CalcBrew

Video Converters

MP4 to GIF

Grab the best three seconds of a video as a GIF for a message, a README or a slide. Trim, resize and set the frame rate; the palette is optimised per clip.

Runs in your browser — files never leave your device.

Drop MP4, MOV, WebM, MKV file here

or click to browse · paste from clipboard · up to 2000 MB

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Why convert MP4 to GIF

GIF is the one animated format that plays inline in chat apps, GitHub, email and Slack without a player. It is inefficient, so the trick is choosing a short segment, a modest width (320–640 px) and 10–15 fps.

Frames are decoded in the browser, scaled, and quantised to a 256-colour palette computed from the actual clip with dithering — far better than a fixed palette. A 5-second 480 px clip at 12 fps is typically 2–4 MB.

How it works

  1. Drop your files onto the box above, click it to browse, or paste from the clipboard.
  2. Adjust the options if you need to — the defaults suit most cases.
  3. Press Convert. The work happens on your device, so speed depends on your computer or phone.
  4. Download the GIF.

About the formats

MP4 · MPEG-4 Part 14 video · .mp4

The video format that works everywhere: phones, TVs, browsers, social networks. Normally H.264 video with AAC audio.

  • MP4 is a container; the codec inside (H.264, HEVC/H.265, AV1) decides what can play it.
  • H.264 MP4 is the safe choice for uploads and sharing; HEVC MP4 from newer iPhones needs extra codecs on Windows.
  • The “moov atom” placement decides whether a browser can start playing before the whole file downloads.

MOV · QuickTime movie · .mov

Apple’s QuickTime container, the default for iPhone videos and Mac screen recordings; very close to MP4 but not accepted everywhere.

  • MOV and MP4 share the same underlying structure, so MOV to MP4 usually only needs repackaging, not re-encoding.
  • iPhone MOV files are often HEVC (H.265) with HDR, which Windows and many web apps cannot play without conversion.
  • Screen recordings on Mac are MOV with H.264 and can be very large.

WebM · WebM video · .webm

The royalty-free web video format (VP8/VP9/AV1 video, Vorbis/Opus audio) produced by browser screen recorders, Discord and many online tools.

  • WebM is based on Matroska and plays in every browser, but not in iMovie, Premiere or on most phones without conversion.
  • Browser recording APIs output WebM, which is why screen recordings from web apps come as .webm.
  • WebM to MP4 requires re-encoding the video, because MP4 does not carry VP9 widely.

MKV · Matroska video · .mkv

An open container that can hold any codec plus multiple audio tracks, subtitles and chapters; popular for rips and downloads, unsupported by iPhone and many TVs.

  • MKV to MP4 keeps the video quality when the codec is H.264 or HEVC — only the container changes.
  • MP4 cannot carry every MKV feature: soft subtitles and some audio codecs (e.g. DTS) must be converted or dropped.
  • Most desktop players (VLC, MPV) play MKV; Safari, iOS and PowerPoint do not.

Related conversions

GIF to MP4On-deviceAnimated GIF to a much smaller MP4 video.Compress VideoPopularMake a video small enough for email, WhatsApp or uploads.GIF to PNGOn-deviceStill or animated GIF to PNG frames.MOV to MP4PopulariPhone/Mac MOV to MP4, usually without re-encoding.MKV to MP4PopularMKV to MP4 by remuxing, lossless and fast.WebM to MP4PopularBrowser screen recordings (WebM) to MP4.

More in Video Converters · All converters

Frequently asked questions