Crop an animated GIF

How it works

Tap or click the box and choose your GIF; only .gif files are accepted, and several files can get the same crop at once. First pick the new aspect ratio: 1:1 square for profile pictures and Instagram posts, 16:9 for YouTube and widescreen, 9:16 for Stories and Reels. A ratio shortens only one side of the GIF; you say which part stays in "Which part of the GIF to keep". Example: crop a 480×270 landscape GIF to 1:1 with "Keep the middle" and 105 pixels are removed from the left and the right, leaving a 270×270 square GIF. If you do not want a ratio, choose "No ratio — I will trim pixels from the edges" and type the pixels for top, right, bottom and left separated by commas: 10,0,10,0 cuts 10 pixels from the top and 10 from the bottom. When you press "Crop", the same rectangle is cut from every frame; delays and the loop do not change. The result line gives the old and new size, the number of frames and the total length. There is no freehand selection with a finger or mouse; cropping works with ratios and pixel values.

This tool is also known as crop gif, gif cropper, crop animated gif, crop gif to square, trim gif edges, crop gif online.

What is Cropping a GIF?

Cropping a GIF means keeping one rectangle of an animated GIF's picture area and throwing the rest away, while the animation, frame delays and loop stay intact. The difference from cropping a still photo is that the same rectangle has to be cut from every frame: a GIF is made of dozens of frames that are layered on top of each other as it plays. Many ordinary image editors only take the first frame and lose the animation; this tool decodes every frame, cuts the same area and writes the GIF again.

What is Aspect ratio?

The aspect ratio is an image's width compared with its height, written as two numbers with a colon. 1:1 is a square, 16:9 is landscape widescreen and 9:16 is the tall format that fills a phone held upright. Social platforms cut your post to their own ratio: a 16:9 GIF placed in a 1:1 or 4:5 slot in the Instagram feed loses its sides. Setting the ratio yourself beforehand lets you decide what stays in view instead of leaving it to the app.

What is the difference between cropping and resizing a GIF?

Cropping removes part of the GIF and leaves what remains untouched: a 480×270 GIF cropped to 1:1 becomes 270×270, the objects in it do not shrink, but the sides are gone. Resizing throws nothing away and scales the whole picture up or down: the same GIF becomes 240×135 and everything looks half as big. If you want a square GIF and can lose the edges, use this page; if the whole GIF must stay visible and only the pixel dimensions should change, use the GIF resizer. You can also do one after the other.

What changes in a cropped GIF, and what stays the same

The number of frames, each frame's delay and the loop count do not change; the animation plays at the same speed. Only the picture area changes, and the file usually gets smaller because the removed pixels are not written. The tool fully decodes the frames and, after cropping, writes them again with one shared palette; the palette is sampled from all frames, so a color that appears late in the animation is kept too. Transparent areas stay transparent.

Some GIFs stay small by storing only the part that changes from frame to frame; this tool writes every cropped frame in full. With such finely optimized GIFs, the cropped file can shrink less than expected or even stay the same size. If file size matters, run the cropped GIF through the GIF compression page afterwards and lower the number of colors.

Which ratio and which part to choose

For a profile picture, a sticker or a square Instagram post, choose 1:1; if the face or object is centered, "Keep the middle" is enough. An Instagram portrait post wants 4:5, Stories and Reels want 9:16; cropping a landscape GIF to 9:16 throws away most of the width, so check the result and switch to "Keep the left side" or "Keep the right side" if needed. 16:9 or 4:3 suit slides and web pages.

For a GIF made from a screen recording, trimming the edges is better than a ratio when you want to drop a browser tab bar at the top or a taskbar at the bottom: choose "No ratio" and type, for example, 40,0,48,0 to remove only 40 pixels at the top and 48 at the bottom. If the values are larger than the GIF, the tool names the file and does not crop it.

Frequently asked questions

How do I crop an animated GIF without losing the animation?

Pick the GIF in the box, choose the ratio and the part to keep, then press "Crop". The tool decodes every frame, cuts the same area from each and writes the GIF again; delays and the loop do not change. The "Download" button saves the result to your Downloads folder.

Can I make a GIF square (1:1)?

Yes. Choose "1:1 square" as the ratio; a landscape GIF loses equal amounts from the left and right, a portrait GIF from the top and bottom. If the subject is not centered, options such as "Keep the left side" or "Keep the top" move the cut. If you do not want to lose any edges, the GIF resizer also has a square mode.

Can I shorten the length of a GIF?

This page crops only the picture area; it does not touch the frames or the timing. "Crop" is sometimes used for cutting length too, but that means deleting frames. If what you really need is a smaller file, the frame skipping option in the GIF compressor removes frames while keeping the speed.

Can I drag a box to choose the crop area?

No; on this site cropping is done with ratios and pixel values. That way it works the same on a phone and the same crop can be applied to several GIFs at once. For an exact area, choose "No ratio" and type the pixels to cut from each edge; the result line tells you the new size right away.