Screen Recording to GIF
Readable text, tiny files: unchanged pixels are stored once. Nothing is uploaded.
This page opens with the settings that suit screen content: 800 px wide so interface text stays readable, 10 fps because cursors and menus do not need more, 128 colours because interfaces rarely have more, and "only store changed pixels" on — which is what makes a screen recording GIF a fraction of the size of a camera GIF.
Open the converter → Opens the converter set to 800 px wide at 10 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.
Why screen recordings make the best GIFs
A GIF is a stack of full pictures, and that is normally its problem: a camera clip changes every pixel every frame, so every frame costs the same. Screen content is the opposite. Between one frame and the next, usually only a cursor, a menu or a line of text changes; the rest of the window is identical. This converter compares each frame with the last one it wrote and stores only the pixels that changed, marking the rest transparent so the player keeps what it already has. Frames that do not change at all are merged into a longer pause. The result is that a ten-second recording of a dialog box can be a few hundred kilobytes, where a ten-second camera clip at the same width would be ten megabytes.
Two settings help further. Interfaces have few colours, so 128 is usually enough and makes each changed region cheaper. And dithering — which spreads colour error into a fine pattern to smooth gradients — adds noise to flat interface colours that then counts as "changed"; if a recording of a flat UI comes out larger than expected, turn dithering off under Advanced. Leave it on for recordings that contain photos or video.
Recording and trimming for a demo
On a Mac, ⌘⇧5 records a window or a region to a MOV; on Windows, Win+G (Xbox Game Bar) or Win+Alt+R records the active window to an MP4; in a browser, most tab-recording extensions produce WebM. All three open here. Record a region rather than the whole screen so the 800 px output is not a tiny rendering of a 2560 px desktop; if you must record the whole screen, treat 800 px as the minimum width and crop the recording to the window first.
Trim hard. Drag the start handle to the first meaningful click and the end handle to the moment the result appears; the preview loops the selection so you can see whether the loop reads. Two to eight seconds is the range for a README or a support reply. If the recording includes a moment where the whole screen changes — a page load, a full-screen dialog — that frame costs a full picture; it is unavoidable, but do not include three of them.
Frequently asked questions
The text in the GIF is blurry.
The width was too low for the recording's text size. Use 800 px, or record a smaller region so the text is larger relative to the frame. 1080 px is available under Width if 800 is not enough.
How long can a screen recording GIF be?
Up to 60 seconds is allowed, and because unchanged pixels are stored once, a 30-second recording of a mostly static window is often only a few megabytes. Watch the estimate.
Terminal recordings?
Ideal. Text on a flat background compresses extremely well; 64 or 128 colours and 8–10 fps. Turn dithering off.
Can I record my screen on this page?
No. Record with your operating system's tool or a browser extension, then convert the file here.