Video to GIF for Discord
A few seconds at 480 px, under the free 10 MB limit. Nothing is uploaded.
The converter opens at 480 px wide and 15 fps — the combination that keeps a typical 3–6 second clip comfortably under Discord's 10 MB free upload limit while still looking sharp in the chat column. Drop the clip, drag the handles around the moment you want, and read the estimate before you convert.
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.
Discord's limits, and why a GIF instead of a video
Accounts without Nitro can upload files up to 10 MB (raised from 8 MB in 2023; many older guides still say 8). Nitro Basic raises it to 50 MB and Nitro to 500 MB, and a server boosted to level 2 or 3 lifts it for everyone in that server. A GIF attachment plays automatically and loops in the message, muted, with no play button — that is the whole appeal for reactions and game moments. A video attachment needs a click and shows a player frame. Discord serves GIFs exactly as uploaded, so the size and quality you see here are what the channel sees.
10 MB sounds like a lot until you look at how GIFs grow: every frame is a full picture. A 480 px clip at 15 fps costs roughly 40–120 KB per frame depending on motion, so ten megabytes is somewhere between six and twenty seconds. The estimate under the Convert button is measured from your actual frames, so you will know which end of that range your clip is on before you press anything.
Getting the clip right
Pick the moment, not the scene. A reaction GIF is usually two to four seconds; a game highlight rarely needs more than six. Drag the two handles on the film strip until the preview loops exactly the part you want — the preview loops the same frames the GIF will contain — and use the arrow keys for one-frame nudges so the loop point lands cleanly. Because a chat message is narrow, 480 px is plenty; Discord scales anything wider down anyway, and the extra pixels only cost upload size.
If the estimate is over 10 MB, the fixes in order of effect are: shorten the selection, drop the width to 320 px, lower the frame rate to 12 or 10, then reduce colours to 128. Game footage compresses worst because everything moves every frame; screen recordings of a Discord bot or a game menu compress far better, since the unchanged pixels are stored only once.
Why not a Discord GIF site that uploads the video?
Most work, but you wait for the upload before anything happens, most cap free uploads at a few hundred megabytes (a raw game recording exceeds that quickly), and several add a watermark or a sign-up wall. This converter never sends the file anywhere: your browser decodes the video and writes the GIF on your own machine, so a 2 GB recording is handled the same as a 20 MB one, and the only thing that ever leaves your computer is the GIF you drag into Discord.
Frequently asked questions
Is the free limit 8 MB or 10 MB?
10 MB since 2023. If your client still refuses a 9 MB file, it is probably an older guide's number in your head — check the estimate against 10 MB, and stay a little under it.
Will Discord re-compress my GIF?
No. GIF attachments are stored and served as uploaded. What you see in the preview here is what everyone in the channel sees.
Why does the GIF look different from a Tenor GIF in Discord?
GIFs picked from the Tenor search are actually served as MP4 video by Discord. A GIF you upload as a file is a real GIF: 256 colours per frame, larger, but yours.
Can I make a GIF from an OBS or ShadowPlay recording?
Yes. Those produce MP4 or MKV with H.264 or HEVC, which Chrome and Edge decode natively. Very high-bitrate HEVC captures may not decode in Firefox.