MOV to GIF converter

1. Choose the MOV, or drop it on the player: a Mac screen recording, an iPhone video, any QuickTime file.
2. Drag the ends of the bar around the part that matters, up to 15 seconds.
3. Pick the width and frames a second: 640 wide to keep text readable, 10 frames a second for a click-through, 15 for movement.
4. Press Make GIF and download it.

For filmed footage, by the converter's own estimate, for a 16:10 recording like a full-screen one on many Macs. A screen recording of an app is mostly flat color, so it fits much more than this.

For example, 15 seconds of footage at 640 wide and 15 fps would be about 23.0 MB: too big for an issue, so go shorter, narrower or to 10 fps.

Shift-Command-5 opens a Mac's Screenshot app, which records the screen and saves a MOV named “Screen Recording [date] at [time].mov”, on the desktop unless you've chosen somewhere else. Record a selected portion (or, on macOS Tahoe 26 or later, one window): the GIF can then be narrower, smaller and still readable.

Keep the moment short and the frames few. A click-through reads fine at 10 frames a second, which makes half the file of 20. Each frame has at most 256 colors, which suits app screens with flat colors and sharp edges.

Over 15 seconds, with a voice explaining it, or going to TikTok, Reels or Shorts: keep it a video. Make it an MP4 that opens anywhere with the MOV to MP4 converter, or shrink it for a chat with the Discord compressor.