Videones

Twitter GIF downloader

Paste a post that contains a GIF. You get the original animation as a light MP4 file that plays and loops almost anywhere.

Example: https://x.com/user/status/123456789

  • Fast
  • Free
  • No registration

How to use it

  1. Copy the GIF post link

    The post itself, not the GIF picker in the app.

  2. Paste it above

    We detect the animation and its size.

  3. Save the animation

    It downloads as MP4 — see below why.

GIFs on X are really videos

The GIF format dates from 1987. It is limited to 256 colours per frame and compresses motion poorly, so animations quickly become several megabytes. To keep timelines fast, Twitter began converting every uploaded GIF into a short, silent H.264 video years ago, and X still does this today. The animation looks the same, but the file is typically five to ten times smaller.

That is why a GIF you save here ends in .mp4. It is not a mistake or a conversion we add — it is the exact file X keeps and plays back as a GIF in its apps.

Finding the right link for a GIF

GIFs are often posted as replies, so the animation you want may live several levels deep in a conversation. Open the reply that shows the GIF on its own — tap it in the app or click its date on the web — and copy that link with Share → Copy link. The link of the original post at the top of the conversation will not work, because the GIF is attached to the reply, not to the post it answers. GIFs from X’s built-in GIF search work just like uploaded ones once they are posted.

Using a downloaded GIF

Most places where you would share a GIF accept the MP4 just as happily:

  • Messaging apps such as WhatsApp, Telegram and Signal send short silent videos and often display them like GIFs.
  • In VLC, turn on Loop (the circular arrow button); in QuickTime, choose View → Loop.
  • In PowerPoint or Keynote, insert the MP4 and enable "Loop until stopped" to get a looping animation in a slide.
  • When reposting on social networks, credit the original creator and follow the platform’s rules on reuse.

Converting back to a real .gif file

Some forums, older chat tools and design programs only accept .gif. You can convert the MP4 locally with the free tool FFmpeg. Generating a colour palette first gives much better results than a direct conversion:

  1. ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -vf "fps=15,scale=480:-1:flags=lanczos,palettegen" palette.png
  2. ffmpeg -i input.mp4 -i palette.png -lavfi "fps=15,scale=480:-1:flags=lanczos[x];[x][1:v]paletteuse" output.gif

Expect the .gif to be noticeably larger than the MP4. Lowering the frame rate (fps) or the width keeps it manageable.

No sound by design

GIFs never carry audio, so the downloaded file is silent. If the animation you saw on X had sound, it was uploaded as a regular video rather than a GIF; it still downloads the same way, and you will get the audio track as well.

Frequently asked questions