NEW · FFmpeg.wasm · 100% Browser-Based

Free Video to GIF Maker

Turn any video into an animated GIF with frame-range, fps, and size controls. In-browser via FFmpeg.wasm. No upload, no signup, no watermark.

🎬
Drop a video file
MP4 · MOV · WebM · MKV · AVI · GIF
Files stay on your device · Never uploaded

Why Do This in Your Browser?

GIFs remain the lingua franca of chat platforms — Slack, Discord, iMessage, email — because they autoplay without controls and need no plugin. Yet most online GIF makers either limit length, watermark output, or upload your video to their servers. For a 5-second loop, none of that is necessary.

This tool generates a GIF from any video, in browser. Set a start time and end time, choose framerate and output width, optionally apply a custom palette, and the export runs locally via FFmpeg.wasm. The two-pass palette generation produces noticeably better color fidelity than naive single-pass conversions.

How It Works

GIF is limited to 256 colors per frame, so naive video-to-GIF conversions look posterized. The high-quality path is two-pass: first generate a custom palette optimized for the video's actual colors, then map each frame against that palette with Floyd-Steinberg dithering. The output is dramatically cleaner than the same video converted with a single global palette.

File-size strategy: GIFs grow linearly with framerate × width × duration. A 10-second 480px 15fps GIF is around 2–4MB; the same at 30fps doubles. For Slack/Discord, target under 8MB; for email, under 2MB. The tool shows estimated file size as you adjust settings.

Tip: Trim long videos down to the loop you want with the Video Trimmer before GIF conversion. For captioned GIFs, add text via the Video Watermark tool first, then convert.

Common Use Cases

Slack & Discord Reactions
Quick clips for chat — under 8MB so they autoplay in feeds.
Email Animation
Newsletter teasers that play without plugins — under 2MB for fast email loading.
Tutorial Loops
10-second loops of a specific UI interaction, embedded in docs or README files.
Social Media Pre-Posting
Convert a short clip to GIF for Threads, X reposts, or Tumblr.
Comparison Clips
Side-by-side before/after as an animated GIF — common in design portfolios.
Bug Reports
Animated reproduction of a UI bug, included in a Jira/GitHub issue.

How We Compare

Honest read on free, paid, and self-hosted options for this kind of job:

UDT GIF Maker (this tool): Free, browser-based, two-pass palette generation. No upload, no watermark, no signup.
Ezgif: Free, ad-supported. Caps free uploads at 200MB. Cloud-based — your video uploads through their service.
Giphy GIF Maker: Free but the uploaded GIF becomes public on Giphy unless you set it to private. Cloud-based.
Imgur Video-to-GIF: Free, public by default. Caps at 60-second videos and 1024×1024 output. Cloud.
CloudConvert MP4 to GIF: Free tier 25/day. Cloud.
FFmpeg CLI palettegen + paletteuse: Free, gold standard, produces the cleanest GIFs. Requires CLI comfort. This tool is the exact same pipeline.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why are some video-to-GIF conversions so ugly?
GIF only supports 256 colors per frame. Naive conversions use a generic palette that loses subtle color variations. This tool generates a custom palette per video first, then maps frames against it — the result is dramatically cleaner.
What's the max GIF length?
No hard limit, but practical ceiling is around 30 seconds — beyond that, file size becomes unwieldy. Most chat platforms cap upload size around 8MB, which corresponds to ~15 seconds at 480px / 15fps.
Are my videos uploaded anywhere?
No. Conversion runs entirely in your browser via FFmpeg.wasm. The 32MB engine downloads once and caches.
What framerate should I use?
15fps is the sweet spot — smooth enough for human eyes, half the file size of 30fps. 10fps for very long clips, 24–30fps for high-motion content.
Can I extract just part of a video?
Yes — set start time and end time in the controls. Only that range gets converted to GIF.
Why does my GIF file size estimate seem high?
GIF is an inherently inefficient format for video. The estimate updates live as you adjust settings — drop width, framerate, or duration to shrink. For sharing without size constraints, consider exporting as MP4 instead.
Do you support loop count?
Yes — default is infinite loop (the most common case). Toggle to 'play once' if you need it.
Can I add text to the GIF?
Not yet in this tool — for captioned GIFs, use the Video Watermark tool to add text to the video first, then convert.

Related Tools on UDT

Video Trimmer →
Trim videos with frame-accurate precision in your browser.
Video Watermark →
Add text or image watermarks to videos — position, opacity, size, font controls.
Video Compressor →
Shrink video files with platform presets — WhatsApp 16MB, Discord 10MB, Gmail 25MB, IG Reels 4GB, Ti…
All Video Tools →
Browse the full Video Suite — 12 tools, all in-browser.