Video Converter

A video converter changes a video file from one format to another — say, an MOV recorded on an iPhone into an MP4 that plays everywhere, or a full video into an animated GIF you can drop into a chat or a webpage. This free online video converter does that work entirely inside your browser using FFmpeg, the same engine that powers most professional video software, compiled to run as WebAssembly instead of a server-side program. Upload a file, pick MP4, WebM, GIF, or MP3 as the output, and download the converted result once it finishes.

Because the conversion happens on your own device, this tool is a good fit for anyone who doesn't want to install desktop software just to fix one file: a MOV that a video editor won't accept, an old AVI that a phone can't play, footage from a screen recording that needs to become a lightweight GIF, or a video where you only actually need the audio track. There's no account, no watermark, and no limit on how many files you convert.

The tradeoff for doing this in the browser instead of on a server is that speed depends on your own device's processor rather than a data center's, and the very first conversion downloads a roughly 30 MB converter engine that your browser then caches for next time. For everyday clips under a minute or two, this is barely noticeable; for long or very large files, expect it to take real time and, on an older or budget device, to slow the browser down while it works.

MP4, encoded here with the H.264 codec, is the safest general-purpose choice — it plays on virtually every phone, computer, smart TV, and video editor without extra setup, which makes it the right pick if you're not sure what the receiving end needs. WebM, using the VP8 codec, produces smaller files at a similar quality level and is well supported by modern browsers, which makes it a solid option for videos embedded directly on a website where file size affects load time.

GIF is a completely different kind of output: it's built for short, silent, looping clips rather than full-length video, and it strips out audio entirely. Reach for GIF when you need a quick reaction clip, a looping product demo, or a screen-recording snippet to paste into a chat app or a support ticket, not as a substitute for a real video file.

• MP4 (H.264): the default choice for maximum compatibility
• WebM (VP8): smaller file size, ideal for web embeds
• GIF: short silent loops for chats, docs, and quick previews
• MP3: audio-only extraction when the video part isn't needed

This tool converts to GIF at 10 frames per second and scales the width down to 480 pixels, which keeps file sizes reasonable since GIF is an inherently inefficient format for anything long or highly detailed. A ten-second clip at these settings typically lands somewhere between a few hundred kilobytes and a couple of megabytes, depending on how much motion and color variation the footage has.

The single biggest thing you control is the length of the source clip you feed in: GIF file size grows roughly in proportion to duration, so a 30-second source video makes a noticeably heavier GIF than a 5-second one. If a GIF comes out looking blocky or muddy, the usual cause is busy, high-motion footage rather than a setting you can adjust here — trimming the clip to the essential few seconds before converting is the most effective fix.

Choosing MP3 as the output strips the video track entirely and keeps only the audio, encoded at 192 kbps in stereo at a 44.1 kHz sample rate — a common, widely compatible setting that sounds clean for speech and most music without producing an oversized file. This is the fastest of the four output options, since there's no video frame data to re-encode, only the audio stream to pull out.

This mode is useful whenever the video part was never the point: pulling a podcast segment out of a recorded video call, saving the audio from a music video to listen to without a screen, or converting a voice memo that happened to be recorded as video. The resulting MP3 works in any music player, phone, or car stereo.

Unlike a converter that uploads your file to a server and processes it there, this tool downloads a compact version of the FFmpeg engine directly into your browser the first time you use it, roughly 30 MB, and then runs every conversion locally from that point on. This is what keeps your video private — the file never leaves your device — but it does mean the very first conversion on a new browser or device takes a bit longer while that engine loads.

After that initial load, the browser caches the engine files, so subsequent conversions in the same browser start almost immediately, skipping straight to processing your video. Clearing your browser cache, switching browsers, or using a private/incognito window will trigger that one-time download again.

Conversion speed and reliability depend on your device's own processor and available memory, since everything runs locally rather than on a remote server with dedicated hardware. Files under roughly 20 MB usually convert in well under a minute on a typical laptop or modern phone; files approaching the tool's 100 MB limit can take several minutes and use a noticeable amount of memory while processing.

If a large file fails to convert or the browser tab becomes unresponsive, closing other tabs to free up memory, trying a lower target resolution or shorter clip, or switching to a desktop browser instead of a phone are the most reliable fixes. Very long recordings, like an hour of screen capture, are generally better trimmed down first in a lightweight editor before converting, both for speed and for keeping the output file a manageable size.