Turn a few seconds of any MOV, WebM, MKV or MP4 video, screen recordings included, into a looping animated GIF. Nothing is uploaded, and there’s no account or watermark.
Drop one video (MP4, MOV, WebM or MKV) on the page or tap to choose it. A preview player appears with the first 5 seconds already selected.
Drag the “Position in the video” slider and press “Set start here” and “Set end here”, or type times in the “Start” and “End” fields. “Play selection” replays your pick; a GIF can last up to 30 seconds.
Choose a “Frame rate”, a “Width” and “Colors”, and watch the live estimate of pixel size, frame count and file weight.
Press “Create GIF”, check the animation in the result, then press Download to save it.
GIF is an image format from the late 1980s; the GIF89a version of 1989 added the timing and transparency that make animation possible. Every frame is an indexed picture: each pixel points into a palette of at most 256 colors, and the pixel data is packed with LZW, a lossless dictionary compression that loves flat areas and struggles with camera noise.
Timing is stored per frame in hundredths of a second. That is why 10 and 20 fps play exactly, while 15 fps becomes a delay of 7/100 s, about 14.3 frames per second. A loop flag tells viewers to repeat the animation, and filetidy sets it to loop forever. There is no place for sound in the format at all.
Any video your browser can read works as a source: MOV from an iPhone or a Mac screen recording, WebM from a browser-based recorder, MKV from OBS, or an MP4. filetidy decodes only the frames inside your selection, scales them to the width you chose (never larger than the source), builds the palette and encodes the GIF in a background worker on your device. If your browser can't decode a file, a one-time 32 MB compatibility encoder (ffmpeg compiled to WebAssembly) is downloaded instead; the program comes to you, your video never leaves.
Windows
Clipchamp asks you to sign in with a Microsoft account and doesn't let you choose the frame rate or the number of colors.
iPhone & iPad
Make GIF has very few settings, so a long video gives a huge GIF. Trim it in Photos first.
Weight grows with width × height × number of frames. Going from 480 to 800 px wide nearly triples the pixels in every frame, and going from 10 to 20 fps doubles the frames. For screen recordings and interface demos 10 fps is plenty; keep 15 or 20 fps for fast movement such as sport or gaming.
“Balanced (256 colors)” builds one palette for the whole animation, so colors never flicker from frame to frame. “Best (new palette per frame)” lets each frame pick its own 256 colors, which helps when the clip cuts between very different scenes, at the cost of a larger file. “Smaller file (64 colors)” suits flat graphics and app screens but shows banding on skies, skin and gradients.
When the estimate goes past 10 MB, filetidy warns you, because many apps and sites refuse GIFs that heavy. Shortening the selection is the most effective fix, then lowering the frame rate, then the width.
A GIF is the wrong choice for anything longer than a few seconds, anything that needs sound, or footage where image quality matters. Most chat apps, social networks and web pages play short MP4 loops, which are many times lighter and keep millions of colors; in that case trim the video and send it as MP4, compressed if needed. Keep GIFs for places where a video won't play by itself.
MP4, MOV, WebM and MKV. That covers iPhone videos, Mac screen recordings (MOV), clips from the Windows Snipping Tool or Xbox Game Bar (MP4), browser-based screen recorders (WebM) and OBS recordings in MKV. If a preview doesn't appear, type the start and end times and filetidy can still read the frames.
The GIF format has no audio track, so any sound in the video is left out. If the sound matters, share a trimmed MP4 instead of a GIF.
No. If your selection runs past 30 seconds, the end point is moved back and a message tells you. A 30-second GIF is already heavy at modest settings; for anything longer, a short MP4 is a far better format.
A frame can only use 256 colors, or 64 with “Smaller file”, so smooth gradients are approximated with steps or a fine dot pattern. Choose “Balanced (256 colors)” or “Best (new palette per frame)” for footage of people, skies or sunsets.
GIF frame delays are written in hundredths of a second, and 1/15 s can't be expressed exactly, so each frame waits 7/100 s. The difference is invisible in practice. Pick 10 or 20 fps if you need an exact rate.
Yes, the GIF is marked to repeat forever, which is what chat apps, browsers and slide software expect. Some apps let the viewer pause it; filetidy doesn't offer a fixed number of plays.
No. The frames are decoded, resized and turned into a GIF by your own browser, then saved straight to your device. Metadata from the source, such as the location a phone writes into its videos, is not carried into the GIF.
Last updated October 28, 2026