Turn GIF files into MP4
Turn your GIF into an MP4 that plays smoothly and takes a fraction of the space. GIF is the short looping animation that plays anywhere: any browser, any chat, any email, with nothing to install. One thing to know first: anything see-through in the GIF comes out on a solid background, white unless you choose another colour. Your file never leaves your computer.
Need the other direction? Convert MP4 to GIF
How to convert GIF to MP4
- 1 Drop your GIF .gif file onto the page, or click to browse for it.
- 2 Pick how smooth and how sharp you want it. The defaults suit a short looping clip.
- 3 Convert. The work happens on your own machine, so how long it takes depends on your computer and the file.
- 4 Download the MP4, or add more files and do the whole set in one go.
Why convert GIF to MP4
- The same animation as an MP4 is routinely a tenth of the size, plays smoothly and stops stuttering on a slow connection.
- MP4 files come out much smaller, which is the difference between a page that loads straight away and one that keeps people waiting.
- You are sending this somewhere that will not keep a transparent background anyway, so putting it on a solid colour costs you nothing.
- Plays on effectively every device, browser and TV made this century.
- Plays without draining the battery, because devices handle it natively.
GIF compared with MP4
How the two formats differ on the things that decide whether a conversion is worth making.
| Property | GIF | MP4 |
|---|---|---|
| File extension | .gif | .mp4 |
| Compression | Lossless | Lossy |
| Transparency | Yes | No |
| Animation | Yes | No |
| Typical file size | Larger | Smaller |
| Introduced | 1987 | 2001 |
| Developed by | CompuServe | ISO/IEC MPEG |
Quality and what changes
This is the step where information is discarded, and it cannot be undone by converting back later. MP4 throws away detail the eye is least likely to notice, which is invisible at sensible settings and shows as blocking around sharp edges and text when pushed hard. Keep the GIF as your master and treat the MP4 as a delivery copy.
- Anything see-through comes out on a solid background, white unless you choose another colour.
- Only the first frame of an animated GIF is kept.
- One MP4 limitation to keep in mind: fussy about subtitle tracks and unusual audio tracks.
Questions about GIF to MP4
Will I lose transparency converting GIF to MP4?
Yes. An MP4 cannot hold transparency, so anything see-through comes out on a solid colour, white unless you choose another. If the transparency matters, convert to PNG or WebP instead, and only flatten once you know what the image will sit on.
What happens to an animated GIF?
MP4 holds a single image, so only one frame survives, normally the first. If you need the motion, convert to a format that keeps it such as MP4, WebM or WebP rather than to MP4.
Is my GIF file uploaded anywhere?
No. The whole thing runs inside the browser tab you already have open. Your GIF is read straight from your own disk, converted on your machine and handed back as an MP4. Nothing is sent anywhere, nothing is stored and there is no account.
Is there a file size limit?
There is no server-side limit because no server sees the file. The real ceiling is your device memory, since the input and the output both have to fit in the tab. A few hundred megabytes is usually fine on a desktop machine and considerably less on a phone.
Can I convert several GIF files at once?
Yes. Add as many as you like and they are processed one after another, then offered as separate MP4 downloads or as a single ZIP. Speed depends on your own processor rather than on a queue.
Does the converter work offline?
Yes, after the page has loaded once. The engine is cached by the browser, so you can disconnect, reload and keep converting. That falls out of doing the work locally rather than being a separate mode you switch on.