MOV to GIF Converter
Make an animated GIF from an iPhone video, a Live Photo saved as video or a Mac screen recording. Choose the moment, the frame rate and the size, and get a GIF with natural colors, even from HDR footage.
Defaults: 480 px wide, 15 frames per second, a palette built from your clip. Choose Original for the full width.
GIF has no audio. Keep the source video if you may need sound or further video editing.
How to convert MOV to GIF
The converter turns the frames of the MOV into an animated GIF. The sound is dropped, because GIF has no audio.
Step-by-step
- Choose a MOV file or drag it onto the upload area.
- Choose Selected time range and enter the start and end of the moment you want; a few seconds is usually enough.
- Keep 15 frames per second and 480 px, or change them, then click Convert to GIF.
- Check the preview and download the GIF.
What you get
An animated GIF that plays almost anywhere:
- A palette of 256 colors chosen from your clip rather than a generic one, so skin, sky and light walls do not turn into blotches.
- HDR video from an iPhone converted to normal brightness first, so the GIF does not come out pale and gray.
- Transparency kept when the MOV has an alpha channel, for example a ProRes 4444 export.
- The frame rate and width you choose, with the aspect ratio and orientation of the video kept.
- The whole video or only the selected moment, as a looping GIF with no watermark.
Where MOV files come from
MOV is Apple's video format. The iPhone camera saves videos as MOV, and Live Photos become short MOV clips when you save them as video in the Photos app or export them on a Mac. The macOS screenshot toolbar (Shift-Command-5) and QuickTime Player save screen recordings as MOV too.
Editing apps such as Final Cut Pro, Premiere Pro and After Effects export MOV in ProRes, often with an alpha channel for titles, stickers and animated logos. All of these work here: the converter reads HEVC, H.264 and ProRes, and turns portrait iPhone videos the right way up.
Choosing frame rate and size
GIF stores every frame as a separate image, so its size grows with the width, the frame rate and the length. For a typical camera clip, 4 seconds at 480 px and 15 frames per second take about 2–4 MB, depending on how much moves. At the original width of an iPhone video, 1920 or 3840 px, the same clip becomes many times larger.
A Mac screen recording is captured at Retina resolution, often 2880 px wide or more. To keep small text readable, record only the part of the screen you need and choose a width of 800–1000 px with 8–10 frames per second: a screen changes less than a camera image, and the GIF stays small.
Quality and limits
GIF can show only 256 colors per frame, and it is a standard-range format. HDR highlights from an iPhone are mapped to normal brightness, so very bright skies and lamps look calmer than on the phone screen. Scenes with many colors and fine gradients may look slightly grainy.
GIF transparency is on or off for each pixel, without partial transparency: soft shadows and blurred edges from a ProRes 4444 file become hard. The GIF has no sound. Files can be up to 200 MB, which is about a minute of 4K iPhone video or less, so trim the clip in the Photos app first if it is longer than you need.
More ways to work with GIF and short clips
MP4 to GIF Converter
Turn an MP4 clip into an animated GIF with colors close to the original.
Convert Video to GIF
Make a GIF from any video with the original size and frame rate as the starting point.
Trim Video
Cut the exact moment out of a long video before you make the GIF.
Crop Video
Crop a screen recording to the window or area that matters before you make the GIF.
Need to Edit Your Video?
Continue with trimming, resizing, cropping, text, subtitles, audio, and other edits in the full editor.
Learn more about GIFs
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about converting MOV videos to GIF.
Is the MOV to GIF converter free?
Yes. It is free, you do not need an account, and the GIF has no watermark.
How do I make a GIF from a Live Photo?
On an iPhone, open the Live Photo in Photos, tap the More button (…) in the upper-right corner and choose Save as Video. Then upload that video here. On a Mac, File > Export > Export Unmodified Original saves the Live Photo's MOV next to the photo.
Why did my iPhone video look washed out as a GIF elsewhere?
iPhone 12 and newer record HDR video by default. Converters that do not handle HDR put it into a GIF unchanged, and the colors come out pale and gray. This converter maps HDR to normal brightness first, so the colors stay natural.
Will a transparent background stay transparent?
Yes, if the MOV has an alpha channel, as a ProRes 4444 export does. GIF supports only fully transparent or fully opaque pixels, so soft shadows and semi-transparent edges become hard.
How do I make a GIF from a Mac screen recording?
Press Shift-Command-5, record the part of the screen you need, and upload the MOV here. For readable text, choose a width of 800–1000 px and 8–10 frames per second.
Does the GIF keep the sound?
No. GIF is an image format and has no audio. If you need sound, keep the MOV or convert it to MP4 instead.