tooloora

Video to GIF — turn a clip into an animated GIF

Pick the range, frame rate and width, watch the size estimate, then export — locally in your browser, no upload.

Runs locally — nothing is uploaded

Drop a video file here or click

MP4, MOV or WebM · short section · stays local

Runs locally in your browser – no upload.

At most 30 seconds and 300 frames per GIF. GIF stores every frame separately, without comparing motion – longer clips become unusably large.

How do I turn a video into a GIF?

Drop the file, pick the range, set frame rate and width, export. The frames are decoded in your browser and assembled into a GIF right there — nothing is uploaded. A GIF plays automatically everywhere, without a player and without sound, which is why it is at home in chats, issue trackers and documentation.

Why is the GIF bigger than the video?

Because GIF has no motion compression. The format stores every frame on its own, and the GIF89a specification by CompuServe (1989) allows at most 256 colours per frame from a palette. Modern video codecs, by contrast, only store the differences between consecutive frames — which is why a clip as MP4 often weighs a tenth of what it needs as a GIF.

Which settings keep the file small?

Three levers, in this order:

  • Width: half the width means roughly a quarter of the data, because pixel count falls with the square.
  • Frame rate: 10 to 12 frames per second still look fluid in short loops; 15 is the sensible ceiling.
  • Length: duration multiplies everything else. Under five seconds almost every GIF stays manageable.

Why do the colours look banded?

Because of the 256-colour limit. A photographic scene with gradients, skin tones or dark areas has to be reduced to that palette, and that produces visible banding. Screen recordings of interfaces usually look perfect, because they consist of few, clearly separated colours to begin with — the classic use case for GIF.

When should you not use a GIF?

For anything longer than a few seconds or anything that has to stay sharp. An MP4 or WebM is then smaller, crisper and also plays everywhere — just inside a player. And GIF fundamentally cannot carry sound: the audio track is lost in the conversion, which this tool does not hide. Because every frame sits in memory on its own, long or large GIFs quickly hit the browser's limits; trimming and lowering the width help more than any other setting.

Frequently asked questions

Is my video uploaded to make the GIF?

No. Frames are decoded and the GIF is assembled in your browser; the file never leaves your device. That is unusual for GIF makers, most of which run the conversion on their own servers.

Why is the GIF so much bigger than the video?

Because GIF is a 1987 format with no motion compression: every frame is stored as its own image, limited to 256 colours. A five-second clip that weighs 500 KB as MP4 easily becomes several megabytes as GIF. Shorter, smaller and fewer frames per second are the three levers that actually help.

Which settings keep the file small?

Width first: half the width is roughly a quarter of the data. Then frame rate — 10 to 12 frames per second still look fluid for short loops, 15 is the practical ceiling. And keep the clip under a few seconds; length multiplies everything else.

Why do colours look banded or dirty?

GIF allows at most 256 colours per frame, so a photographic scene has to be quantised. Gradients, skin tones and dark scenes suffer the most. The dithering option helps: it spreads the colour error onto neighbouring pixels so the eye mixes them back together, at the cost of a noticeably bigger file. For a screen recording of an interface it usually looks perfect either way, because such content has few colours to begin with.

Should I use a GIF at all?

Often not. For anything longer than a few seconds an MP4 or WebM is smaller, sharper and plays everywhere. GIF is worth it where autoplay without a player is expected: chat apps, issue trackers, e-mail newsletters, documentation.