GIF Maker
Turn a video clip or a set of images into an animated GIF. Runs in your browser.
About this gif maker
This GIF maker turns a few seconds of video, or a set of images, into an animated GIF. Pick the range, the frame rate, the width, the speed and how it loops, and watch an estimated file size update before you make anything.
It runs in your browser. Your video and photos aren't uploaded, there's no watermark, and the encoder works in a background thread so the page stays responsive while a long GIF builds.
GIF is old and inefficient, so the tool can also save the same animation as an MP4 or WebM video. That is often 5 to 20 times smaller and is accepted by most of the places that take GIFs.
Features
From video or from images
Pick a range from an MP4, MOV, WebM or MKV with the handles or exact times. Or add images, drag them into order, and set one delay for all frames or a delay per frame.
Frame rate, width and speed
Choose 5 to 30 fps, a width from 120 to 800 pixels, and 0.5× to 2× speed. Faster speed skips source frames, so a 2× GIF is also half the size.
Loop, reverse and boomerang
Loop forever, three times or once. Play forward, in reverse, or as a boomerang that runs forward and then back.
Dithering and palette control
Floyd-Steinberg error diffusion, ordered (Bayer) dithering or none. Choose 16 to 256 colors, and a palette per frame or one shared by every frame.
Size estimate before you start
The tool encodes three sample frames in the background with your settings and scales up, so you know roughly how big the GIF will be.
MP4 or WebM output
One switch saves a silent H.264 MP4 (or WebM where H.264 isn't available) at full color instead of a 256-color GIF.
How to use the gif maker
- 1Add a video and pick the seconds you want, or add images and put them in order.
- 2Set the frame rate, width, speed, loop and dithering while watching the size estimate.
- 3Make the GIF (or a much smaller MP4), preview it and download.
When to use it
Reaction GIFs from your own clips
Take two or three seconds from a phone video, set 12 to 15 fps and 360 to 480 px wide. That usually stays a few megabytes.
Product and UI demos
Show a feature in a README or a support article. Screen content has flat colors, so turn dithering off and use a shared palette for a small, crisp file.
Photo flipbooks
Add a burst of photos and set a delay of 150 to 300 ms. If they come from an iPhone, convert the HEIC photos to JPG first so every browser can read them.
Stop motion and before-and-after
Put frames in order with drag and drop, give the last frame a long delay like 1500 ms, and loop.
Why is my GIF so big?
GIF stores each frame as a picture of up to 256 colors, compressed with LZW, a lossless method from 1984. Video codecs describe each frame as the previous one with parts moved. GIF can't; at best an optimizer leaves unchanged pixels transparent. So every extra frame, pixel and bit of noise costs real bytes.
A widely cited comparison on web.dev shows a 3.7 MB GIF next to a 551 KB MP4 and a 341 KB WebM of the same clip. That gap is normal. It is why many sites quietly convert uploaded GIFs to video.
- Halving the width cuts the pixel count to a quarter.
- Going from 24 to 12 fps halves the frame count.
- Fewer colors and no dithering compress better, especially for flat graphics.
- Shorter is smaller. Three seconds is plenty for most reactions.
What frame rate should a GIF be?
Between 10 and 15 fps looks smooth for most clips and keeps the size sensible. Use 20 to 30 fps for fast motion like sports or gameplay, and 5 to 8 fps for slideshows.
GIF stores delays in hundredths of a second, so 30 fps becomes 3/100 s per frame (33.3 fps). Most browsers slow down frames shorter than 2/100 s, so this tool never writes a delay below 20 ms.
What does dithering do?
A GIF frame can only use 256 colors. A sunset or a face has thousands, so smooth gradients turn into visible bands. Dithering mixes nearby palette colors in a fine pattern so the eye blends them back into a gradient.
Floyd-Steinberg (1976) spreads each pixel's color error to its neighbours and looks the most natural on video. Ordered dithering uses a fixed 4×4 pattern, which flickers less between frames. Both make the file larger, because noise compresses badly. For screenshots, logos and cartoons, turn dithering off.
GIF or MP4: which should I use?
Use GIF where only GIF works: some forums, email newsletters, older chat apps and image-only fields. Use MP4 wherever video is accepted, which includes most social networks and messengers. It is smaller, keeps full color and plays smoothly.
On your own web page, an MP4 in a video tag with autoplay, muted, loop and playsinline behaves exactly like a GIF.
Why use Mavros
| Mavros | Typical upload sites | |
|---|---|---|
| Upload required | No, runs on your device | Yes, up to 100 to 200 MB |
| Watermark | Never | On some free plans |
| Frame rate and width | 5 to 30 fps, 120 to 800 px | Often fixed presets |
| Dithering choice | Floyd-Steinberg, ordered or none | Rare |
| Size estimate before encoding | Yes | No |
| MP4 or WebM output | Same screen | Separate converter |
| Images with per-frame delay | Yes, drag to reorder | Sometimes |
Tips
- Watch the estimate as you change settings. Width and frame rate move it the most.
- Many platforms cap GIFs. X (Twitter) allows 15 MB, and Slack custom emoji must be under 128 KB. Check before you aim high.
- A shared palette stops colors shimmering from frame to frame and is usually smaller, but it holds every frame in memory while it works.
- Boomerang plays each middle frame twice, so it roughly doubles the size of a forward GIF.
- Got a long video? Cut out the moment you want first, then load the short clip here.
- For a single captioned image rather than an animation, the meme generator is quicker.
Questions
How do I make a GIF from a video?
Add the video, drag the yellow handles around the seconds you want, set the frame rate and width, then press Make GIF. Preview it and download.
How do I make a GIF from photos?
Switch to Images, add your photos, drag them into order and set a frame delay. Press Make GIF. You can give any single frame its own delay.
Why is my GIF bigger than the video?
GIF has no motion compression and only 256 colors, so it stores every frame almost in full. Lower the width or frame rate, shorten the range, or choose MP4 output.
How do I make a GIF loop forever?
Keep Loop set to Forever, which is the default. The tool writes the standard looping extension that browsers and chat apps read.
What is the maximum number of colors in a GIF?
256 per frame. The GIF89a format allows a color table of at most 256 entries, though each frame can have its own table.
How long can my GIF be?
Up to 600 frames, which is 40 seconds at 15 fps. Long GIFs get very large, so 2 to 6 seconds is the sweet spot.
Are my files uploaded?
No. Frames are read and encoded in your browser. The GIF encoder runs in a background worker on your device.
Why won't my GIF animate on some social sites?
Some sites convert GIFs to video or show only the first frame in previews. Uploading the MP4 version often works better there.