Crop a GIF for Cleaner Loops and Framing

What happens when you crop a GIF

Crop the same rectangular area from every frame of an animated GIF. Move and resize the selection around the subject to remove empty borders or distracting edges while keeping the animation. Cropping changes which pixels remain; resizing changes their dimensions. Check the full loop so a moving subject does not leave the selected area.

Cost: Free to use. File size and usage limits apply.

How to crop a GIF

Upload one GIF
Click Choose file or drop a GIF of up to 200 MB onto the preview. GIFs you uploaded or created in other tools are listed under Uploads. The line under the preview shows the file name, the number of frames and the size in pixels, for example 480x270.
Place the crop box
The box starts on the full frame, so begin by dragging a corner handle inwards. Everything outside the box is dimmed. Once the box is smaller than the GIF, drag inside it to move it, or press outside it and drag to draw a new one. This also works with a finger on touch screens.
Watch a full loop
The GIF keeps playing under the box. The same rectangle is cut from every frame, so let the animation run once and check that the moving parts never leave the box.
Fine-tune under 1. Settings
Square, Center and Full image set a starting box. X, Y, Width and Height under Coordinates show its exact position and size.
Crop and download
Click Crop GIF. When the job is finished, the preview shows the result and the panel offers Download, Adjust (back to the box on the original) and New GIF. The result is also added to Uploads for use in other GIF tools.

Crop settings

All values are pixels of the original GIF, counted from its top-left corner. The box is at least 8 × 8 px and never larger than the GIF.

Freeform: The default. Width and height change independently. Selecting it keeps the current box.
Square: Replaces the box with a centred square whose side is 78% of the GIF's shorter side: 211 × 211 px at X 135, Y 30 on a 480 × 270 px GIF. It is a starting shape, not a lock: dragging the box or changing a value switches back to Freeform.
Circle: Starts with the same centred square as Square, and the preview shows the circle. Every frame is cut to that circle and the corners outside it become transparent. A box that is not square gives an oval.
X and Y: The top-left corner of the box; X 0, Y 0 is the top-left corner of the GIF. The box has to fit inside the frame, so X can go up to the GIF width minus Width, and Y up to the GIF height minus Height. While the box covers the full frame, both stay at 0.
Width and Height: The size of the result in px. Nothing is scaled: a 300 × 200 px box gives a 300 × 200 px GIF. With a field selected, the arrow keys change it by 1 px.
Center: A centred box at 72% of the width and 72% of the height, which trims 14% from every edge. On a 480 × 270 px GIF that is 346 × 194 px at X 67, Y 38.
Full image: Sets the box back to the whole frame.

Worked example: removing black bars

A widescreen clip saved as a 4:3 GIF often has black bars at the top and bottom. In a 480 × 360 px GIF, a 16:9 picture is 270 px tall (480 × 9 ÷ 16), so each bar is 45 px ((360 − 270) ÷ 2). The box you need is X 0, Y 45, Width 480, Height 270: drag the top-left handle down and the bottom-right handle up, then use the arrow keys until the fields show those values. As a rule of thumb, go 1–2 px further in if a thin grey line remains along the old bar edge.

A border works the same way: subtract it on both sides from the width and height, and use the left and top border as X and Y. A 12 px border around a 500 × 400 px GIF gives X 12, Y 12, Width 476, Height 376.

Colours, transparency and looping in the result

Every frame is kept with its own delay, so the animation has the same length and speed as before.

The frames keep their colours: each frame is saved with a palette built from its own pixels, so gradients, skin tones and flat logo colours look the same as in the original.

Transparent areas stay transparent, which matters for stickers and emoji. The loop setting is copied too: a GIF that plays once or a fixed number of times keeps doing so, and an endless loop stays endless.

If you also need a different pixel size, open the cropped file from Uploads in Resize GIF.

Formats and limits

Input format: GIF, animated or single-frame. The server checks the file content, not just the name.
Output format: GIF, exactly the size of the crop box
Frames and timing: All frames and their delays are kept
Transparency and looping: Transparency and the loop setting are kept
Smallest crop: 8 × 8 px
Maximum file size: 200 MB
Files per job: 1
Processing: On our servers with FFmpeg; no AI service is involved. A job can run for up to 15 minutes.
Watermark: None
Storage: Uploads and results are deleted automatically after 48 hours for guests and after 30 days for free accounts. Paid plans can keep files longer.

Frequently asked questions

Does cropping change the colours or speed of my GIF?

No. Only the edges are removed. Every frame keeps its colours and its delay, transparency stays transparent and the loop setting is unchanged. To try a different box after cropping, click Adjust: it returns to the original GIF, so the new crop always starts from the untouched file.

How do I make the cropped GIF smaller in file size?

Cropping removes the pixels outside the box from every frame. The new file size also depends on the palette and compression, so compare the actual bytes. To reduce colours or remove duplicate frames, open the result from Uploads in Optimize GIF.

How do I cut a GIF to make it shorter?

Not with this tool: cropping removes the edges of the picture and keeps every frame. To keep only part of the animation, extract a frame range as images with Split GIF (they download as a ZIP), unpack the ZIP and build a new GIF from those frames in GIF Maker, where you set the frame delay again.

Why is my .gif file not accepted?

The server checks what the file really contains. Some files named .gif are actually WebP or MP4, for example animations saved from websites that serve those formats. The upload is still saved, but this tool shows “One uploaded file was detected as a different format” and cannot use it. An MP4 of this kind can be turned into a real GIF with MP4 to GIF, where it appears under Uploads.

Is my GIF uploaded to a server?

Yes. Cropping runs on our servers with FFmpeg, and the GIF is not sent to any AI service. Uploads and results are deleted automatically after the storage period listed under Formats and limits.