Guide
How to make a GIF from a video
Drop a short clip on Anyfile’s Video to GIF page and an animated GIF downloads straight away, 480 pixels wide at 12 frames a second. To choose the moment, the shape or the size, open the clip in the video editor, trim it, and choose Animated GIF when you download.
Step by step
For a quick GIF, drop the clip
Go to Video to GIF and drop an MP4, MOV, WebM or MKV. The whole clip becomes a looping GIF in your Downloads folder. GIFs are made from up to a minute of video, so a longer clip needs trimming first.
To pick the moment, open the editor
Open the clip in the video editor. Play it, then drag the yellow handles at either end of the filmstrip to where the GIF should start and stop, or press I and O at the playhead.
Crop it for where it’s going
Crop offers Free, 16:9, 9:16, 1:1, 4:5 and 4:3: a square suits a chat, 16:9 a slide. Press Done when the frame is right. Speed, turning, mirroring and fades from black all carry into the GIF too.
Choose Animated GIF and its settings
Open the arrow next to Download and set Format to Animated GIF. Smoothness is 8, 12 or 20 frames a second, and Width is 320, 480 or 640 px; a GIF is never made wider than the video. Then press Download.
GIF is an old format: up to 256 colours a frame, no sound, and compression that suits cartoons better than film. That’s why size climbs fast. A five-second clip at 480 px and 12 frames a second is comfortable for a message; twenty seconds at 640 px and 20 frames a second can run to tens of megabytes. If a GIF comes out too big, shorten it first, then lower the width, then the smoothness.
For a clip that needs sound or more colour, an MP4 is usually smaller and sharper than the same GIF, and most chat apps play short MP4s on a loop anyway.
Nothing is uploaded: your browser reads the file and makes the new one on your device. See how it works, and how to check.
Other ways to do it
On an iPhone. The Shortcuts app has a ready-made Make GIF shortcut in its Gallery, which turns a video or Live Photo from your library into a GIF.
Desktop apps. Photoshop imports a clip with File › Import › Video Frames to Layers and saves a GIF with full control over colours. ffmpeg, a free command-line tool, makes excellent GIFs if you’re happy typing commands.
GIF websites. Sites such as GIPHY turn a video into a GIF and host it for you, which is handy for sharing, but the video is uploaded to them.
When Anyfile is quicker
For a reaction clip, a product demo or a screen recording for a bug report, the browser is quickest: drop, trim and download, with nothing to install. If you make GIFs every day and want control over every frame and colour, a desktop tool is worth learning.
Questions
How long can the GIF be?
Up to a minute. Anything longer would be enormous as a GIF; trim the clip first, or share it as an MP4.
Why is my GIF so large?
GIF compresses moving pictures poorly. Make it shorter, narrower (320 or 480 px) or less smooth (8 frames a second), roughly in that order of effect.
Does the GIF loop?
Yes, it plays on a loop, as GIFs in chats and on web pages usually do.
Is my video uploaded?
No. The GIF is made in your browser, on your device, and the video never leaves it.