How to Make a GIF From a Video, Free and Private

A frame of a video showing a lake seen through green leaves, ready to become a GIF — A video clip loaded in Mokivo’s Video to GIF, ready to be turned into a looping GIF.

The tool is Video to GIF. Your video is decoded and turned into frames on your own device, so it is never uploaded to any server.

You need a video that your browser can play — MP4 and WebM work almost everywhere. Keep the part you want short: GIFs get big quickly.

1Open the tool

Go to Video to GIF. There is nothing to install and no account.

The Video to GIF tool with an empty drop area — The empty tool.

2Add your video

Drop a video onto the box or click to choose a file. The video appears with a player, so you can scrub through it and find the moment you want.

A video loaded in the tool with a player and Start and End sliders — Video loaded; the Start and End sliders pick the part to turn into a GIF.

3Pick the part and the settings

Use the Start and End sliders to choose the moment. Then set:

Frame rate — 8, 12, 15 or 20 frames per second. Higher is smoother, and bigger.
Width — 240, 360, 480 or 640 pixels. The height follows automatically.
Format — GIF works everywhere. Animated WebP (shown in browsers that can create it, such as Chrome and Edge) is much smaller for the same quality.
Loop forever — on by default.

The tool shows the output size under the settings.

Frame rate set to 15 fps and width set to 480 with the Create GIF button — 15 frames per second at 480 pixels wide, ready to create.

4Create and download

Press Create GIF. When the animation is ready you see a preview and the file size. If you like it, press Download. If it is too big, press Start over, shorten the clip or lower the frame rate and width, and try again.

The animation ready with a preview, its size and a Download button — The finished GIF with its size shown before you download.

Tips for a small, smooth GIF

Shorter is better. Two to six seconds is the sweet spot. Each extra second adds a lot of data.
Busy footage makes big files. In our test, a 6-second clip of leaves and moving water at 15 fps and 480 px wide came out at about 11 MB, because every frame is full of detail. A calmer scene with large flat areas is far smaller.
Lower the numbers to shrink it. 12 fps and 360 px wide is usually plenty for chat and social posts.
Try Animated WebP if the place you are posting supports it: it is much smaller than GIF.
Cut out the boring start. Move the Start slider to the action so every frame counts.

Have a clip you want to loop? It takes about a minute and the video never leaves your device.

Open Video to GIF →

Frequently asked questions

Is it free?

Yes — no account, no watermark. It is part of Mokivo.

Is my video uploaded?

No. The video is processed in your browser and never uploaded to any server.

Why is my GIF so big?

GIF is an old format with no real compression for video. Shorten the clip and lower the frame rate and width, or use Animated WebP where it is supported.

Which video formats work?

Anything your browser can play — MP4 and WebM work almost everywhere. Other formats such as MOV depend on the browser.

Can I make a GIF from a very long video?

You choose a short range with the Start and End sliders, and only that part is turned into a GIF.

What is the difference between GIF and animated WebP?

GIF works everywhere but makes big files. Animated WebP is much smaller at the same quality, but not every app or browser supports it.

The example video is a stock clip. GIF encoding uses gif.js (MIT) running in your browser.