Crop and reduce an animated GIF under 5 MB
Choose whether to crop, shorten, scale or reduce frame rate, then check every GIF frame for timing and transparency problems.
Treat an animation as a sequence
A GIF contains frames, timing and disposal instructions. A static image resizer may export just the first frame, so use an animation-aware editor. Start from the original animation and note its dimensions, duration, frame count and current bytes. Keep a separate original. The tools linked below resize still images; they are not an animated GIF editor.
Choose a reduction that matches the scene
Crop unused borders when they occupy much of every frame. Shorten pauses or repeated action when duration is the problem. Scale width and height together: halving both reduces the pixel area to one quarter, although compressed bytes will not fall by exactly that amount. Lower frame rate only if motion still reads clearly. Reduce the colour palette last when faces, diagrams or gradients need careful reproduction.
A free desktop route with GIMP
GIMP represents animation frames as layers. Open the GIF, inspect the layers and use Filters → Animation → Playback to check it. Apply a crop to the image canvas, not a single visible layer, and export as GIF with animation enabled. Review the frame-delay and disposal options instead of accepting them blindly. GIMP requires installation; this is an alternative workflow, not a no-download browser feature.
Verify the exported loop
Play at least two full loops on both a light and a dark background. Look for ghost trails, transparent holes, flashes and a long pause at the loop boundary. Check the downloaded file is below 5,000,000 bytes when the service uses decimal MB. If a tiny animation still fails, the destination may enforce a separate frame, duration or format limit. Re-export from the original, changing one setting at a time.