# Video to GIF

Turn part of a video into a GIF, with the width, frame rate and size shown before you start. Free, no watermark, and nothing is uploaded.

Canonical page: https://filetity.com/video-to-gif

## Capabilities

- Free: Yes, with no watermark and no page limit.
- Account required: No. There is no account system.
- Processed on device: Yes. The file is read by your browser and never uploaded. There is no server to send it to.
- Formats: MP4, MOV and WebM in. Animated GIF out, at 320, 480 or 640 pixels wide or the video's own width.
- Limits: Every frame is held in memory as full colour pixels, so the tool refuses above a fixed budget before decoding anything rather than freezing the tab. At 480 pixels wide and 10 frames a second that is around 38 seconds of video.
- Mobile: Yes, on any modern mobile browser. Large files are limited by the memory the phone gives the browser.
- Offline: Yes, once the page has loaded. The tool keeps working with no network connection.

## Questions

### Why is my GIF so much bigger than the video was?

Because a GIF has no compression between frames. Video stores one full picture and then only what changed; a GIF stores every frame nearly whole. A ten second clip that was 2 MB as MP4 is routinely 20 MB as a GIF, and that is the format, not this tool. The width and frame rate controls are the two things that actually change it.

### Why can I not pick 15 frames a second?

A GIF stores the pause between frames in hundredths of a second, so only rates that divide into 100 exactly are representable. 10 fps is 10 hundredths, 20 is 5, 25 is 4. 15 would be 6.67, and rounding it makes the GIF play slightly slow. The offered rates are the ones that come out exactly right.

### Why does the colour look banded or dirty?

A GIF holds at most 256 colours per frame, and a video frame typically contains tens of thousands. Every colour has to be mapped to the nearest of the 256 that were chosen, which shows up most on skies, skin and gradients. Nothing can avoid it inside the format; a smaller width hides it better because there are fewer pixels to notice.

### Does it add a watermark or a time limit?

Neither. There is no account, no upload and no paid tier, so there is nothing to gate. The only limit is your own device's memory, which is why the page states the frame count and the estimated size before you press anything.

### Should I use a GIF at all?

Often no. If the destination accepts a video, an MP4 of the same clip is usually a tenth of the size and looks better, and most platforms silently convert an uploaded GIF to a video anyway. Use a GIF where the destination genuinely requires one, such as an email signature, an old forum, or a chat that will not autoplay video.

## Related tools

- [GIF to MP4](https://filetity.com/gif-to-mp4): Turn an animated GIF into an MP4, usually far smaller.
- [Compress GIF](https://filetity.com/compress-gif): Compress animated GIF files and still ones, without breaking the animation.