MOV to GIF Converter
Make an animated GIF from a QuickTime .mov file: an iPhone video, a Live Photo you saved as a video, or a Mac screen recording. The converter reads HEVC and H.264 MOVs, so you do not need to re-export from Photos or QuickTime first.
Video to GIF
or drop MP4, MOV, MKV … files here ·
Max 95 MB per file· Up to 20 files· Deleted after 30 minutes
Files are processed on our servers and deleted after 30 minutes.
Seconds (e.g. 12.5) or minutes:seconds (0:12). GIFs get large fast, so keep clips to a few seconds.
Same format as the start time. Leave empty to use the whole video.
Play the clip slower or faster. 2× also halves the length and the file size.
Whether the GIF repeats endlessly or plays one time and stops on the last frame.
GIF holds at most 256 colors per frame. Fewer colors make a smaller file but cause banding on skies and skin.
Mixes palette colors in a fine pattern to hide banding. Sierra gives the smoothest result; none gives the smallest file.
How to use this tool
- 1
Upload the .mov
Drop the file or choose it from Photos or Files. Up to 20 clips at once, each up to 95 MB.
- 2
Pick the part to animate
Enter Start at and End at. The page starts at 360 px wide and 15 fps, which suits the portrait shape of phone video; turn on Boomerang under Advanced settings for a back-and-forth loop.
- 3
Convert to GIF
Press Convert and save the result. Files are removed from the server after 30 minutes.
Can I convert MOV to GIF straight from an iPhone?
Yes. Open this page in Safari, tap the upload area, choose the video from Photos and convert. The GIF downloads to Files, and you can save it to Photos from there.
Convert MOV to GIF from Apple devices
MOV is QuickTime's container, and Apple devices write it by default. Every iPhone camera video is a .MOV file, and since iOS 11 the picture inside is usually HEVC (H.265) when the camera is set to High Efficiency. The motion half of a Live Photo is a short MOV too, and macOS saves screen recordings made with Shift-Command-5 as .mov files on the desktop.
Those clips are big for a GIF source: a 4K iPhone video at 30 fps uses about 170 MB per minute according to Apple's own camera settings. The converter only needs the few seconds you mark with Start at and End at, so trimming in Photos first is optional, but staying under 95 MB per upload is not.
iPhone and iPad
- 01In Photos, trim the clip with Edit if it is over 95 MB.
- 02Open this page in Safari and tap the upload area.
- 03Choose the video, convert, then save the GIF from Files.
Mac
- 01Find the screen recording on the desktop or the video in Photos.
- 02Drag the .mov onto the upload area.
- 03Download the GIF and drop it into Slack, Keynote or an email.
Windows
- 01Copy the MOV from the iPhone with the Photos app or iCloud for Windows.
- 02Upload it here; no codec pack is needed.
- 03Open the GIF in any browser to check the loop.
MOV
QuickTime movie
MOV is the QuickTime container format created by Apple in 1991. iPhones record MOV files, and professional editing tools use it for high-quality codecs such as Apple ProRes, including versions with transparency. It can hold multiple video, audio, timecode and subtitle tracks. MOV files from editing software can be very large, and some Windows apps, Android phones and websites play them poorly or not at all.
- Compression
- Lossy or lossless
- Transparency
- Yes
- Animation
- –
- Introduced
- 1991 · Apple
GIF
Graphics Interchange Format
GIF was introduced by CompuServe in 1987 and is still the most widely supported format for short, looping animations. It is lossless but limited to a palette of 256 colours per frame, so photos and gradients show banding and dithering. It supports only on/off (1-bit) transparency, which leaves jagged edges on curved shapes. Animated GIFs are often far larger than the same clip as MP4 or WebP. Every browser, chat app and social platform plays GIFs.
- Compression
- Lossless
- Transparency
- Yes
- Animation
- Yes
- Introduced
- 1987 · CompuServe
MOV to GIF is usually about Apple-made clips: a moment from an iPhone video or a Mac screen recording turned into a loop that plays in Slack, a support ticket or a slide without anyone pressing play.
MOV to GIF file size: a typical iPhone clip
iPhone MOV
≈ 14 MB
5 s of 4K HEVC at 30 fps, with sound
GIF
≈ 3 MB
360 px wide, 15 fps, 256 colors, typical
When a MOV to GIF converter gives a bad result
The GIF looks washed out or too bright.
The clip was shot in HDR (Dolby Vision on iPhone 12 and later). GIF is 8-bit standard range, so bright highlights get compressed. Turn HDR video off in Settings > Camera > Record Video for clips you plan to animate.
The GIF is sideways.
The rotation flag in the MOV is applied automatically. If it still looks wrong, the video was rotated in an app that rewrote the pixels; rotate the original in Photos and upload again.
The file is far over the limit of the app you are posting to.
Shorten the range to three or four seconds, drop Width to 270 px or Frame rate to 10 fps. For a clip that must stay long, send it as video with MOV to MP4.
Fast motion looks jerky.
Raise Frame rate to 20 or 24 fps and lower the width to keep the size in check; a quick pan at 10 fps shows visible jumps.
MOV to GIF questions
How do I turn a Live Photo into a GIF?
On a current version of iOS, open the Live Photo in Photos, tap Share and choose Save as Video. That creates a short MOV, usually about three seconds, which you can upload here. Turn on Boomerang if you want the same bounce effect that Photos offers.
Why is my portrait iPhone GIF so tall?
Width sets the horizontal size and the height follows the clip's shape. A 1080 × 1920 portrait video at 360 px wide becomes 360 × 640 px, which is already plenty on a phone screen. Lower the width to 270 px if the GIF still feels too large in a chat.
Can I convert a MOV with an alpha channel to a transparent GIF?
GIF supports one fully transparent color, not soft edges, so an alpha MOV exported from Motion or After Effects loses its smooth edges. For a web overlay with real transparency, keep a WebM or an animated WebP instead.
Will a 4K MOV take longer to convert?
A bit, because every frame has to be decoded at full size before it is scaled down. The GIF itself is the same size whether the source was 4K or 1080p, since only the width you set counts.
What happens to the MOV's sound?
It is dropped, because GIF has no way to store audio. If you need both a silent loop and the soundtrack, make the GIF here and extract the audio separately with MOV to MP3.
Is a .mov to GIF conversion possible on Windows without QuickTime?
Yes, this runs in the browser and the decoding happens on our server, so Windows does not need QuickTime or the paid HEVC Video Extensions from the Microsoft Store. The finished GIF opens in Photos, Paint and every browser.
Other GIF and MOV tools
- MP4 to GIF ConverterConvert MP4 to GIF online with control over width, frame rate, start and end time and colors. Loops by default, no watermark, 20 videos per batch.
- WebM to GIF ConverterConvert WebM to GIF online, including VP8, VP9 and AV1 video. Set width, frame rate and start and end time, and get a looping GIF that plays anywhere.
- MOV to MP4 ConverterConvert iPhone and QuickTime MOV videos to MP4 online. H.264 + AAC by default so the file plays on Windows, Android and every browser. 95 MB per file.
- GIF to MOV ConverterConvert animated GIFs to MOV so iMovie, Final Cut Pro and QuickTime treat them as moving clips, not stills. H.264, 30 fps, CRF 18 for a timeline.
- GIF to MP4 ConverterConvert GIF to MP4 video online. Animated GIFs become H.264 clips that are typically a fraction of the size and play smoothly in chats and on social media.
- MOV to WebM ConverterConvert MOV files from an iPhone, a Mac screen recording or a Final Cut export to WebM with Opus sound for web pages, Chrome, Firefox and open platforms.