Cut a GIF.

To cut a GIF is to remove frames from it, so the animation gets shorter. A GIF is a stack of frames, and each frame has its own time on screen. This GIF cutter lets you pick a start and an end, then either keep what is between them or cut it out and join the two ends. It works on whole frames, so the cut is exact to the frame, and it all happens in your browser.

How to use the GIF cutter

1. Drop a GIF on the box, click to choose one, or paste one. The frames show as a strip under the preview.
2. Mark the part. Drag the left handle for the start and the right handle for the end, or click the strip to move the nearest handle. You can also type seconds in Start (seconds) and End (seconds). Typed times snap to the nearest frame.
3. Under With the selection, pick Keep it to trim the GIF down to the marked part, or Cut it out to remove the marked part and join what is left.
4. Watch the preview. It plays the result, and shows the frame under a handle while you move it.
5. Click Download the GIF. The file name ends in -cut.gif.

Keep or cut out, worked out

Take a GIF of 40 frames that each show for 100 ms. It lasts 40 times 100, or 4 seconds. Mark 1.00 to 2.50 seconds. The start is after 10 frames and the end is after 25, so the marked part is frames 11 to 25, which is 15 frames and 1.5 seconds.

Keep it is for trimming the start and the end. Cut it out is for removing a piece from the middle, such as a pause or a mistake, while the beginning and the end stay.

Why the cut is exact to the frame

A GIF has no keyframes to worry about, unlike a video. Every frame can stand alone, so any frame can be the first one. The cutter keeps the frames you chose with the same time each had before, so the speed does not change. Times you type are matched to the closest frame edge, and the box shows the time it picked. If your GIF has frames of different lengths, the strip is drawn by time, so a long frame takes more room than a short one.

Size and colours

• Fewer frames usually means a smaller file. The summary shows the size before and after.
• A GIF with 256 colours or fewer keeps exactly its own colours, since no frame is changed, only chosen.
• The loop setting of the original is kept. A GIF that played once still plays once.

Common problems

• Nothing is cut yet: the handles still cover the whole GIF. Move one in.
• Nothing would be left: with Cut it out, the selection covers every frame. Make it smaller.
• The GIF is still too big: cut it, then shrink it with the GIF compressor or the GIF resizer.
• Want to cut the picture, not the time: use Crop GIF.

To change how fast the cut GIF plays, use the GIF speed changer.