GIF to MP4 Converter (FREE TOOL)

GIF is a picture format from 1987. Version 89a, the one every animated GIF uses, lets one file hold many pictures and a delay for each, counted in hundredths of a second (GIF89a specification, CompuServe, 1990). Each picture holds at most 256 colours.

MP4 is a video file. The pictures inside it are compressed with a video codec, most often H.264, which stores only what changes from one frame to the next. That is why an MP4 of the same animation is often much smaller than the GIF, and why every phone, browser and ad platform plays it.

An MP4 has no transparency. Where the GIF was see-through, the MP4 is white.

Is your file a still picture, not an animation? Use the AVIF to PNG converter for a picture saved from a website. Use the HEIC to PNG converter for an iPhone photo.

Most GIFs last 1 to 3 seconds. Facebook Feed video ads need at least 1 second (Meta ads guide), and a clip that loops a few times gives a viewer time to read the words in it.

The MP4 plays the GIF the number of times you choose, back to back, with no gap. A 1.5 second GIF played 10 times is a 15 second clip.

Each frame keeps the delay the GIF gives it. A frame with a delay of 0 plays for 100 milliseconds, the same as in Chrome and Firefox, so the MP4 moves at the speed you saw in the browser.

The MP4 runs at a fixed frame rate, as Meta asks for Reels and Feed video. A GIF frame that lasts longer is shown on more video frames, so the timing does not change. If the GIF's delays share no common step of 1/60 second or longer, the video runs at 30 frames a second, and each GIF frame starts on the nearest video frame. The video never runs slower than 24 frames a second.

Each placement has its own length and size limits. Our TikTok ad specs list them for TikTok. For Stories, read our guide to Instagram Story ad video length.

Before you post the MP4, check that its text stays clear of the buttons with our TikTok safe zone checker.

For ideas on what to put in a short clip, see our video ad examples.

Last checked: 5 November 2026. The file types, lengths and settings on this page come from Meta's ads guide and TikTok Ads Manager, read at the source that day. The frame timing follows the GIF89a specification. We tested the converter with small GIFs made for the test. Before we wrote the code, we worked out by hand what each MP4 must hold.

• A 2-frame GIF with delays of 500 and 250 ms gives an H.264 MP4 of 0.75 seconds at a fixed 24 frames a second: the first picture for 0.5 seconds, the second for 0.25.
• The same GIF played 3 times gives 2.25 seconds. A 3-frame GIF of Selzee ads with delays of 0.7, 0.7 and 1.4 seconds, played 5 times, gives 14 seconds.
• We read every MP4 back with ffmpeg on 5 November 2026: codec, size, frame count and length matched.
• A 7 x 5 GIF gives an 8 x 6 MP4, and the added row and column repeat the edge.
• A frame with a delay of 0 or 1 plays for 100 ms.
• An empty file, a PNG renamed to .gif, a damaged GIF and a file over 40 MB each get a plain message, not a broken page.