Use a short, focused clip
Trim the video to the moment that communicates the result. A five-second clip can still be large, while a ten-second clip with hundreds of frames can become impractical for chat or help documentation.
Choose a start and end point that contains a complete action. Avoid including unnecessary loading screens or dead time.
Choose frame rate and size deliberately
- Load an MP4, WebM, or MOV file and select a short segment.
- Start around 10–15 fps for interface walkthroughs and use a lower frame rate for simple motion.
- Reduce the output width before lowering colour count further.
- Crop to the important interface or set a ratio that matches the destination.
- Preview the loop and export; compare the GIF size with the expected upload limit.
When GIF is the wrong format
GIF has no modern video compression and is limited to 256 colours per frame in this workflow. Skin tones, gradients, and detailed video may show banding. For long clips, a silent MP4 or WebM is usually much smaller and clearer.
Use GIF when autoplay compatibility, loopability, or simple embedding is more important than the best possible quality.
Local conversion
The selected video is decoded by your browser and encoded locally. Large files and high frame rates can be slow on older devices, and the page itself still loads over the network.