YouTube to GIF — Free Maker, No Upload, No Watermark
Once you have the YouTube video downloaded, this tool turns any segment into a sharp, small GIF using a custom-extracted palette — no compromise compared to upload-based competitors.
Drag & drop your video here, or click to browse
Max file size: ~2 GB (memory permitting)
Why use this YouTube to GIF?
- Custom palette extraction keeps colors vivid at small file sizes.
- Frame-accurate trim before GIF conversion.
- No upload — keeps your downloaded YouTube clip private.
- Adjustable FPS and width to control file size precisely.
How to use it
Download the YouTube video
Use any browser extension or yt-dlp locally. We don't fetch from URLs.
Set start, end, FPS, width
15 fps and 480 px width is the sweet spot for sub-5 MB GIFs.
Convert and download
Custom palette extraction runs first, then the GIF is built from the optimized palette.
What to watch out for
| GIF has 256 colours | That is the whole difficulty. A palette generated from your specific clip looks far better than the default web palette, which is why this runs two passes instead of one. |
|---|---|
| Keep it under five seconds | GIF stores whole frames rather than differences, so file size grows roughly linearly with length. Five seconds at 480 px and 15 fps lands around 5-8 MB; ten seconds doubles it. |
| Width matters more than frame rate | Halving the width quarters the pixel count. Dropping from 15 to 12 fps saves a fifth. Resize before you cut the frame rate. |
| Consider not making a GIF | If the destination accepts video, an MP4 of the same clip is a fraction of the size and plays better. GIF is for places that only take GIF. |
FAQ
Why not just use Giphy?
Giphy uploads your clip and applies a watermark on free tiers. This tool keeps the GIF private and produces a clean, watermark-free output.
How big should the GIF be?
Twitter caps GIFs at 15 MB. A 5-second 480p 15fps GIF with custom palette is around 5–8 MB — well within range.
Does this run in my browser?
Yes — the tool uses FFmpeg compiled to WebAssembly. Your file never uploads to a server, never leaves your device, and there is no signup or watermark.