macOS can't save a screen recording as a GIF by itself. The Screenshot toolbar (⇧⌘5) and QuickTime Player record .mov videos only, and that's still true in macOS 27 Golden Gate. So you either record a short video and convert it with Gifski, the Shortcuts app or ffmpeg, all free, or use an app that records straight to GIF. Here are all four ways, step by step, plus the settings that keep a GIF small and sharp.
The four ways at a glance
| Method | Price (as of September 2026) | Good to know |
|---|---|---|
| ⇧⌘5, then Gifski | Free | Clean GIFs; the current version needs macOS 26 |
| ⇧⌘5, then Shortcuts | Free, built in | Nothing to install, few settings |
| ⇧⌘5, then ffmpeg | Free | Command line, full control, easy to script |
| Smooth Recorder | $9 once in early access | Press G to record a GIF directly |
| CleanShot X | From $35 once | Records video or GIF, plus screenshots |
| GIPHY Capture | Free | Up to 30 seconds; rarely updated |
| Kap | Free, open source | GIF, MP4, WebM or APNG; last release in 2022 |
First, record a short clip with Shift-Command-5
Ways 1 to 3 start from a video. Keep it short and small, because both show up in the GIF's file size.
- Press ⇧⌘5 to open the Screenshot toolbar.
- Click Record Selected Portion and drag a tight box around what you want to show. A smaller area makes a smaller GIF.
- Click Options if you want Show Mouse Clicks or a timer. Leave the microphone off, since a GIF can't carry sound.
- Click Record and do the action once, calmly.
- To stop, click the Stop button in the menu bar or press ⌃⌘Esc.
The recording saves as a .mov file, on your desktop unless you chose another place under Options. To trim it, open it in QuickTime Player, choose Edit > Trim (⌘T), drag the yellow handles and click Trim. If you also need sound for a video version, see how to screen record on Mac with audio.
Way 1: Convert it with Gifski (free)
Gifski is a free app by Sindre Sorhus that turns a video (MOV or MP4, in H.264, HEVC or ProRes) into a GIF. Its encoder builds efficient palettes across frames, so a Gifski GIF can use thousands of colors per frame.
- Install Gifski from the Mac App Store.
- Drag your .mov onto the Gifski window. Or, right after recording, click the floating thumbnail, click the Share button and choose Gifski.
- Set the dimensions, the frame rate (up to 50 fps) and the Quality slider. You can also crop, change the speed and choose whether it loops.
- Click Convert, then press ⌘S to save the GIF or ⌘C to copy it.
Gifski also has a Bounce option that plays the clip forward and then backward. It doubles the frames, so it doubles the file size too.
Way 2: Convert it with the Shortcuts app (built in)
macOS can't record a GIF, but it can make one: the Shortcuts app has a Make GIF action that accepts video. Set it up once as a Quick Action, and it's a right-click away.
- Open the Shortcuts app and choose File > New Shortcut.
- Open the shortcut's details with the ⓘ button and turn on Use as Quick Action, so it shows up in Finder.
- Search the actions list for Make GIF and drag it into the shortcut. Then add Save File below it.
- Name the shortcut Convert to GIF.
- In Finder, Control-click your recording, choose Quick Actions > Convert to GIF, and pick where to save.
Make GIF has only a few settings, such as the time per frame, looping and automatic sizing, so trim the clip first. It's fine for a quick GIF; for the best look and the smallest file, use Gifski.
Way 3: Convert it with ffmpeg (free, command line)
ffmpeg is a free, open-source command-line tool, and with the right settings it makes excellent GIFs. Install it with Homebrew (brew install ffmpeg), then run this in Terminal from the folder that holds your recording:
ffmpeg -i recording.mov -vf "fps=15,scale=960:-1:flags=lanczos,split[a][b];[a]palettegen[p];[b][p]paletteuse=dither=bayer:bayer_scale=5:diff_mode=rectangle" -loop 0 demo.gif
What each part does:
fps=15keeps 15 frames per second, which is plenty for UI.scale=960:-1:flags=lanczosresizes to 960 pixels wide, keeps the aspect ratio and uses a sharp scaling filter.palettegenandpaletteusebuild a 256-color palette from your own clip, then apply it. Without this two-step palette, ffmpeg falls back to a generic one and colors often look off.dither=bayer:bayer_scale=5adds a light, regular dither pattern that compresses well.diff_mode=rectangleonly reprocesses the part of each frame that changes, which keeps a still background from flickering.-loop 0makes the GIF loop forever.
To convert only part of the clip, put -ss (start time) and -t (length in seconds) before -i. For example, starting the command with ffmpeg -ss 2 -t 6 -i recording.mov takes six seconds from 0:02.
Way 4: Record straight to GIF with an app
If you make GIFs often, a recorder that saves GIFs directly skips the conversion step.
Smooth Recorder
Press ⌥1 to open the capture overlay, pick an area or a window, and press G to record a looping GIF. If you want automatic zooms and a smooth cursor first, press R to record a video instead, polish it in Studio and export it as a GIF. Smooth Recorder is a native app for macOS 15 Sequoia and later, $9 once during early access ($19 at launch), with no subscription or account, and your recordings stay on your Mac. The same overlay also takes screenshots and scrolling captures, and copies text from the screen.
CleanShot X
CleanShot X lets you choose between recording a video or a GIF, of an area, a window or the full screen, and its editor can trim a recording and export it as MP4 or GIF. It's a native Mac app that also covers screenshots, annotation and scrolling capture. As of September 2026, Basic is $35 once with a year of updates ($19 a year after that if you want updates), and Pro is $12 a month or $120 a year. Here's how it compares with Smooth Recorder.
GIPHY Capture
GIPHY Capture is a free Mac App Store app from GIPHY. You place its capture window over the screen and click to start and stop. Then you can trim, pick a loop style, set the frame rate and add captions before you save the GIF or upload it to GIPHY. Recordings are capped at 30 seconds. The app is still available, but it has gone long stretches between updates, and recent ones have been fixes rather than new features.
Kap
Kap is a free, open-source recorder built with web technology, with builds for Apple silicon and Intel Macs. It exports GIF, MP4, WebM and APNG. The catch: its last release, 3.6.0, came out in October 2022, and the project has seen almost no work since. It may still work for you, but there's no guarantee it will keep up with new versions of macOS.
How to keep a GIF small and sharp
GIF is an old format. Each palette holds at most 256 colors, there's no sound, and every frame adds weight. These settings make the biggest difference:
| Setting | Start here | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Length | 3 to 10 seconds, one action | Every frame adds to the file |
| Frame rate | 10 to 15 fps for UI, up to about 25 for smooth motion | UI changes in steps, so extra frames add size, not clarity |
| Width | 600 to 900 pixels for docs and READMEs, less for chat | Halving the width cuts the pixel count to a quarter |
| Colors | Flat UI, few gradients or shadows | Gradients band or get dithered |
| Motion | No scrolling, few cursor laps | Scrolling changes almost every pixel in every frame |
A few more habits help:
- Record a small area rather than the whole screen, and close anything that animates in the background.
- Mind Retina pixels. A 480-point-wide area records at 960 pixels on a Retina screen. Export at the width the GIF will be shown at. Double width looks sharper on Retina screens, but it means four times the pixels.
- Don't go above 50 fps. Browsers play faster GIFs at a much lower rate, which is why Gifski stops at 50.
- Loop cleanly. End on the frame you started from, or use a bounce loop.
- Mind the size limits. As of September 2026, GitHub's docs cap images and GIFs at 10 MB.
When an MP4 is the better choice
A GIF's one big advantage is that it plays by itself, anywhere an image can go. When that doesn't matter, a video is usually smaller and sharper, and it can carry sound. Choose MP4 when the clip runs longer than 10 to 15 seconds, needs audio, has lots of motion, or has to stay sharp at full size.
- GitHub: issues, pull requests and comments accept MP4, MOV and WebM videos, and GitHub recommends H.264 for the widest browser support. A short, silent GIF still suits the top of a README, where it plays on its own.
- Slack: uploaded MP4s play right in the conversation, so anything longer than a quick loop works better as a video.
- Docs and help centers: most docs tools can embed video. On your own site,
<video autoplay muted loop playsinline>behaves like a GIF, usually at a far smaller file size. - Email: here the GIF wins, because most email clients won't play video. Some desktop versions of Outlook for Windows show only a GIF's first frame, so make that frame make sense on its own.
To turn a recording into a small, web-friendly MP4 with ffmpeg:
ffmpeg -i recording.mov -vf "scale=1280:-2" -c:v libx264 -crf 23 -preset slow -pix_fmt yuv420p -movflags +faststart -an demo.mp4
-crf 23 sets the quality (lower numbers look better and make bigger files), -pix_fmt yuv420p keeps it playable everywhere, +faststart lets it start playing before it has fully downloaded, and -an drops the audio track. Leave out -an if you recorded sound. For GIFs and videos in bug reports, see how to record a bug report video.