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How to Make a GIF and Upload Size Limits Across Platforms

Published 2026-09-29

Pulling just the highlight from a short video into a looping GIF makes it far lighter to share on messengers and forums than the original clip. Here's the basic process if you're making one for the first time.

Basic steps

  1. Start with the source video, GIF or WebP animation.
  2. Trim to just the part you need. Keeping the highlight to roughly 3 to 5 seconds helps both file size and how well it reads.
  3. Set the frame rate (FPS). Around 15 FPS keeps most motion looking natural while saving file size.
  4. Resize and crop as needed for the platform or aspect ratio.
  5. Adjust the compression strength, check the resulting size, and export.

Upload limits by platform

These figures are commonly cited guidelines and can change with each service's own policy. When you're close to a limit, uploading a test file is the most reliable way to check.

ServiceGIF-related limit
Messaging apps in generalFile-attachment limits vary by app, and some display a GIF as a still image instead of animating it
Instagram DMs and StoriesGIFs are often converted into an animated sticker (via a GIPHY-style integration) rather than uploaded as a raw file
X (Twitter)Roughly 15MB is a safe target for an image attachment; going over can cause it to display as a static image
DiscordAbout 10MB for a typical account, higher with a boosted server

Limits change fairly often, and some platforms silently recompress a file that's within the limit, which can soften quality further. Aiming for 70–80% of the stated limit leaves a safety margin.

How to do it in the prezll GIF editor

  1. Upload a GIF or WebP file pulled from your video to the prezll GIF editor (/gif). Files up to 20MB are supported.
  2. Drag on the timeline to select the segment you want to keep.
  3. Adjust FPS and size, and crop if needed.
  4. Adjust the compression strength while watching the estimated size at the top of the screen.
  5. Download once it fits your target size.

Everything runs in your browser, so personal videos never get uploaded to a server during editing.

Make a GIF now

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