How to record a GIF on Mac

macOS has no built-in way to record part of your screen straight to an animated GIF. The Screenshot tool (⌘⇧5) and QuickTime both record video (.mov). To get a GIF you normally have to record a video, then convert it with a separate tool — two steps, a quality hit, and usually a bloated file.

The manual way (no extra app)

1. Record a region with ⌘⇧5 → save the .mov
2. Convert it to GIF with ffmpeg, an online converter, or an image app
3. Fiddle with frame rate and palette to keep the file size sane
4. Repeat every single time

Fine once. Painful if you make GIFs for bug reports, docs, or Slack regularly.

The one-step way: Klippit

Klippit is a native Mac screen recorder with GIF as a first-class output, not an afterthought:

• Pick the area, choose GIF, record — you get a GIF, not a video to convert
• A real GIF encoder with sensible palette/frame-rate handling, so files stay small without you tuning anything
• Trim before saving so the GIF is the 6 seconds that matter, not 40
• Cursor highlight + click ripples baked in — useful for "here's the bug" GIFs
• It's local: no upload, no account, the GIF is just a file on your Mac

Coming soon

macOS 14+ · Apple Silicon · £29 one-time, no subscription

FAQ

Can QuickTime export a GIF?

No. QuickTime records and exports video only. You'd need a separate conversion step.

Does the macOS Screenshot tool (⌘⇧5) do GIFs?

No — it records .mov video. There's no GIF option anywhere in the built-in tools.

Will the GIF file be huge?

Klippit uses a real palette-quantising GIF encoder and lets you trim to just the part you need, which is the single biggest factor in GIF size. A short UI GIF typically lands well under a megabyte.