Drop a cap on that Reddit GIF.
Reddit's hard cap is 100 mb but most subs prefer under 10 mb at 5–15 seconds for fast loading on mobile.
- reddit hard caps at 100 mb but mods prefer under 10 mb · 5-15 second clips perform best on mobile · longer gifs lose engagement before the punchline · ad-supported sites compress further
gifcap. trim your clip to 5-15 seconds in gifcap. set the cap to 8 mb. resolution to 1080 px max width. gifcap binary-searches quality until it fits. one upload, mod-safe.
| axis | manual ffmpeg / online tools | gifcap |
|---|---|---|
| holds under 10 mb at watchable quality | often dithered | gifski per-frame palettes |
| 5-15s sweet spot | no trim guidance | in-app trim with duration display |
| 1080 px reddit recommendation | cropped wrong | preset for reddit width |
| no watermark | online tools watermark | zero watermark, ever |
| cost | free | free tier; pro $29 lifetime |
How gifcap solves this — in detail
Reddit is two platforms in one. The hard cap of 100 MB is documented but irrelevant — most subreddits enforce stricter mod-set limits in the 5–10 MB range, and the official Reddit apps re-encode aggressively above ~8 MB. Engagement signals also penalize long GIFs: 5–15 seconds is the data-validated sweet spot, with the loop becoming visible just as users decide to scroll past.
gifcap's binary-search cap targets Reddit-friendly file sizes deterministically, and the in-app trim panel makes hitting the 5–15 second window straightforward. gifski's per-frame palette survives Reddit's CDN re-encode better than one-shot ffmpeg output — Reddit's pipeline can't add detail, but it preserves more of what's already there when the source is sharp.
The watermark question matters for Reddit specifically. Online compressors often watermark output, and the Reddit hivemind detects watermarks instantly — the post gets downvoted to oblivion. gifcap watermarks nothing, ever, on any tier.
Reddit — current GIF limits
- Hard cap: 100 MB per file
- Recommended cap: under 10 MB for fast mobile load
- Subreddit mod caps: 5–10 MB common (sub-specific)
- Ad GIF cap: 3 MB
- Duration sweet spot: 5–15 seconds
- Hard duration cap: 60 seconds
- Optimal resolution: 1080×1350 portrait or 1920×1080 landscape
- Mobile autoplay: yes, in official apps
- CDN re-encode: yes, above ~8 MB