Does my MKV file get uploaded?

No. The Matroska file is decoded and the GIF is built in your browser. The video stays on your device, and the page keeps working offline once it has loaded.

Will my MKV open here?

MKV is a container, so what matters is the video codec inside it. Browsers decode common ones such as VP9, AV1, and H.264. If a track uses a codec your browser cannot play, the preview will not load and the GIF cannot be built.

What happens to the audio and subtitles?

They are dropped. A GIF holds only picture frames, so any audio track, subtitle stream, or chapter data inside the Matroska container is left out.

My MKV is a long HD recording. Should I trim it?

Yes. MKV files are often full-length HD video, and turning all of that into a GIF would be huge and memory-heavy. Set a short start-to-end range and a modest width to keep the file usable.

Why does the GIF look banded compared to the MKV?

A GIF stores at most 256 colors per frame, so each frame is reduced to that palette. Smooth gradients from the high-bit-depth source turn into visible bands. That is a GIF limit, not a fault in the MKV.

Does it fill in the width and end time from the file?

Yes. When the .mkv loads, the width is set from the source (capped at 640px) and the end is set to the full duration. Adjust either before clicking Create GIF. Frame rate runs 5 to 24 fps and width 32 to 1280px.

MKV to GIF

Turns an MKV clip into an animated GIF at the frame rate and width you set. GIF maps everything to 256 colors.

What this does

MKV (Matroska) is an open container that can wrap almost any video and audio stream, so it is common for HD rips and recordings. This reads the picture track out of the .mkv, resamples the frames to the frame rate and width you choose, trims them to the start and end you set, and packs each frame into a 256-color palette to write an animated .gif.

Whatever was inside the Matroska container, the GIF that comes out is a plain looping image: no audio, no subtitle track, no chapters. Each frame is stored as its own palette image with no inter-frame compression, so longer ranges, higher frame rates, and wider output all push the file size up.

How it works

1Drop your .mkv file here or pick it from your device.
2Choose the frame rate and width, and trim with the start and end fields.
3Click Create GIF, check the looping preview, then download the .gif.

Built with open source

Mediabunny — Converts and edits video and audio in the browser via WebCodecs. Add-on encoders cover MP3, AAC, and FLAC. · MPL-2.0
gifenc — Fast GIF encoding with color quantization. · MIT

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