Convert MP4 to GIF
Pick the seconds you want from an MP4 and get a looping GIF, made on your device.
- Nothing is uploaded
- Works offline
- Open source
- No limits, no watermark
Done
Open the network tab. It stays empty.
Add files and run the tool to see every request this tab makes.
Your files are processed on this device and never sent to a server. Reload the page to clear everything from memory.
MP4 is what phones, screen recorders and most download buttons produce, and a GIF is still what plays everywhere without a click: in a README, a support ticket, a Slack thread, an email or a slide. Most MP4 to GIF sites make you upload the whole video first, often with a 100 or 200 MB cap, then queue it on a server and hand back a GIF with their logo in the corner. This page does the conversion inside your browser instead, so there is no upload to wait for and no limit on the size of the MP4.
Drop the file and it opens in a player. Scrub to the first moment you want and press Set start, then to the last and press Set end. The width and frame rate decide almost everything about the size of the GIF: 480 pixels wide at 10 frames per second is small enough for chat and sharp enough for a screen recording, while 640 pixels at 15 frames per second suits a product demo. The line under the options tells you how many frames the GIF will have before you make it.
Your browser decodes the MP4 with the same H.264 decoder it uses to play video on any website, and each frame is reduced to its best 256 colours before it is written into the GIF. A 5 second clip usually takes a few seconds on a laptop and a little longer on a phone. Nothing about the video, not even its name, is sent anywhere.
How it works
- Drop an MP4, or tap to pick one from your files or camera roll.
- Scrub to the part you want and press Set start and Set end, or type the times in seconds. Choose a width and frame rate.
- Make the GIF. It downloads from your browser when the last frame is written.
In your browser, not on a server
Your browser opens the video with its own built-in decoder, the same one that plays it in the player above. Stayput seeks to each moment you asked for, copies that frame onto a canvas at the width you chose, and gifenc (MIT) picks the best 256 colours for it and compresses it. The GIF is assembled frame by frame in memory in your tab.
Compared with upload-based tools: Online GIF makers upload the whole video to trim a few seconds of it, cap the file size, and often stamp a watermark on the result. Personal clips of family, pets or a screen with your inbox on it are exactly what should not sit on a stranger’s server. Here the video never leaves your device, whatever its size.
Verify it yourself. Load this page, turn off Wi-Fi or switch to airplane mode, and run the tool. Or open your browser's developer tools (F12, or Cmd-Option-I on a Mac), pick the Network tab, and watch it while you convert. The panel above does the same count for you.
Questions
How do I make the GIF smaller?
Shorten the clip first, then lower the width and the frame rate: halving the width makes each frame about four times smaller, and going from 20 to 10 frames per second halves the frame count. Busy footage with camera shake compresses far worse than a screen recording, so aim for 2 to 6 seconds of it.
Does the GIF keep the sound?
No. GIF is an image format and has no audio track. If you need sound, keep the MP4; if you need something that autoplays silently in a document or chat, the GIF is the right choice.
Can I convert a long MP4, like a whole screen recording?
Yes, the file can be as long as you like, because only the frames between your start and end are read. The GIF itself is capped at 600 frames, for example one minute at 10 frames per second.
Is the file uploaded anywhere?
No. There is no server in this process. The page is a static file and the work is done by code running inside your browser tab. You can load the page, turn off Wi-Fi, and it still works.