How to convert a video to GIF
A GIF is a sequence of images that plays by itself, without sound, anywhere: chat, email, docs, social media. With GifCut you turn a video clip into a GIF in under a minute, with nothing to install.
1. Open the video
On the home page, drag the file onto the dashed area or click "Choose video". The preview shows up with the resolution and duration right below. If a format warning appears, your browser can't read that file; convert it to MP4 (H.264) and try again.
2. Trim the clip
Drag the "Start" and "End" sliders, or play the video and press "Start here" and "End here" at the right moment. Clips can be up to 30 seconds. Short GIFs, 2 to 6 seconds, stay light and work best.
3. Size, FPS and speed
- Width: 480 px fits almost everything. Use 320 or 240 for chats and 640 only when detail matters.
- FPS: 10 frames per second is the usual GIF rate. 15 or 20 make motion smoother and the file bigger.
- Speed: 2× shortens a long clip; 0.5× gives slow motion.
The frame count and size estimate show up before you make the GIF and update with every change.
4. Looping and colors
Under "Loop", "Forever" makes the GIF repeat, as usual, and "Once" stops on the last frame.
A GIF has at most 256 colors per frame. Single palette picks the colors once for the whole GIF and makes smaller files. Palette per frame picks them for each frame and looks better when colors change a lot, at the cost of a bigger file.
5. Make and download
Click "Make GIF". A bar shows the progress and you can cancel at any time. When it's done, the GIF shows up for you to check; download it, or go back, adjust and make it again.
Tips for a small GIF
- Size grows with width × height × frames. Going from 480 to 320 px cuts the file in half.
- Screen recordings compress very well; camera footage with motion and grain, not so much.
- Many chats cap GIFs at 8 or 10 MB. If yours is bigger, shorten the clip or lower the FPS.