How long can the GIF be?

Animated output is capped at four minutes, but you'll rarely want anywhere near that: GIF sizes balloon with length. For anything beyond a few seconds, trim to the essential moment — or convert to WebM or animated WebP, which handle longer clips at a fraction of the size.

Why do my GIFs from other converters look grainy?

Because they quantize your video to a generic 256-color web palette and hide the damage with heavy dithering — that's the grain. LightBox generates the palette from your actual frames and applies measured dithering, so the colors that matter to your clip are the ones that survive.

What happens to the audio?

GIF can't carry sound, so the audio track is dropped automatically. If the sound matters, convert your MP4 to WebM instead — it's a true video format with an optional audio track, and it's one of the output options on the same screen.

GIF or animated WebP — which should I pick?

Pick GIF when the destination requires it: chat apps, community platforms, or tools that only accept GIF. Pick animated WebP for your own website, docs, or README — it's typically around 64% smaller for the same loop, holds full color, and every modern browser displays it. When in doubt, convert both and compare; it takes seconds.

Is there a watermark or a daily limit?

No watermark, ever. The free tier covers files up to 100 MB and roughly 4 conversions a day, auto-deleted after about an hour. A one-time Pro upgrade removes the daily cap, raises uploads to 1 GB, and adds batch conversion, presets, and a permanent library.

Free online converter

MP4 to GIF — Turn Video into a Looping GIF

Drop media, a ZIP, or PNG frames

.mp4.mov.webm.gif.jpg.png.webp.heic.zip

Files up to 100 MB free · up to 1 GB with Pro

PNG sequence · Pro

To convert an MP4 to GIF, upload the clip, trim to the seconds you want, and download — LightBox builds the GIF with a custom color palette generated from your actual footage, which is the difference between a crisp GIF and the washed-out, grainy kind most converters produce. No watermark, no signup, and no ad maze around the download button.

A word of honest advice baked into this tool: GIF is the right choice when the destination demands it — messaging apps, older platforms, anywhere an animated image must work no matter what. But if the clip is headed for your own website, consider animated WebP instead (it's one click away in the format picker): the same loop typically comes out around 64% smaller with better color. We'll happily make you a great GIF — we'd just rather you also know when you don't need one.

Either way you get the full control panel: trim, crop, resize, frame rate, loop count, and a quality slider that maps to the palette size, with the before/after file sizes shown when it's done.

A real palette, not a washed-out one

GIF can only hold 256 colors, so which 256 matters enormously. LightBox analyzes your footage and generates a palette from the frames themselves — the same two-pass FFmpeg technique professionals script by hand — so your GIF keeps its punch instead of going pastel and grainy.

Trim and shrink before you export

GIF bytes add up fast, so the controls that matter are cutting length, width, and frame rate. Trim to the exact moment, resize to the width you'll display, and drop to 12–15 fps — a two-second, 480px GIF is shareable everywhere, while a full-size, full-length one rarely is.

No watermark, no ads, no signup

The GIF you download is clean — nothing stamped in the corner and no account required. Most free MP4-to-GIF tools are ad walls with a converter attached, or they brand your clip. This one is just the converter, funded by an optional one-time Pro upgrade instead of your patience.

Free forever. Pro when you need more.

Everything on this page stays free. Pro adds this — once, no subscription, ever:

1 GB uploads, no daily limit
Batch convert + saved presets
Permanent library, priority processing

$54$2750% off

Launch price · once · yours for life14-day money-back guaranteeSee everything Pro adds

Frequently asked questions

More conversions

WebM to GIF WebM to WebP WebM to MP4 PNG to AVIF JPG to AVIF