Turn video into GIF, and pick your seconds
Last updated: September 2026
No watermark on the free export. Transparent WebM, GIF or green screen, straight out: free exports go up to 1920 px.
Most sites that convert MP4 to GIF hand you the first few seconds of your clip and stamp a logo in the corner. This one doesn't. Drop in any video, MP4, MOV, WebM, whatever you've got, choose where the GIF starts and how long it runs, and download it: free, no account, no watermark. The clip doesn't need a person in it and nothing is removed: a game clip, a pet, a screen recording and a drone shot all work the same way.
Related: Convert any video to VR.
Which mode people actually pick
In the 40 days before this was written, the named tool pages on this site were opened 96 times in total. The plain background-remover (transparent WebM) accounted for 41 of those, by far the most common choice, with this GIF maker in second place at 20, and the upscaler at 15. The rest split thinly across half a dozen other pages, some with a single visit in the whole period.
That's not a sign the GIF mode is a lesser feature: plenty of people use the mode picker on the home page directly, without ever landing on this page first, so 20 is a floor, not the full count. But if you came here specifically hunting for a GIF converter, you're in a smaller, more specific crowd than the one cutting people out of backgrounds. Not every upload works either: 24 jobs across the whole site failed partway through after they'd already started, for reasons ranging from an odd codec to a corrupted file. Not tied to which mode you picked.
WebM or MP4 to a transparent GIF
The GIF mode on this page converts the picture exactly as it is, so the background stays. It does not keep the alpha channel of a transparent WebM, and see-through areas come out solid. To get a transparent GIF from an MP4 or WebM, use Cut out the person on the home page: the AI separates the person frame by frame, and next to the WebM and MP4 files you get a transparent GIF of the first 10 seconds at 480 px. That mode needs a person in the shot, and a GIF only has on/off transparency per pixel, so hair and motion blur look a little harder at the edges than in the WebM.
Formats, devices and sources
Call it a video to GIF maker or a way to convert GIF loops out of your own clips: it all starts with one drop onto this page. Every GIF it makes is animated, so there's no separate option to convert to animated GIF. Nothing gets installed; you trim in the browser and the download comes back on the same page, free, with no watermark and no card.
It works the same from Safari on an iPhone as from Chrome on Android, and Apple devices need nothing extra.
This online video to GIF converter only makes animated GIFs, so as an online video to animated gif converter it needs no extra setting, and so the flow stays the same on every device: trim, then download. Any clip you can play will turn into GIF format the same way, whether it came from a phone, a camera or a screen recorder, and as an online converter it needs nothing more than one upload box.
Any format it can open
MOV and MKV files work too, as long as your browser can play them for the preview: convert MOV to GIF straight from an iPhone, or do MKV to GIF with a recording from OBS. MOV to GIF and MP4 to GIF go through exactly the same steps.
You set the trim in the browser, and only the piece you picked is sent to our server, which builds the GIF. That's how to turn a video into a gif here: two slider drags and a button. If you looked up how to make a video into a gif, the steps are the same everywhere on this page: upload, set the sliders, download. There is one GIF quality for everyone: a pass raises the upload limits, not the GIF itself, so every GIF is 480 px wide at 15 frames per second.
A movie to gif conversion this short keeps the file small enough to share. Clip to gif means grabbing just one part instead of the whole clip, with the same two sliders. To convert WebM to GIF, upload the WebM like any other format; its transparency isn't kept (see the questions below).
Longer clips, different sources
Longer source clips are fine, because only the seconds you pick get converted. A webcam recording is just another MP4 or WebM file, and MPEG or MPG files work as well if your browser can play them, since the trim step only needs the file to play.
一 Two modes, and the difference matters
Whether you just want to convert MP4 to GIF as-is or cut the person out first, you pick one of two modes on the home page before you upload:
- 🎬 Just make a GIF, your clip becomes a GIF, background and all. No AI, no queue, done in seconds. Works on anything.
- ✂️ Cut out the person, the AI removes the background first, so the GIF you get has a see-through background: a sticker you can paste into Discord, Slack or a stream overlay. This one needs a person in the shot, and the GIF covers the first 10 seconds of the clip. It's the gif bg remover mode, the video to gif background remover on this site; the plain trim mode next to it has no AI in it at all. The AI does the separating only here, which is what video to gif AI means in practice.
Same upload, same 45-minute deletion rule. The only difference is whether the background survives.
To make video GIF output with the background left in, pick plain trim mode: no AI, no queue. That's the fast way to make video a GIF. For a GIF with the background removed, pick cut-out mode instead. Either way it's an online GIF converter with one upload box, and in plain mode the video GIF maker comes down to two settings: start and length.
二 Cutting it shorter, before you upload
You pick the trim in your own browser. Pick your file and a player appears with two sliders: start and length, up to 20 seconds. The preview loops exactly the piece you selected, so what you see is what the GIF will be. Nothing leaves your device until you press the button: change your mind and nothing was ever uploaded.
Twenty seconds is a deliberate ceiling. A GIF stores every frame as its own image, so length is the one setting that decides whether your file is 400 KB or 12 MB. If you need a longer loop, a short WebM or MP4 is the right format for the job. Want to trim, crop or speed up the clip before turning it into a GIF? The video editor chains those edits on the same upload, then you bring the result back here for the GIF step.
三 What comes out
- 480 pixels wide, height follows your clip's aspect ratio: the width Discord, Slack and Reddit display inline without re-compressing.
- 15 frames per second. Smooth enough to read as motion, half the file size of 30.
- 256 colours, chosen from your actual footage (a palette pass, not a fixed table), which is why gradients survive better here than in most converters.
- No watermark, no logo, no "made with".
That combination, trim, convert, download, covers the common case of turning one clip into one loop; there's no separate app to open.
四 Why your GIF is bigger than you expected
GIF is a 1987 format with no motion compression: every frame is stored whole. Three things drive the size, in this order, length, frame rate, and how much of the picture moves. A ten-second static talking head compresses far better than three seconds of a shaky handheld pan, because the encoder can reuse unchanged pixels.
So if a GIF comes out too heavy for where you want to post it: cut a second off before you touch anything else. Discord's free upload ceiling is 10 MB, Slack shows GIFs up to 8 MB inline, and Reddit re-encodes anything above about 100 MB anyway.
五 Transparent GIFs: what actually works
A GIF's transparency is one single bit: a pixel is either fully there or fully gone, with no in-between. That is why a transparent GIF has a slightly harder edge than a transparent WebM, which stores a full alpha channel with soft, feathered edges.
Two practical consequences. First, hair and motion blur look crisper-than-real on a GIF edge; if that bothers you, use the WebM in the places that support it and keep the GIF for chat. Second, a transparent GIF looks correct on any background colour, but only where the app honours it: Discord, Slack and browsers do; some phone keyboards paste it onto white instead.
Sources
- GIF - Wikipedia: GIF allows 256 colors per frame and on/off transparency
六Questions
Does the video need a person in it?
Not for GIF mode: anything works, and nothing is removed. Only the cut-out mode needs a person, because that's what it's built to find. Anyone looking to remove video background gif style needs that cut-out mode, since the plain trim mode never touches the background.
Can I choose which part of the video becomes the GIF?
Yes: a start slider and a length slider, up to 20 seconds, right in your browser before the upload starts.
Is there a watermark?
No. No watermark, no logo, no sign-up, no e-mail.
Does the sound survive?
No, and it can't: the GIF format has no audio track at all. If you need sound, take the MP4 or WebM from the cut-out mode instead.
What happens to my file?
The upload is deleted the moment your GIF is built, and the result itself is wiped within 45 minutes.
Does this work as a video to GIF converter for any file, or just MP4?
Any video your browser can open: MP4, MOV, WebM and more. Since MP4 is what most phones and screen recorders save, it works as an MP4 to GIF converter out of the box, and changing video to GIF from a MOV or WebM file goes through the same two sliders.
Is this basically a GIF maker from video, or does it need extra software?
It's a GIF maker from video: no software, no plug-in, no account. Pick your seconds and download.
Can I add gif text or captions before converting?
Not directly: this tool only trims and converts. If your clip already has captions burned in, that on-screen gif text carries over automatically, since converting just re-encodes the frames.
Is there a video converter that outputs MP4, not just GIF?
Not on this page. Cut-out mode gives MP4 and WebM files with the background removed and the audio kept, and the video editor exports a normal video (MP4, WebM, MOV or MKV) after trimming, cropping or other edits.
How do I convert a video clip to an animated GIF?
Drop the clip on this page, drag the start and length sliders to the part you want, and download. That's the whole way to turn video into animated GIF or transform video into GIF here: no software, no watermark, and any video file your browser can open.
What frame rate does the output GIF run at?
15 frames per second, whatever the source runs at. That reads as smooth motion and makes about half the file of 30 frames per second. To make the file smaller, pick fewer seconds.
Can I make a GIF from a screen recording?
Yes: screen recordings are typically saved as MP4 or MOV, both of which work here. Drop the file in, trim to the moment you want to capture, and download the GIF. It's a quick way to turn a short workflow clip into something you can paste into a chat or a doc.
Do I need to turn on a loop option, or set the GIF to loop myself?
No setting to find: every GIF this makes already loops forever by default. A loop gif isn't something you switch on here, it's just how the file is written, so it plays on a continuous cycle wherever you post it.
What is the maximum video length I can convert to GIF?
You can select up to 20 seconds using the length slider. For longer clips, trim to the 20-second window you want: keeping GIFs short also keeps the file size manageable.
Can I reduce the output GIF dimensions to make the file smaller?
Not with a setting. Every GIF comes out 480 pixels wide (narrower only if your clip is), at 15 frames per second, so the one thing that changes the file size is how many seconds you pick. For a GIF you already have that's still too heavy, use the GIF compressor.
Can I convert a video to animated GIF on mobile?
Yes. Open this page in any mobile browser, pick the video from your phone's gallery, adjust the sliders and download. It works on both iPhone Safari and Android Chrome with no app to install. Searching how to turn video into gif iphone side, or how to make a video a gif on iphone specifically, lands on the exact same steps: no separate app or shortcut needed.
Can I make a GIF with a transparent background?
Yes, but not in this GIF mode, which keeps the background: for a video to gif transparent background, switch to cut-out mode on the home page. The remove background GIF option is "Cut out the person" on the home page: the AI separates the person frame by frame (not a colour filter), and next to the WebM and MP4 files you get a transparent GIF of the first 10 seconds at 480 px, a gif video sticker you can paste into Discord or Slack. That is how to convert video to transparent gif here, and under the hood it's the same video remove background pass as the other files, so the background removal is identical. Green-screen footage works too: you don't need to remove green screen colour first, because the AI cutout doesn't need a key. It does need a person in the shot. A GIF only has on/off transparency per pixel, so hair and motion blur look a little harder at the edges than in the WebM.
Does a green screen video to gif conversion work the same way?
Yes: upload the green screen clip in cut-out mode and the AI separates the person from the green instead of keying the colour, which gives you a transparent GIF of the first 10 seconds at 480 px.
Can I go webm to gif transparent, turning an existing transparent WebM into a GIF directly?
Not with the transparency. This GIF mode converts the visible picture and doesn't keep the WebM's alpha channel, so the see-through areas come out solid. For a transparent GIF, run the original clip through cut-out mode instead.
Can this edit or crop a GIF I already have, not just make a new one from video?
No: this page only trims a video's start and length, then converts it; it doesn't open or reshape a GIF file you already have. For pixel crops or filters on an existing file, you'd need a separate, dedicated tool, which we don't run built-in.
I already have a GIF that's too big for Discord: can this compress it?
Not this page: this converts a video into a brand new GIF, it doesn't edit one that already exists. If you need to compress animated gif files that are already too heavy for Discord or Slack, our GIF compressor shrinks the file without touching the animation, no re-conversion from video needed.
Can I get a smaller file than a GIF for the same clip?
Yes. Export the GIF here, then run it through GIF to MP4. An MP4 of the same clip is usually several times smaller and has no colour banding.
Is a free download available, and is there an editor?
The download is free, with no watermark and no card. There's no GIF editor beyond the start and length sliders: no filters and no text tool. To crop or speed up a clip first, use the video editor free on this same site, then bring the result back here.
Is this an easy video to gif file converter?
Three steps: drop the file, trim, download. It's a free converter with one limit: each GIF you make counts as one of your 10 free clips for the day. Dragging the sliders around costs nothing until you press the button.
Does the output work well for posting to Discord specifically?
Yes: a video to gif for discord export fits Discord's own 10 MB inline limit for a typical short clip, covered in the file-size section above.
How do I convert a video to GIF, step by step?
Drop the file onto this page, drag the start and length sliders to the part you want, and press the button. That's how to convert video to GIF here, on a computer or a phone. If you want to know how to convert video into GIF without a huge file, keep the selection short, because length decides the size more than anything else. How do I make a video into a GIF on an iPhone? The same way, in Safari. To make a video to GIF takes as long as dragging two sliders, and how to save a video as a GIF is simply the download button once it's ready.
Can I turn a YouTube video into a GIF here?
Not from a link: there's no box for a URL. If the video is yours, download it from YouTube Studio first, or use a clip you have the rights to, and drop the file in. From there a youtube video gif comes out the same way as anything else: trim, then download. So how to make a youtube video into a gif comes down to getting the file onto your device; turning youtube videos to gifs works the same, one youtube video into a gif at a time.
Why does my video to GIF conversion come out blurry?
A blurry video gif almost always traces back to the source clip, not a setting here: GIF format keeps 256 colours and this page exports at 480 pixels wide, so a soft or heavily compressed original stays soft after conversion. There's no sharpening step to add: upload the cleanest version of the footage you have and the result will match it. The quality is the same for everyone using this gif converter online: a pass raises the upload limits, not the GIF itself.
On a phone, and the preview before you download
On an iPhone, open this page in Safari, pick the clip from your camera roll, drag the two sliders and download. That answers how to make video into gif iPhone owners usually ask about: no separate app. HEVC, the format newer iPhones record in by default, opens here like any MOV or MP4. On Android it works the same way in Chrome.
Chasing a video to gif high quality result mostly comes down to the source file: this page exports at 480 pixels wide and 15 frames per second, and it can't add sharpness that a soft or heavily compressed original never had.
The preview before converting plays the selected range in full motion and loops it as soon as you drag either slider, so what plays there is exactly what gets exported. As a video player it only shows that range. The finished GIF needs no special app: it animates in a browser tab or any image viewer.
Sharing a video gif WhatsApp style, through the GIF picker, doesn't keep the GIF: WhatsApp re-encodes it into a short, muted, looping MP4. Send the download as a document instead to keep the real file.
More free ninja tools: remove photo backgrounds · restore old photos · split a song into stems
By Sam Ridder, I build and run VideoBGNinja on my own hardware, on my own. Who I am.