 20–30 only pays off for fast motion. If the MP4 is HEVC (common from iPhones), Chrome, Edge and Safari decode it; Firefox may not, in which case the page tells you rather than failing silently. The rotation flag in phone MP4s is honoured, so portrait stays portrait.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a file size limit for the MP4?
No. The file is read in place on your device; a 3 GB recording opens the same as a 3 MB one. The selection you convert is capped at 60 seconds.
Why is the GIF bigger than the MP4?
Because GIF stores full pictures and MP4 stores differences. A few seconds of GIF often outweigh a minute of MP4. Reduce width and frame rate, or keep the clip short.
Does it work with MP4 from an iPhone?
Yes, including HEVC and portrait recordings. The picture comes out the way it plays.
Can I convert the whole MP4?
Up to 60 seconds. A GIF longer than that is tens of megabytes and would be better kept as an MP4 — most places that show GIFs also play short MP4s.