WebM to GIF Converter
WebM is the web's own video format, but plenty of places that show images will not play it: email, older forums, many wikis and some issue trackers. Converting a short WebM clip to GIF turns it into an image that loops wherever a picture can go.
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 WebM
Add a .webm file from a screen recorder, browser extension or editor, up to 95 MB each and 20 per batch.
- 2
Choose the moment and size
Type Start at and End at for the part you want. Width starts at 480 px and Frame rate at 15 fps; lower either one for a lighter file.
- 3
Press Convert to GIF
Press Convert to GIF, check the preview loop, and download the GIF or the whole batch as a ZIP.
Keep the clip under about six seconds, 480 px wide and 10 to 15 fps, and a WebM screen capture usually becomes a GIF of a few megabytes.
WebM to GIF with VP8, VP9 and AV1 video
Google announced WebM in 2010 as a royalty-free format for HTML5 video. The container is a subset of Matroska, and the video inside is one of three codecs: VP8, the original; VP9, which arrived in 2013 and is what most browser recorders and many web videos use; or AV1, the codec published by the Alliance for Open Media in 2018. Audio is Vorbis or Opus, and it is dropped because GIF has no sound.
All three video codecs are decoded here, so you do not need to check which one your file uses. Chrome, Edge and Firefox save screen and camera recordings made with the MediaRecorder API as WebM, which is why so many bug reports and how-to clips start life in this format.
What gets lost is color. Each GIF frame can hold at most 256 colors, picked for that clip, and dithering mixes them in a fine pattern to fake the rest. Interfaces with flat colors convert almost perfectly; gradients and video footage show grain or banding.
WEBM
WebM video
WebM is an open, royalty-free video format released by Google in 2010 for the web. It is based on Matroska and holds VP8, VP9 or AV1 video with Vorbis or Opus audio, and VP9 WebM can include an alpha channel for transparent video. Browsers play it natively, and browser screen recorders often produce it. Apple devices, video editors and social platforms have historically had weaker support than for MP4.
- Compression
- Lossy
- Transparency
- Yes
- Animation
- –
- Introduced
- 2010 · Google
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
WebM clips come from browsers, screen recorders and web downloads, yet email clients, forums and many documentation tools only accept images; a GIF made from the WebM plays in all of them without a player.
Picking a frame rate for a WebM to GIF converter
- 5 fps
Slideshow feel; fine for a cursor moving between two states
- 10 fps
Smallest setting that still reads as motion
- 15 fps
Smooth scrolling and typing, the default on this page
- 24 fps
Film-like motion at roughly twice the size of 12 fps
- 30 fps
Fast games and sports; usually too heavy for a GIF
File size grows roughly in step with the number of frames, so going from 15 to 30 fps nearly doubles it. Width costs more: 640 px has almost twice the pixels of 480 px in every frame, and 960 px has four times as many. A quick estimate is width × height × frames, divided by however well LZW can compress the picture, which for flat screen content is a lot and for camera footage very little.
If the result is still too big for a chat upload, run it through compress GIF for Discord or cut the clip shorter rather than lowering Colors first.
GIF, animated WebP or keep the WebM
Plays in almost anything
Universal support, but 256 colors and large files.
- Email, forums, wikis, README files
- No sound
- One-color transparency only
Smaller and full color
Supported by Chrome, Edge, Firefox 65 and later and Safari 14 and later.
- Millions of colors
- Full alpha transparency
- Not every app or email client shows it
Keep the video
Many times smaller than a GIF of the same clip.
- Keeps sound
- Needs a video player or video tag
- Best quality per megabyte
WebM to GIF questions
Can I convert a transparent WebM to a GIF with a transparent background?
Do not count on it. WebM with VP8 or VP9 can store a full alpha channel with soft edges, while GIF marks one palette color as fully transparent and everything else as solid. Even where transparency carries over, smooth edges turn jagged, so for stickers and overlays an animated WebP or APNG is the better target.
Why does my WebM convert slowly compared with an MP4 of the same length?
AV1 and, to a lesser degree, VP9 take more processing to decode than H.264, so every frame costs more time before it reaches the GIF encoder. A tight Start at and End at range avoids decoding parts of the clip you do not need.
My WebM came from a browser screen recording. What width should the GIF be?
Screen recordings are often 1920 px wide or more, and text stays readable when you shrink them only as far as you must. 640 to 800 px suits a tutorial step in documentation; if the GIF only needs to show a button being clicked, crop the moment short and stay at 480 px.
Why does the WebM play at a different speed than the GIF?
Screen and browser recordings often have a variable frame rate, so frames do not arrive at even intervals. The GIF uses fixed steps at the Frame rate you pick, which smooths out those gaps and can make a stuttery recording look steadier.
Is it possible to go back from the GIF to WebM later?
Yes, with GIF to WebM, but the lost colors and frames do not come back. Keep the original WebM if you might need the full-quality clip again.