Drop a cap on that GIF. Under 10MB.
10 mb is the universal cap — GitHub README, Discord free, Jira, Teams, Reddit recommended. One tool, one cap, hits every embed.
- github drag-drop caps at 10 mb · discord free caps at 10 mb · jira default attachment caps at 10 mb · ms teams chat caps at 10 mb · most encoders overshoot when targeting it
gifcap. drop your clip in gifcap. set the cap to 10 mb (or 9.5 for safety). gifcap binary-searches quality until your output lands under. one workflow for every 10 mb embed.
| axis | online compressors | gifcap |
|---|---|---|
| hits exact 10 mb cap on first try | slider-and-pray | always — binary search |
| quality at 10 mb | dithered when overshooting | gifski per-frame palettes |
| workflow | upload-and-wait | drag-drop local |
| uses for 10 mb cap | varies by tool | github, discord, jira, teams |
| cost | free | free tier; pro $29 lifetime |
How gifcap solves this — in detail
10 MB is the universal GIF size target because four major platforms converged on it independently. GitHub's drag-drop image limit, Discord's free-plan attachment cap, Jira's default attachment cap, and Microsoft Teams' chat attachment cap all sit at 10 MB. Clearing 10 MB unlocks the four most common dev-team embedding surfaces with one encode.
At 10 MB, gifski has roughly 1 MB per second of 10 fps source — enough headroom for 1080p capture at watchable quality for short clips, or 720p for longer ones. The binary-search algorithm picks the right tradeoff based on source content: text-heavy UI gets resolution priority; high-motion footage gets fps priority.
The under-10-MB target is also where most editing decisions converge. Below 10 MB, GIF is clearly the right format. Above 10 MB, the math starts favoring MP4: animated WebP and MP4 both compress 60-70% smaller at the same visual quality. gifcap's roadmap addresses this with WebP and MP4 sidecar export — but for the next year, GIF under 10 MB is the durable workflow.
10 MB GIF — where this size threshold matters
- GitHub README (drag-drop): 10 MB cap (8 MB recommended)
- Discord free attachment: 10 MB cap
- Jira attachment (default): 10 MB cap
- Microsoft Teams chat: 10 MB cap
- Linear: practical performance ceiling near 10 MB
- Reddit: above mod-preferred 5 MB but within 100 MB hard cap
- Notion paid: well within 5 GB cap
- Above 10 MB: consider MP4 / animated WebP for better quality-per-byte