How to pick GIF settings
GIFs trade quality for portability — they autoplay on every platform, loop forever, and embed without a video player, but the format is old and inefficient. The fps, width, and length you pick directly drive the output file size:
- 10–12 fps at 480 px wide is the sweet spot for social posts, Slack reactions, and product walkthroughs.
- 15–24 fps at 640–800 px looks much smoother but can easily produce 10–20 MB files that some platforms reject.
- Length under 6 seconds is ideal — GIFs over 10 seconds usually look worse than the same clip delivered as MP4.
Why the palette pass matters
GIFs only support 256 colours per frame. Without a palette pass, the result looks dithered and washed out. This tool uses ffmpeg's two-step palette workflow (palettegen → paletteuse with Bayer dithering) so gradients, faces, and brand colours render cleanly.
When to keep it as MP4 instead
If you need audio, smoother motion, or smaller files, convert to a compressed MP4 or WebM instead. Twitter/X, Slack, and most modern platforms now autoplay short MP4s the same way they autoplay GIFs — with a fraction of the file size.