Convert MOV to GIF
Drop a MOV (a QuickTime movie) from an iPhone, a Mac, or a camera, pick the seconds you want, and a GIF is made from them straight away. Change the frame rate or the width and it is made again, with its real size shown, before you download it.
Play or drag the video to a moment, then press Set from video to use that time as the start or the end. Times can be typed too.
The GIF appears here once a video is open.
How to use it#
- Drop a MOV onto the box above, or click it to choose one.
- The page picks the first 10 seconds. Change the start and end in seconds, or play the video to the moment you want and press Set from video.
- Pick a frame rate and a width. The GIF is made again each time, and its size is shown under it.
- Download the GIF when it looks right.
GIFs from iPhone videos#
An iPhone saves every video as a MOV. Set to High Efficiency, as most are, it records the picture in HEVC; set to Most Compatible, it uses H.264. Chrome, Edge, and Safari read both, so either drops straight in. Firefox on a Mac cannot read HEVC, and the page says so when that is the problem rather than making an empty GIF.
A video filmed upright comes out upright, and a 4K video costs nothing extra in the GIF, because the GIF is drawn at the width you pick: 480 pixels is plenty for a message, and 640 for something people will look at closely. What 4K does cost is time, since every frame in the chosen seconds is decoded at full size first.
Live Photos#
A Live Photo is a still picture with about three seconds of video kept beside it, and that video is a MOV. On an iPhone, open the Live Photo in Photos, tap the More button (three dots), and choose Save as Video. The new video goes into the Recently Saved album, and that is the one to drop here. On a Mac, select it in Photos and choose File, Export, Export Unmodified Original, which saves the still and the video as two files.
Three seconds at 10 frames a second is only 30 frames, so a Live Photo makes a short GIF that is easy to send. Use the whole clip, or trim it to the part that moves.
Mac screen recordings, and keeping the GIF small#
A Mac saves screen recordings as MOV too, whether made with Shift, Command, and 5 or in QuickTime Player. A recording of an app makes a small GIF, because each frame is written as only what changed since the one before, and most of a screen stays still. The recording is at the full Retina resolution, so choose 640 pixels or Original if the text in it has to be readable.
A handheld phone video is the opposite: almost every pixel moves in every frame, so the GIF can be several times the size of the video. Keep it to a few seconds, start at 10 frames a second and 480 pixels, and watch the GIF figure beside it as you change them. A GIF has no sound, so the sound track is not used.
Frequently asked questions#
What frame rate and width should I use?
#
10 frames a second at 480 pixels wide suits most iPhone clips. Use 15 or 20 for fast movement, and 25 or 30 when it has to be as smooth as the video, which makes a much larger file. A GIF is never faster than the video, so a 24 fps clip set to 30 comes out at 24. For a screen recording with text, 640 pixels or Original keeps the words sharp. Each change makes the GIF again and shows its new size.
How do I turn a Live Photo into a GIF?
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Save its video first. In Photos on an iPhone, open the Live Photo, tap the More button (three dots), and choose Save as Video. Drop that video here, pick the part you want, and download the GIF. On a Mac, Export Unmodified Original in Photos gives you the MOV directly.
Why does it say this browser cannot read the video?
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The MOV is most likely HEVC, which is what an iPhone records in by default, and you are using Firefox on a Mac, which cannot read it. Open this page in Chrome, Edge, or Safari. ProRes, which iPhone Pro models can record, cannot be read by any browser; export it as H.264 or HEVC first.
Can I make the GIF on my iPhone?
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Yes. The page works in Safari on an iPhone: tap the box, choose Photo Library, and pick the video. Making the GIF takes longer than on a computer, so keep it to a few seconds.
Why is the GIF bigger than the video?
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A GIF stores pictures, not video, in at most 256 colours each, and can only save space where pixels stay the same from one frame to the next. In a handheld clip almost every pixel changes. Pick fewer seconds, 10 frames a second, or a smaller width. If the place you are posting accepts video, compress video makes a far smaller file that looks better.
Why is it slow?
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Making a GIF means turning every frame of the clip into a picture of its own. Your file never leaves your device, so the work is done by your own computer or phone, inside this browser tab, not on a server built for it. A GIF holds at most 256 colours a frame, so every frame is decoded and its colours are chosen and matched pixel by pixel. No video chip does that: it runs on the processor, in code the page brings with it, and a longer clip, more frames a second, or a wider GIF each add to it. A phone also slows itself down as it warms up, and some browsers slow a tab you switch away from, so keeping this tab in front, closing other tabs, and plugging a phone in all help.
Is my video uploaded?
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No. The frames are read from the MOV and made into a GIF inside this browser tab. Nothing is sent anywhere.