The same loop, a fraction of the weight.

Convert a GIF to a small MP4 or WebM video, or a short MP4 clip to a GIF, in your browser. Nothing is uploaded, and every size is measured.

By Suraj Kumar1 November 20265 min read

A rocky coastline with a small house above turquoise water

A GIF is the heaviest way to show something moving, and a video is usually the lightest. Going from one to the other in either direction is a job for the KeepSimp animation converter, which works in your browser with the browser's own video encoders.

Why video is so much smaller.

GIF stores each frame as a picture of at most 256 colours. Video formats describe how one frame changes into the next, which is what moving pictures mostly do. In one test with KeepSimp's own sample, a 20-frame pan, the GIF was 627 KB and the MP4 between 18 and 36 KB, depending on the browser that wrote it. Your files will differ, but the gap is usually large.

A video has limits of its own: it is not an image, so it cannot go where only images are accepted, and an MP4 has no see-through parts.

GIF to MP4.

Open the animation converter and add the GIF. Under Where will it go?, choose Social video, which saves an MP4 with H.264, the kind nearly every phone and app plays. It is offered only when your browser can write it; otherwise choose WebM under More options.

A GIF has no sound, so neither has the video. Clear parts of the GIF are filled with a colour. To show the video on a web page like a GIF, give it these settings:

A video that behaves like a GIF

<video src="loop.mp4" autoplay loop muted playsinline></video>

MP4 to GIF.

Add an MP4, MOV or WebM clip; it is read with your browser's own decoders, so a codec the browser cannot play cannot be read. A clip faster than 16 frames a second or larger than 640 pixels starts at 15 frames a second and 640 pixels on its longest side, and the page says so. Change either under More options.

Trim it with the two handles to the part you want: a GIF of a few seconds is already large. Choose Chat or email for a GIF, and the Best encoder, gifski, under More options for the smoothest colours. The sound is left out, as a GIF cannot hold it.

For longer videos.

For a clip cut from a longer video, the Video editor's Video to GIF page lets you trim and crop first, and makes the GIF with this converter's own engine and settings.

A little less theory. A little more doing.

Try it on your own terms, with a free browser tool.

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