Docs · v1.5.0 · last updated July 1, 2026

The manual.

Everything you need to install FFkit, ship your first conversion, and find the recipe for the thing you actually do.

Getting started

FFkit installs in under a minute. There is nothing to configure before your first conversion.

  1. 1Download. Grab the Windows installer on the Download page and run it. macOS and Linux builds are on the way.
  2. 2Open FFkit. On first launch the app probes your hardware encoders. The green badge in the header (h264_videotoolbox, h264_qsv, etc.) tells you which one was picked.
  3. 3Drop a file — anywhere on the window — or click the file picker. Anything FFmpeg supports is fair game.
  4. 4Pick a quality (Low, Medium, Lossless) and hit Convert. Output lands next to the source.
FFkit only writes to disk. Nothing is uploaded — there is no cloud account, no temp bucket, no upload queue.

Simple mode

Three buttons. Each one writes a specific FFmpeg command behind the scenes. Pick the closest match — Medium is the right default for most things.

Smaller file

Low — CRF 30

Good for sharing, Slack, email. Visible compression but tiny files.

Default

Medium — CRF 23

FFmpeg's own default. Balanced quality and size — what you want 90% of the time.

Larger file

Lossless — CRF 18

Visually lossless H.264. For archive or further editing. For mathematically lossless use Advanced mode.

What gets written

The Medium preset, for example, runs:

ffmpeg -i input.mov \ -c:v libx264 -crf 23 -preset medium \ -c:a aac -b:a 128k \ input-compressed.mp4

If a hardware H.264 encoder is detected, libx264 is swapped for it automatically. The CRF target is matched as closely as the encoder allows.

Advanced mode

Advanced mode is a real FFmpeg command editor. The text in the box is exactly what gets executed — no translation layer, no hidden flags. Edit it like you'd edit a shell command.

The shape of a command

ffmpeg -i {input} <flags> {output}

{input} and {output} are placeholders FFkit fills in with the file you dropped and the destination path you chose. Everything else is verbatim FFmpeg.

Recipes

The chips at the top write a clean command into the editor. Use them as starting points — the editor is yours to modify after.

Prompted templates

A few recipes (Trim, Framerate, GIF) ask for one or two values before they fill in the editor. Trim, for example, asks for a start and end timestamp.

Copy

The Copy button hands you the final command as a single line of text. Drop it into your shell, your Makefile, your CI pipeline — the same FFmpeg binary lives on every machine.

Recipes

Fifteen one-click templates ship with v1.5.0. Each one writes a clean, copy-pasteable FFmpeg command.

Compress
H.264ffmpeg -i in.mov -c:v libx264 -crf 23 -preset medium -c:a aac -b:a 128k out.mp4
H.265ffmpeg -i in.mov -c:v libx265 -crf 28 -preset medium -c:a aac -b:a 128k out.mp4
Convert
to MP4ffmpeg -i in.mov -c:v libx264 -c:a aac out.mp4
to WebM (VP9)ffmpeg -i in.mov -c:v libvpx-vp9 -crf 32 -b:v 0 -c:a libopus -b:a 96k out.webm
to MOVffmpeg -i in.mov -c:v libx264 -c:a aac out.mov
Resize
1080pffmpeg -i in.mov -vf scale=-2:1080 -c:v libx264 -crf 23 -c:a copy out.mp4
720pffmpeg -i in.mov -vf scale=-2:720 -c:v libx264 -crf 23 -c:a copy out.mp4
480pffmpeg -i in.mov -vf scale=-2:480 -c:v libx264 -crf 23 -c:a copy out.mp4
Extract
Audio MP3ffmpeg -i in.mov -vn -c:a libmp3lame -b:a 192k out.mp3
Audio WAVffmpeg -i in.mov -vn -c:a pcm_s16le out.wav
Strip audioffmpeg -i in.mov -an -c:v copy out.mp4
Strip videoffmpeg -i in.mov -vn -c:a copy out.m4a
Edit
Trimffmpeg -i in.mov -ss 00:00:10 -to 00:01:00 -c copy out.mp4
Framerateffmpeg -i in.mov -vf fps=30 -c:v libx264 -c:a copy out.mp4
GIFffmpeg -i in.mov -vf fps=15,scale=480:-1:flags=lanczos out.gif

Hardware encoders

FFkit looks for a hardware H.264 encoder at startup and uses it for Simple mode by default. The probe runs once a session and is cached.

PlatformEncoderFFmpeg name
macOS (Apple Silicon + Intel)VideoToolboxh264_videotoolbox
Windows + Linux (NVIDIA)NVENCh264_nvenc
Windows + Linux (Intel)QuickSynch264_qsv
Windows (AMD)AMFh264_amf
Linux (any GPU)VAAPIh264_vaapi
Fallback (any platform)Softwarelibx264

Force a specific encoder by editing the command in Advanced mode, or turn off hardware acceleration in Settings.

Bundled binaries

FFkit ships with its own copies of ffmpeg and ffprobe. It never uses a system install.

The bundled build is the public GPL release of FFmpeg 8.1, with x264, x265, libvpx, and Opus enabled. The exact source is available on GitHub.

PlatformSource
Windows / LinuxBtbN/FFmpeg-Builds · gpl variant
macOSevermeet.cx · static gpl build

FAQ

Do I need to install FFmpeg separately?

No. FFkit bundles its own copy of FFmpeg 8.1 (the GPL build, with x264, x265, vpx, and opus) and runs it as a sidecar process. Your system FFmpeg is never touched.

Is FFkit really free?
Does it send my data anywhere?
What input formats are supported?
Does Simple mode use hardware acceleration?
How is Advanced mode different from running FFmpeg in a terminal?
Can I use it on a work machine without admin rights?
Where are my converted files saved?

License

FFkit is released under GPL-3.0. The licence is inherited from the bundled FFmpeg GPL build (which links GPL components like x264 and x265) — distributing them together obligates the whole bundle to be GPL.

The full licence text ships in every installer and is also available on the GitHub repo.

If you fork FFkit and want to ship a non-GPL build, swap the bundled FFmpeg for a non-GPL variant (drop x264/x265) — the FFkit application code itself imposes no extra restriction beyond GPL-3.0.