Convert MP4 to GIF

The presets, in numbers

The pixel figure is the most the shorter side can have. A 1080p landscape clip at Balanced becomes a 640 × 360 GIF; a vertical phone clip becomes 360 × 640. Small clips are never enlarged. To decide for yourself, More settings has Size, from 240p up to the clip's own, and Frames a second, which can go below the preset but not above it.

GIF, WebP or APNG

• GIF plays everywhere: every browser, chat app and social network. It is limited to 256 colors, so Octoolo builds a palette from each clip, favoring the parts that move, and dithers to smooth out gradients. Only the part of each frame that changes is stored, which keeps still backgrounds cheap.
• Animated WebP has full color and comes out much smaller than a GIF of the same clip, because it compresses each frame the way a photo is compressed, a little lossily, at a level each preset sets. Browsers show it, but some apps and upload forms still accept only GIF.
• APNG is an animated PNG: full color, lossless, and saved with a .png ending. Browsers play it; expect large files.

All three loop forever and carry no sound. If a GIF turns out too heavy, the same clip as WebP is the quickest fix, provided the place you post it takes WebP.

Trim first, or let the editor make it

This converter turns each clip into an animation from start to finish; it does not cut. A GIF of a whole 40-second clip is rarely what anyone wants, so trim long clips first:

• For a single clip, the Video Editor does it all: cut the part you want, add words with the Meme or Caption text style, and choose GIF in Export. Its GIFs are up to 640 pixels wide at up to 15 frames a second. The video to GIF guide shows how.
• For clips that are already short, this converter is the quicker road: one setting for a whole folder, and no timeline.

To shorten an MP4 without making a GIF yet, use the video trimmer, then bring the trimmed clip back here with the rest of the batch.

A folder of clips, one setting

Documentation, product pages and help centers often need dozens of short clips as GIFs. Drop the folder: Octoolo finds the clips, up to 500, and converts them with the preset you chose, each next to its MP4 or all together in a folder you pick. Making an animation encodes every frame afresh, so Octoolo does one clip at a time, and the list shows the progress and time left for each.

Do not be surprised if a GIF ends up bigger than the MP4 it came from: that is normal for GIF. If a batch comes out too heavy, run it again at Small, or as WebP. Octoolo remembers the format and quality you used last, so the next batch of clips starts where this one left off.