GifMint
macOS menu bar app · Free for personal use
Your Mac screen,
as a tiny GIF.
GifMint lives in your menu bar. Record full screen, a window, or drag-select any area — then trim, copy, and paste a crisp animated GIF or MP4 anywhere. No export queue. No timeline. No megabytes.
v1.1.11 · macOS 13 Ventura or later · Apple Silicon & Intel · 2 MB download · Windows version in the works
Recording never leaves your Mac · no account · no telemetry
The whole app — it never leaves the menu bar.
Paste into
No upload, no cloud. Your recordings never leave your Mac.
Zero learning curve. Cmd+Shift+5 habits transfer instantly.
Always ready. Lives in your menu bar — one click away.
Drag & drop anywhere. GIF goes right where you need it.
No watermarks. The free tier is fully usable, forever.
Optimized output. Small files, sharp frames, 256-color palette.
Why not LICEcap or Kap?
Both are fine tools. Here's where GifMint is different.
GifMint
LICEcap
Kap
Download size
~2 MB
~2 MB
~90 MB Electron
Frame trimmer
✓
✗
✗
Auto-stop timer
✓
✗
✗
Global hotkey
✓
✗
✗
Menu-bar always ready
✓
✗
✓
macOS Sequoia support
✓
partial
✓
Window thumbnail grid
✓
✗
✗
Built for sharing, not editing suites.
No timelines, no export queues, no 4 GB screen recordings. Record, trim, copy, paste. Done.
GIF or MP4, your call
Stop recording and pick your format right in the preview's export bar. Keep the tiny autoplaying GIF, or export a crisp H.264 MP4 when you need smoother motion or a longer clip — same one-click copy, save, and drag.
New
Shrink to fit — pick a limit, not a setting
Slack stops playing a GIF inline above 2 MB, and the usual fix is twenty minutes of bisecting frame rate and scale by hand. Pick under 2 MB, 5 MB or 10 MB and GifMint re-encodes its way down until it lands — and stops at the highest quality that fits, not the first thing that works. If even the smallest setting misses, it says so rather than pretending.
New
Identical frames cost you nothing
A recording of a UI is mostly a still image — nothing moves between the click and the menu opening, and those seconds are stored as dozens of identical frames. GifMint collapses each run into one frame held for exactly as long, so the GIF plays the same and weighs less. Total duration is preserved to the millisecond.
New
Three capture modes
Grab the full screen, pick any window from a live thumbnail grid with a search filter, or drag-select a precise area — complete with a marching-ants border and a live dimension badge.
Auto-stop timer
Set a duration and GifMint stops automatically. Click the menu-bar icon for a recording panel whose circular countdown ring tracks the last few seconds, so you can finish your demo with confidence.
New
Frame trimmer
Trim the start and end of your recording after the fact. Skip every 2nd or 3rd frame to slash file size without re-recording. Single-frame result? Copy it as a PNG instead.
New
Tiny files by design
Tune frame rate (5–24 fps) and resolution scale (25–100%) before you record. A 30-second demo lands in kilobytes. The control panel shows exact output dimensions as you adjust.
Countdown before recording
Choose 1–30 seconds of lead-in. A fullscreen circular countdown ring gives you time to get positioned. Hit Escape or Cancel at any point to abort without starting the capture.
Copy or drag to export
Copy the GIF to your clipboard (press C) and paste into Slack, email, GitHub, or Notion. Or drag the preview straight into Finder. Press S to open a save dialog, or R to record again immediately.
Global hotkey & right-click
Press ⌘⇧G anywhere to start or stop recording without touching the menu bar — no extra permission needed. Right-click the menu bar icon to jump directly into Screen, Window, or Area mode.
Power user
Instant animated preview
The encoded GIF plays back immediately after stopping. See the final dimensions, file size, and frame count before you share. No waiting, no separate export step.
Menu bar native
No Dock icon, no background processes. GifMint waits quietly in your menu bar until you need it, then disappears again when you're done.
Auto-copy mode
Enable Auto-copy and the GIF lands in your clipboard the instant you stop recording — no preview window, no clicks. Perfect for repeat captures when you've already nailed your framing.
Power user
End card
Every GIF or MP4 can finish with a branded "End of recording" screen and a short countdown before it loops — works in every capture mode, and whoever receives it can trim it off. On by default, one toggle away in Options.
New
13 languages
The control panel speaks your language — pick from 13 built-in translations with an in-app flag picker, no extra download or reinstall required.
New
Screen to clipboard in four steps.
Built on Apple's ScreenCaptureKit — crisp capture with no intermediate video file written to disk.
Click the menu bar icon
Pick a capture mode: full screen, a window from the thumbnail grid, or drag-select an area. Adjust fps, scale, and optional auto-stop timer. Skip the panel with ⌘⇧G, or right-click the icon to jump straight into any mode.
Countdown, then record
An optional countdown ring gives you time to get positioned. The menu-bar icon shows the elapsed time as you record — click it for a panel with the live frame count and Stop button. If you set an auto-stop duration, a circular ring counts down to zero.
Trim & preview
Stop recording and the animated preview opens instantly. Drag the trim handles to cut the clip. Skip frames to shrink the file. Capture a single frame? Copy it as a PNG.
Copy or drag anywhere
Press C to copy the GIF to your clipboard, then paste it into Slack, email, or a GitHub issue. Drag the preview into Finder, press S to save to a file, or hit R to record again.
Keyboard shortcuts
⌘⇧G
Start / stop recording (global)
S
Save GIF — opens file dialog
C
Copy GIF (or PNG for single frame)
R
Record Again (in preview window)
Space
Play / pause GIF preview
← →
Step back / forward one frame
⎋
Cancel countdown or area selection
⌘↩
Apply trim (in preview window)
⌘Z
Undo applied trim (in preview window)
↩
Start recording (from control panel)
⌘⌫
Discard recording (in preview window)
Made for developers, designers, and teams.
Anywhere you'd write a paragraph to describe something visual — paste a GIF instead.
Bug reports
Record the exact interaction that triggers the bug. The reviewer sees the problem immediately — no "steps to reproduce" guessing games.
Attach to Jira · GitHub Issues · Linear · Shortcut
Feature demos
Share a new UI flow before the PR even lands. Drop a 10-second GIF into Slack and the whole team sees the interaction — no meeting required.
Post to Slack · Discord · Notion · Google Chat
Team docs & onboarding
Embed a how-to clip directly in Confluence, Notion, or Google Docs. Record once, your teammates get it right every time — without a support ticket.
Embed in Confluence · Notion · Google Docs · Figma comments
Client emails
Explain a feature or walk through feedback in 15 seconds. GIFs render inline in Gmail, Outlook, and Apple Mail — no "download the attachment" friction.
Drop into Gmail · Outlook · Apple Mail · HubSpot
Design reviews
Annotate a micro-interaction that's hard to describe in a Figma comment. Show the hover state, the transition, the exact timing — captured right from the prototype.
Comment on Figma · Zeplin · Abstract · Storybook
Changelogs & release notes
Lead with a GIF instead of a bullet list. Your release notes become the kind of thing people actually read — and share.
Publish to GitHub Releases · Notion · Changelog.md · Twitter/X
Free for humans. Fair for companies.
Personal use is free forever — no key, no account, no watermarks. Using GifMint at work? Buy a seat for each computer.
Personal
$0
Free forever
- All features, no watermarks
- No account, no trial timers
- Unlimited recordings
- Free updates forever
For Work
Business
$5
One-time · per computer · lifetime
- Everything in Personal
- Licensed for commercial use
- One seat per computer — add seats anytime
- License key delivered by email
- Priority email support
One key for your whole team — each computer claims a seat, and you can free a seat anytime when a machine is retired.
Need 10+ seats? Email for volume pricing. Questions? jeremy@twoplus11.com
Need 10+ seats? Email for volume pricing. Questions? jeremy@twoplus11.com
Two small things on first launch.
GifMint is signed and notarized by Apple, so it opens with a normal double-click — then macOS will ask for permission to record your screen.
Opening the app the first time
Drag GifMint into Applications, then double-click it. GifMint is signed with a registered Apple Developer ID and notarized by Apple, so it opens straight away — no “unidentified developer” warning. (If your browser kept the download in quarantine and macOS still hesitates, right-click the app and choose Open once.)
Screen Recording permission
macOS will ask for Screen Recording access (
System Settings → Privacy & Security → Screen Recording). Grant it, relaunch GifMint, and you're set. GifMint only records when you explicitly start it — it never runs in the background.
Common questions.
Why GIF and not video?
GIFs autoplay everywhere — emails, Slack, GitHub, Notion, Linear, Jira — with no player, no unmute button, and no attachment-size drama. For short UI demos and bug reports they're still unbeatable.
How small are the files really?
At the default 10 fps and 50% scale, a typical 15-second demo is well under a megabyte. The frame-skip in the preview can halve that again without re-recording anything.
Is there a recording time limit?
No hard limit — GifMint records until you press stop (or until the auto-stop timer fires). For email-friendly file sizes, keeping clips under 30 seconds works well.
What is the auto-stop timer?
Enable it in the control panel and set a duration. GifMint stops recording automatically when the time is up. A circular countdown ring in the menu-bar recording panel shows the remaining time so you can finish your demo naturally.
How does the global hotkey work?
Press ⌘⇧G from anywhere on your Mac to start recording with your last-used settings. Press the same shortcut again to stop. The countdown leads in first if you have it enabled. As of v1.0.9 the shortcut works out of the box — no Accessibility permission needed.
Will macOS say GifMint is "damaged" or can't be opened?
No — GifMint is signed with a registered Apple Developer ID and notarized by Apple, so a normal download opens with a double-click and no scary warnings. If a download tool ever leaves the app in quarantine and it still won't open, right-click (or Control-click) the app and choose Open once, or run
xattr -cr /Applications/GifMint.app in Terminal. It's a one-time step.Does it capture the cursor?
Your choice — there's a cursor visibility toggle right in the control panel.
What does it need to run?
macOS 13 Ventura or later, on Apple Silicon or Intel. The download is a universal binary about 2 MB. No Homebrew, no runtime dependencies, no account required.
Is there a Windows version?
It's in active development — check back soon. Want an email when it ships? Join the waitlist.
How does the business license work?
Buy a seat for each computer that uses GifMint at work ($5 each, one-time payment). You receive a single license key by email — paste it into GifMint on each machine to activate. Each machine claims a seat under its own name, and you can free a seat anytime when a computer is retired. Personal use needs no key at all, so it never contacts the license server — the weekly update check still runs, and can be switched off from the GifMint menu.
Can I export to MP4 or WebP?
Yes for MP4 — after recording, choose GIF or MP4 (H.264) right in the preview's export bar. GIF stays the default because it autoplays everywhere with no player; reach for MP4 when you want smoother motion or a longer clip. For a single captured frame, the Copy button gives you a PNG. WebP export isn't on the roadmap yet.
Can I evaluate it before buying a business license?
Yes — the personal tier is fully featured with no trial timer, no watermarks, and no account required. Download it, use it as much as you like, and only buy a business license if you decide to use GifMint at work. There's no crippled "trial mode."
Does GifMint upload my recordings, and what does it connect to?
Your recordings never leave your Mac — every frame is captured and encoded locally, with no account, no cloud and no telemetry. GifMint makes two network connections and these are both of them: a check with twoplus11.com about once a week for a new version, which sends the app version and nothing else and can be switched off from the GifMint menu (installing an update then downloads it from us); and, only if you enter a business license key, a check that the key is valid. Nothing about what you record is involved in either.
How do I update GifMint?
GifMint updates itself. It checks about once a week and, when a new version is out, shows you what changed and offers to install it in place — the download is signature-checked, and one that doesn't verify is refused. You can also check on demand, turn the automatic check off from the GifMint menu, or download the DMG from this page and drag it into Applications yourself. Your license and settings are preserved.
What is Auto-copy mode?
Enable Auto-copy in the Options section of the control panel. When active, GifMint skips the preview window entirely — the moment you stop recording, the finished GIF lands in your clipboard automatically. It's a power-user mode for repeat captures where you already know exactly what you want and just need to paste quickly.