Philosoraptor

If you have a wrong file or YouTube link isn't working, it less you into an error. Out of that topic.
I'd you have a file or YouTube link, you should see the duration you are editing on. You have to make it into a gif at least 20 seconds if you want to give users an attention to, such as humors, facts, etc. You generate a gif and it should show you a duration of a gif.

I copy and paste the URL from giphy but when i type the URL in it says "error couldn't get video duration"

It should do .gif in the URL, that's what it didn't let you generate something.