About MP4 to GIF
MP4 is what phones, screen recorders and download sites hand you, and GIF is what chat threads, documentation pages and issue trackers display without a play button or an autoplay restriction. Moving between the two is more than a container change: a GIF stores every frame as a full image with a 256-color palette, so the size of the result depends entirely on how many seconds, frames per second and pixels you ask for.
This converter runs on our server with FFmpeg, so even an older laptop can produce a clean GIF from a large MP4. Choose where the loop starts, keep the clip to ten seconds or less, pick a frame rate between 6 and 12 and a width between 160 and 480 pixels. The server builds a color palette from the selected frames before writing the animation, which keeps gradients and skin tones closer to the source than a default GIF encoder would.
What this tool does
MP4 in, animated GIF out
The picker accepts .mp4 only, so the tool stays focused on the one conversion it promises and rejects other files with a clear message.
Control over the loop
Set a start time in seconds and a duration up to 10 seconds, so a long recording becomes the short demo or reaction segment you actually want to post.
Frame rate from 6 to 12 fps
Lower frame rates produce much smaller GIFs; 10 fps is a good balance for most screen recordings and short clips.
Width from 160 to 480 pixels
Narrow GIFs suit inline chat and documentation, wider ones keep more detail, and the height follows the source aspect ratio automatically.
Palette built from your clip
A per-clip color palette is generated before the GIF is written and applied with dithering, which avoids the muddy, posterised look of naive GIF encoding.
Server-side processing, automatic cleanup
FFmpeg converts on our server instead of your browser tab, and the upload and the finished GIF are deleted automatically once your download completes.
How to use MP4 to GIF
- 01
Add the MP4 file
Drop the .mp4 clip into the workspace or click Choose file. Uploads are limited to 100 MB.
- 02
Set the start time
Enter the second where the moment you want begins, or leave 0 to start at the beginning of the file.
- 03
Choose duration, frame rate and width
Keep the clip between 1 and 10 seconds, then pick 6 to 12 frames per second and a width from 160 to 480 pixels that suits where the GIF will live.
- 04
Create the GIF
Click Create GIF. The server seeks to the start point, extracts the frames, builds the palette and writes the animation, showing progress as the job runs.
- 05
Preview and download
Check the looping preview, then download the GIF. The file keeps the original clip name with a .gif extension.
Supported formats and limits
- Input
- MP4
- Output
- GIF
- Processing
- Server-side FFmpeg job in a temporary directory, deleted after download.
- Maximum size
- Up to 100 MB
- Requirements
- Chrome, Edge, Firefox or Safari · Server-side FFmpeg conversion
Limitations worth knowing
- Accepts .mp4 files only, up to 100 MB, one file per job.
- GIF clips are capped at 10 seconds, 12 fps and 480 pixels wide.
- GIF has no audio and a 256-color palette, so gradients and photographic footage can band.
- Jobs stop after three minutes, so long or very high-resolution MP4 files may not finish.
Privacy and file handling
Your MP4 is uploaded to a temporary working directory on our server, converted to a GIF with FFmpeg, and sent back as a download. The upload and the finished GIF are deleted automatically when the download completes, and nothing is written to permanent storage, logged as content or shared.
Read the full privacy policy