Exporting MP4 and GIF

Export runs in your browser. Nothing is uploaded, there is no render queue, and no server ever sees your project.

That is the point — it is also why the export takes as long as your machine takes, and why a laptop on battery is slower than the same laptop plugged in.

MP4 or GIF

MP4 is the real export: H.264 video at your project's frame rate and full output size, with an audio track. Use it for anything you are posting.

GIF is a fallback and a convenience: capped at 720 pixels and 15 frames per second, no audio, much larger files for the same length. Use it for a preview in a chat, or on a browser without video encoding support.

What determines quality

Setting	Where	Effect
Aspect	Settings → Output	16:9 → 1920×1080, 9:16 → 1080×1920, 1:1 → 1080×1080
FPS	Settings → Output	30 is right for almost everything
Speed	Settings → Output	Candles per second — the length of the video
Tail seconds	Settings → Output	Hold on the finished chart at the end

Bitrate is derived from the output size, so there is no quality slider to get wrong.

Audio

The mixdown runs before the video loop: narration or your recorded take, music with its ducking, and any element sounds, all against the same clock as the picture.

If anything in that mix fails, the export degrades to silence and still produces a file. It never fails the export.

A video with no audio at all still gets a silent audio track, because TikTok and Instagram require one.

Preview equals export

The Output pane and the exported file run the same drawing code. There is no separate render path that could differ.

The exceptions are all one-way — things visible in the editor that are not in the file: handles, hover rings, snap markers, timing pills, camera frames, the crosshair, candle numbers, and safe-area outlines. Nothing goes the other way, with one deliberate exception: the ChartBuilder mark on unpaid exports.

When MP4 is unavailable

Video encoding needs the browser's own encoder. If it is missing or the browser refuses the requested size, the export dialog says so and offers GIF instead.

Most often this is an old browser or a locked-down enterprise build. Recent Chrome, Edge and Safari all work.

When it is slow

In rough order of impact:

1. Turn glow off (Settings → Appearance → Style). It is a blur pass on every frame.
2. Export at 16:9 rather than 9:16 if you have the choice — same pixel count, but portrait pushes some hardware encoders harder.
3. Drop to 24 fps.
4. Close other tabs. The encoder competes with everything else for the same GPU.

Shortening the video does not make it faster per second — it just makes it shorter.